Bass Fishing 

You've got to laugh when you can!!!

by: Dave Johnson - Bass Pro Radio.Com

While fishing the FOXWOODS BASS FISHING TOUR on the Potomac River June 2^nd & 3^rd, we had a couple of stories that were too funny to keep to ourselves.  To put this in perspective, we were in the 2^nd day of a two-day tournament.  The first day we had caught 3 fish that weighed in at 7 pounds and change, and we were over 14 pounds behind the leaders.  When you don't have a great first day, I look at the second day as a day to take the risk and go for the lunker.  That normally means getting out the Jig and Pig and flippin' grass till your arm falls off. 

 So here we are flippin' the weeds early the second day when BANG, I get a monster hit on the jig.  I set the hook and I yelled for the net, and I started to do the "don't get off" chant.  You know, that is where you say over and over and over, "don't come off!!", "please stay stuck!!!!", "come on, just a little longer!!!!", "please don't come off!!!!!….. "  This fish buries up in the weeds as big fish often do.  I get his head up and the fish is coming to the boat and I finally get a look at this monster!!!!!!!!!!…….. and it's a big carp, ….a big scaled, rubber lipped, carp.  A big let down as I see the $1000 Lunker check fade away.

 Ok, well bass fishing is all about ATTITUDE!!!  So on I go pitchin' and flippin' my arm off.  This weed bed is not giving up any other fish today, so let's move on to the next weed bed.  Well now I have to let you know that my son felt compelled to give me an early Fathers day gift before I went to this tournament.  He gave me 3 different size chugger baits.  I had sharpened the hooks and rather than putting them in my top water box, I put them in the little space between the driver's seat and the inside of the boat.    It was a little cool out for a boat ride that day so I had been putting my rain jacket on when we ran and taking my jacket off and tossing it on the driver's seat when we stopped.  So I put on my jacket, started the big motor and started running to the next weed bed about 6 miles away.  I am running along with no problems for about 3-4 miles when we make a bit of a turn and the river gets pretty lumpy as the wind in this area is blowing straight down this section.  We bounce a little on the first wave and when I come down I feel a little sting in my rear end.  Then we bounce a little on the next wave and when I come down I feel some pain in my rear end.  Then we hit the third wave and I let out a yelp!!  My boat has a foot throttle and I have my right foot firmly pressed down on the pedal as this is keeping my butt up off the seat, but at the same time this is making the boat speed up so we hit every wave that much harder.  I keep coming down on something sharp under me.  I hit another three or four waves before I could get my left leg under me enough that I could take my right foot off the throttle and still keep my rear end up off the seat.  My partner is looking at me kind of funny because he has no idea what is wrong.  He later said he could not figure out what I was yelling about because the waves and the bouncing were not that bad.  Well I finally got the boat stopped.  I could not get up out of my seat and I sure didn't want to sit down.  I yelled at my partner to look under me where he finds the biggest of the three top water baits.  One set of trebles is in my seat the other set is stuck in my pants.   He grabbed my pliers and cut the hook off that was in my pants.  Now I can stand up, while he pulls the hooks out of my seat.  I reach down inside the back of my jeans and gently pull the hook from my rear end, pants and underwear.   It is a good thing the hooks were no bigger, as the barb did not make it into my skin.  The only thing I can figure is that when I grabbed my jacket the lure must have snagged the jacket and fell into the seat.  When we got into the rougher water and I started to bounce the lure moved under me and the joy ride began. 

 We did not catch a keeper bass that day, but at the end of the day we had some good stories to share with others.  So the day was not a total loss!!!