OMG. Sweet baby Jesus in heaven.

Today I took my wife to work downtown, she started at 9:30. What sucks about working from home is that they don't turn off the lights and kick you out when the building closes. I'd been working all night, stuck on this website project for a plumbing shop. Needless to say I woke up and my thoughts were in HTML with a server side of Javascript and a flash UI. I was very tired.

So I needed to wake up, and remembered I still had the boat in the trunk. So I cracked a Wired 344x and drove over to the U district by where I used to live to pump up the boat by the arboretum. I didn't have any bait or that much tackle, but per The Quadfather's advice the last time I was at Ed's Surplus I'd picked up and anchor and a pack of 4" Senko's.

I'd never fished plastics before, and I haven't fished for bass much this year at all. I'd fished from the boardwalk Marsh Island trails and caught smallmouth to one pound from the weedy muck of that little cove. Mostly I drop shotted nightcrawlers. But The Quadfather told me to try a Senko, and I was set on only using plastics the whole time. This was a great idea.

I probably looked like an idiot, trying to figure the thing out. I'd cast it out and let it sink with slack line like I read online, and then wiggle it back in, and I caught a thousand pounds worth of weed fish, and muck fish. Anchoring about thirty feet from the lily pads I'd fish. Or scare the fish. I didn't know which.

I did get some bites, but for some reason, I couldn't set the hook. It was weird, I tried to rig the thing wacky, with a smaller hook, weedless, with a bit bigger hook, with an even bigger still hook, no dice. Just muck and weeds.

So I rowed by the boardwalk where I caught my first smallmouth, and a family was bobber fishing with worms. They called out to me, "any luck? We caught like 30!" and I lied, "plenty." I saw their bucket filled to the briom with perch and bluegill, and as I passed they looked and my plastic piece of wormlooking stuck and were like "Fish eat that?" like it was strange. I told them, that's what I've been told.

Heheh. So I paddled around some more, feeling a bit discouraged. It started to rain. I was like, I'm gonna leave. This is cold. But I tried a bit longer. I was just winding the Senko through the gaps in the weeds, watching it sink straight down, pulling it up a bit with a twitch or two, like I'd seen on TV. It weaved in and out of weeds, I found that rigging it weedless with the bigger hook made it actually just glide right through the weeds. That was pretty neat.

And I was standing there, twitching my plastic through the weeds, when it happened. It happened so fast, it was like time stood still. It was slowly sinking through the water twoards the murky depths, when all of a sudden I saw a fish come and eat it. It just ate it. Like a Koi in the pet store. No problems getting all four inches of the plastic in its mouth. Just like a hoover. And then it just sat there. There was a split second where I was wondering, that must be a carp. It's way too big to be a bass. That's a huge fish. From about ten feet away, I could see every scale on it, it's big buggy eyes, it's fins waving from side to side lazily as it just sat there with my line protruding from it's giant maw, looking so proud of itself. In that split second I saw the stripe down its side and it's squared off darker tail and realized that this was indeed a bass, and that I did indeed need to set the hook.

Which I did. At which point the calm was broken. The fish began to thrash the water, which was not nearly as loud as the singing of my drag as line began to leave it. Of course, I'd forgotten to tighten the drag after my last trout fishing expedition. So as deflty and hurriedly as I could, I tightened the drag and tried to pull this monster fish into water that was relatively closer to the boat than where it was headed. It didn't matter. I turned the fish and he promptly took my line ever farther out the other side of the boat. I couldn't even get a hold of the fish. I tightened my drag again, and no avail. He had my pole doubled over and still I couldn't get him back towards the boat. I cinched up my drag all the way, which I knew my line could hold, thank goodness, I was using 30 pound test Power Pro, which has the diamater of ten pound test but casts like four pound test, and I don't think my drag can even go up to 30 pound test. And he still took line. Pulling my inflatable raft all over, dragging the anchor even. This was a big fish.

In fact, this was the biggest bass I've ever caught. Ever. it was longer than the base of my pole to the first guide. I took like five, ten minutes to get it tired up to the boat, at which point I removed it from the water as it thrashed all over and got me wet from the waist down. I didn't have a ruler or a scale, or a camera or even my cell phone. I'd just woken up to take the wife to work, and was planning on going straight back to bed. But I did hold it up to my pole as a reference and with its nose to the base of my pole it went well past my first guide. I have a seven foot pole and I'm not sure how far the guide is, but my handle is a long one, probably more than a foot. So I'm guessing it was over two feet long. The largest bass I've ever caught was just shy of four pounds, but this guy could have swallowed it whole. And I'm not kidding.

