March 7, 2008
Leap day produces some big bass for Burnette
Lacy Burnette sent me this shot of two big largemouths he caught on Feb. 29 while fishing at Smith Mountain Lake with his dad.
Burnette was using a new deep-diving crankbait that he had just pulled from the package the night before. He didn't tell me the specific brand or color. I wonder why not? In the first 30 minutes he boated six bass, including the 8.3-pounder on the left and the "small" 6.1-pounder on the right. Both bass look to be about the same length but the big one is just incredibly fat.
That day they ended up catching about 20 bass total -- half on the crankbait and half on a jigging spoon.
If you have hero shots with fish, send them my way and I'll post as many as I can on the blog.
I actually spent yesterday on a smallmouth float. Everything was blown out so my friend Sam Dean and I tried the Roanoke River around Glenvar. It was surprisingly low (70 cfs -- I wouldn't do it again at less than 150 cfs) and amazingly clear. We saw a bunch of suckers (they must be on their spawning run) but not many bass. I managed to catch one 12-incher on a jerkbait. It was a great day to be out but I'm not sure that I'd float that section again for fishing.
Comments
[March 7, 2008 11:22 PM]
BacklashMark
Yowzah!!! that fish is a beast on the left.
[March 11, 2008 11:50 AM]
FlippinbaitsIf your gonna spend 200+ shipping you might wanna look at a water skeeter or bucksbag if you get a club discount. look at the ratings of the kick boat you will purchased...
Plus if you will just use it for a year, you could find a prime used one for cheap.
or take a gander at this one. Id never seen anyone in that Cimmaron brand, and have seen lots of happy fisherman in Creek Co. boats.
http://www.creekcompany.com/products/920-a.jpg
They are offering free shipping right now and i would guess there are a handful of SCBBBC members that started with the creek company brands and moved up...it will be cheaper than the one on cabalas. I think it would be a lot more sturdy.
The one on cabalas talks about weakness in the frame, if you wanna try to build a platform to stand on, then you need to have a good base frame.
Happy fishing!!
[March 11, 2008 1:48 PM]
BacklashMark
I came across this story which should help any Float Tube fisherman in coming fishing season.
Under the heading Sexyloops:
The float tube flip
I started with the float-tubing option. I decided to make this more authentic and bring my rod and hat along for good measure. Flipping float tubes is actually quite hard. I have done so before (also in a swimming pool) just to see if I could get out again, but I have never managed to flip one over unexpectedly. In order to invert yourself, you first have to lift yourself out of the tube and lean forwards until your nose is virtually touching the water. Then with a strong fin flick you can flip over.
Once flipped I found it impossible to flip back again. I was hoping to do some eskimo-roll float-tube thing. I was hoping that maybe with practice I could do this while guiding, 'Hey, watch this!'. But it doesn't work. I should point out that it's not particularly easy to get out of the tube; your fins tend to get caught in the seat and/or line tray. But it is quite easy to swim around and (importantly) breathe while this is going on. I could imagine quite happily swimming around with one foot stuck in the float tube pretty much indefinitely. So no worries there, mate.
Two points of interest came from the float-tubing misadventure: the first is that my hat sinks like a stone, the second is that my rod quite happily bobbed around the pool on it's own. So when push comes to shove I know which I'll be grabbing hold of next time.
Heavy Water
My next test was heavy water. I figured that all the heavy water would be milling around the deep end pushing all that lighter feebler stuff away, so that's where I went to find it. Jumping in a most dramatic manner off the springboard I went right to the bottom of the pool. Thinking that I had achieved my task, I almost celebrated. But it was not to be; I bobbed right up to the surface again. Try as I might, I just couldn't find water heavy enough to drag me (frantically struggling) to the bottom of the pool. So I had to give up on this one.
I belive the tests above is sound yet, When ever around water let common sense be your guide not your Pall Bearer.