The New Honey Hole

Now that I found the pits, I wonder what I ever did before?! It’s a certified honey hole; almost a sure thing to catch fish if you go there. And although I want to fish other places, I’m kind of spoiled by this spot. I want to take everybody there and show them how to fish it… Scratch that, everybody I trust!

If there is anybody I trust, it’s ol Pops. Afterall, he made me so I think I can trust him with a spot or two. ;) We arrived at the pits at 4:30 and took the long walk down to the water. Ol pops was complaining the entire time, mainly because of the fish consumption situation. 

Let me break it down for you. Pops doesn’t believe in catch and release unless it’s undersize or over his limit. He catches fish to eat fish and nothing else makes sense. And perhaps he is looking at it only from his point of view. He pays for his license, he catches fish and he eats fish. Etiquette doesn’t apply to him because he’s not fishing for sport, he’s fishing to eat and I get that. I eat fish every once in a while because I like fish. I only keep them if I know I’m going to eat them. I release 95% of all of my bass and about 75% of my panfish. I keep all my stocker trout and that is only when I (spin) fish for trout which is rare. 

 

Anyway, I set up pops with my ugly stick and a chrome and dark green Kastmaster. I gave him a quick tutorial on what he was going to do any why and he ignored everything I said! Haha why must we fishers be so stubborn?! Meanwhile I tied on my kastmaster and when I finished up I showed him how to do it. How did I show him you ask? 5 casts for five fish, that’s how! Haha he shook his head and laughed as I made fishing the pits look easy. I didn’t get a bite on my sixth cast but my seventh I reeled in my sixth fish. After that my dad finally started doing things similar to my instructions and he landed his first bass at the pits. 

A bit later something different happened. Every time I have been out to the pits, hours pass by and nobody is out there. This time a couple of dudes showed up and I was pretty surprised. They greeted us and kept walking. They were a couple of young guys, probably mid 20’s, beers in hand. They settled a good distance away from me and that was a good thing.  You never know when fishermen will be weird, rude or stupid… or a combination of those. One of them struck up a conversation with me but I was hesitant at first. A bit later I moved down a few feet and the nicer of the two came over, fished at the spot where I was and started talking to me. And this is important… he said, “I’m sorry I didn’t even ask if you minded me taking your spot.” I didn’t mind at all but it was the fact that he acknowledged that that made me feel better about him. As it turns out he was a cool guy and he’s from Woodland so we exchanged numbers and decided to go fishing in the future. Always good to meet cool peeps while fishing. 

Well Pops and I continued to fish and this whole autumn thing doesn’t seem to be slowing me down at all. Pops got into 8 fish which was a good day for him. I caught a few more than that, making it my best day at the pits yet! After slaying the Largemouth bass I asked ol’ Pops if he liked fishing the pits, his response, “It would be better if I could have kept some to eat!” haha what can you do! 

Total fish: 22 Largemouth Bass