Break That Bank!

Ol Pops came into town and we decided to go fishing for a bit in the afternoon. I knew exactly where I was going to take him; the bee hive! The bee hive is a spot I have on Lisbon slough. In the past we have had success with crappies and I caught my personal best catfish there so we gave it a try.

Previously my dad had been skunked here. He has only been to the bee hive twice and both times he went home empty handed.  I only have two times I have been skunked here, both of those times were with my buddy Jarred. That is because Jarred is bad luck!

We arrived at the fishing hole at around 5pm so I had plenty of time to get into a groove. I started with a quick cast with a bobber into the feeder creek for a small bass. Beat the skunk. A few more casts, a couple more fish and then switched to the main canal. Ol pops went straight for the catfish set up and a night crawler. I set up my heavy catfish rod but had no takers on the nightcrawlers. A bit later I was able to get into a small bluegill and replaced my worm with a gill and hoped for the best. My dad did the same. We were hoping for some huge cats but nothing big seemed to be going for the gills. 

After a while I switched to a slip-bobber rig and went to work for some crappies. For whatever reason nothing was biting so I kept changing the depth of my bobber and the distance of my cast. Eventually I found a hole about 7 feet in front of where we were and about 16 inches of leader length. First I caught a nice blue gill which I released. Then I started seeing some activity on top so I tossed my line in and I reeled in a nice 11 inch bass. 

Meanwhile my dad tossed his line into the feeder creek and got into his first bluegill of the day. He continued to cast there and started catching small bass and bluegill, so he finally beat the skunk at the beehive. 

A bit later I tossed my line in, my bobber danced around a little before it went down and I caught my first decent fish of the day, a nice 12.5 inch bass.   

I continued to cast within five feet of the same spot and as it got darker, the bites were more plentiful. At one point I had a light but swift takedown , so I reeled in and I got into a 10 inch catfish, my first catfish of the day. My final fish was just before it got too dark to see my bobber. I tossed my line in, it dunked once and then disappeared. I reeled in and something took off with my line. I reeled in, my dad got the net and it hid under the weeds. My dad dipped the net into the weeds and eventually came out with what would be the last fish of the day, a 14 inch Largemouth bass. I ended up putting the two bass on the stringer and filleted them up for what will be my first (possibly of many) end of the summer fish fry! (More to come on this idea later) 

In all, one of my better days this summer even though it has been a good summer overall. I was also excited that I got into multiple species today, which is always cool. I am glad my dad was able to get into fish and see me catch some decent fish at the bee hive because that makes him believe in the spot a little more than before.  All together my dad and I had a 17 fish day. 

 

Well that’s it for now. Good luck, break that bank people… break that bank! 

Total fish: 7 Largemouth Bass + 2 Bluegill + 1 catfish + 1 green sunfish total fish = 11