The weather man promised a nice warm, sunny day and he was right. After all the bad news chest X-rays and CT-scans, it was time for a nice relaxing day on the water. My neighbor, Mike L. and I headed for one of my fall favorites, Benson Lake. Benson Lake does not allow gas engines, has clean, clear water and very little aquatic vegitation. It also has a nice population of largemouth bass that I think are probably underfished -- mainly because bass boats with outboards are not allowed. Anyway, the wind was calm as we arrived and the lake was smooth as glass. I launched first and while Mike was launching, I made my first cast with a Rapala. Fish on! It was a nice 12 incher that I landed while Mike watched. Mike is a fly fisherman but after seeing the results of that first cast, he tied on a bass fly. He went north and I went south. I hooked several bass including a nice 171/2 incher. I must have hooked about 25 bass during the day. All but the 17 incher were on a floating Rapala. The 17 incher hit a jig. Most were small but besides the 17 incher I also boated a 16 incher and a 14 incher plus some others that were about a pound. I also had a great surface strike on the Rapala that turned out to be a nice 14 inch rainbow. The rainbow dove down and tangled with a big limb but with my braided Power Pro line, I landed both the limb and the rainbow. Mike caught some trout on his fly rod. Nice day on the water.

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