It was Friday, May 5, 2006. The weather man had promised a sunny day with little
or no wind. It seemed a good time to explore Mason County’s Benson Lake for America’s favorite game fish, the largemouth bass. Fishing buddy Bruce was supposed to join me for a fishing derby.
I arrived at the WDFW public access about 6:30 AM. The lake was as flat as a mirror. In fact, it was much like a mirror, reflecting the shoreline homes, trees and other scenery onto the water. I launched my electrically powered boat onto the lake. No internal combustion engines are allowed.
Knowing that Bruce likes to cast to the right, I headed left toward the southern end of the lake. Three rods were already rigged with some of my favorite lures. On the spinning rod I had tied an Original Floating Minnow by Rapala. It was a size 11 with one of Rapala’s new colors – the Purpledescent. It is a beautiful lure and I was sure the fish would like as much as I did.
I had also replaced the front hook of the lure with a blood red treble hook that was stronger than the original hooks. The original hooks are very good and very sharp but I have several of them bend and twist under the weight of a heavy bass. Big bass will generally hit the front hook of this three hook lure.
I had fished nearly half of the lake’s shoreline without a strike. I was beginning to think that maybe I was wrong and the fish didn’t like this lure very much. However, I convinced myself that it was just a little early in the season for bass and kept casting. I came to the dock where I had previously caught my personal Benson Lake bass record on June 10, 2002. That fish had hit a silver Rapala, weighed 4 pounds, 2 ounces and was 18 ¾ inches long.
Anyway, I made a cast to exactly the same place under the dock. A bass came up, swirled and slurped in the lure. I set the hooks on what I thought was probably a fairly small bass. It pulled hard, stripped out some line and I was a little surprised to see it was a really nice one. It measured 19 inches and was 3 pounds, 12 ounces. And -- it had the red hook stuck in it’s mouth.
I saw several other big bass cruising and hanging around docks. They had seen me as well and refused to play any "bite the lure" games. That one bass was my only strike in about 5 hours of fishing. It was such a beautiful day, however, it would have been almost impossible not to enjoy it -- even with no strikes. The water remained perfectly flat and mirror like until about 11:30.
A mature bald eagle flew overhead with it’s pure white head gleaming in the bright sunlight. I saw it dive and hit the water. It was quite a ways off and I am not sure if he got a fish. And, Mr. and Mrs. Canada Goose enjoyed the warm sun while guarding their fuzzy brood along the shoreline.
I kept the bass in an aerated cooler filled with fresh, cool water hoping my buddy Bruce would show up and take a photo. He didn’t make it to the lake so the nice bass was gently released at the access ramp after being admired by several bank bound trout anglers. It was another nice day on one of Mason County’s beautiful lakes.
PS. Found out later that my buddy Bruce was involved in a traffic accident that was not his fault on the way to the lake. With his boat trailer damaged he had to abort the trip. Sorry Bruce, we’ll try again soon.

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