I released him unharmed and tired, and kept fishing. NOthin notewarthy after that except for it got even colder and wetter. I figured after about a half hour that anything I'd catch wouldn't be able to match that fish, which I named Peanut, on acount of his cuteness. I called my brother on the way home to tell him and he's like "Why didn't you keep it?!?!?!" 1. Because bass don't taste good like trout, so I'm not going to kill the beautiful creature to not eat it, 2. I know how to catch him again, and 3. all of you who read this report can go out and catch him again, the biggest bass I've ever seen in real life. I take no pleasure in killing fish that I'm not going to eat.

But after today, I've resolved to leave my camera in the car, and always take it with me. I'm still super stoked abd pumping with adrenaline, two hours later. I cannot believe it, but it's true. The fish was HUGE. Thanks for the tip Quad! Was so awesome it isn't even funny.

Amx

8/7/2010 3:55:00 PM

Sounds like a GREAT FISH. Congrats. Thanks for the report.

pika206

8/7/2010 3:57:00 PM

super post Nate. Thanks for story and encouragement that another angler might enjoy another fight with that beauty. I'm shore bound, so i can't get a good angle on those weed beds - but yeah i've seen a baby duck get taken by a bass around marsh island. Hurray for fishing!

natetreat

8/7/2010 5:28:00 PM

Hahaha! I was in my inflatable raft! It cost me 70 dollars, which my brother and I split. It's the Seahawk 4, which is a four person, and it's big enough for four people for sure, but the next models down are half the price and still awesome. I have the one person now for hiking in. I'd recommend it to anybody that's shore bound, because you'll get ten times more fishing opportunity for a fraction of the price of even the cheapest dory. Yea, I read your report about the duckling. I would imagine that at the right time a topwater rubber duckling presentation could score the monster! It'd be a shame to waste such a big fish to the table, she's gonna get even bigger! I mean, the only reason I'd keep it is if I thought it was a record, then it'd have to go in the books. I'm for sure bringing my camera and scale with me from now on though. Going in the vest!

fishnislife

8/7/2010 6:12:00 PM

What a report. Nice write up Nate. Congrats on the big fish.

Joe Stegner

8/7/2010 6:27:00 PM

Nate--- You are hooked!

natetreat

8/7/2010 6:59:00 PM

Yea pretty much. I think I'm going to have to divide my time halfway between bass fishing and trout/salmon/steelhead now. I have to admit, it was a LOT of fun. More bass for sure, but I still wanna keep the freezer full of trout. Heheh.

urbanangler

8/8/2010 10:42:00 AM

Loved reading this story! I was laughing out loud. You write very well. I have had similar moments where time had seem to stop while I am looking at a bass that had taken my lure, but not yet full figured out it was attached to my fishing pole. Then it becomes clear and the fight is on. Sounded like one helluva monster fish! And I have fished around that same area. Makes me want to get out there. I need to get numbers for my portabote to be legal on Lk WA. I hope Quad reads this report!

MotoBoat

8/8/2010 1:41:00 PM

Holy molly, where was Jack? He has been written out of the last two fishing adventures. First, the honeymoon outing, now the brawl in the arboretum with "Peanut". Jack is going to look for a different fishing partner. What would McGiver have done? Maybe clip a piece of fishing line to match the length, and another for the girth of the mighty "peanut". Then measure those lengths of line ( at home), and transfer those two dimensions to a website that converts known length and girth of a bass to lbs. I have not a clue what a estimated to be 24" lmb would weight, probably more than Jack Bauer.........wet! LOL

Another fine read.

basser90

8/9/2010 12:10:00 PM

Nice job on the release. I can say a 23 1/2" long x 23" girth largie here on the west side will go over 10 lbs. You'll proably catch larger trout bass fishing also,

natetreat

8/9/2010 10:51:00 PM

Haha, wow. I thought it could have been upwards of ten pounds, but I didn't want to say it, and be called a liar. So I didn't say it. Yea, I gotta new report comin up, went back again. Took Jack again today.

natetreat

8/10/2010 10:08:00 PM

I measured from the spot on my pole to the base of it. it was about 30".

kuyamonster

8/12/2010 11:46:00 AM

Nice story and kudos on the C & R! Wait till you start using 5-6" Senkos! Even the dinks can swallow the 3-4" ones! Must have colors: pumpkinseed, black/red flake, watermelon, and brown/black flake. I've caught 90% of 3 lb+ LMB in this area on theses colors! Good luck, PLASTICS ROCK!

natetreat

8/12/2010 10:53:00 PM

I think I was using brown black flake, I'm not sure. Yea I'm excited for the bass now.

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