Process Essay

Now I am going to let all who read this in on a little secrete. There is a certain way I get ready to go and catch the trophy Small Mouth Bass and I am going to tell you how you can do it as well. When you talk to different fishermen or fisherladies (whatever floats your boat) you will find that depending on what they like to fish for one is always harder to catch then the other. There is a silent war between Trout fishermen and Bass fishermen over who is a real fisherman. Now being on both sides of the war, because I do both, they are both easy to catch when they are hungry, but the trick is to find them and get the big ones to bite a hook even if they are not. Now I have many techniques for getting stubborn fish to bite, but I am only going to share with everyone the three easy steps for catching trophy small mouth bass. That’s right ladies and gentlemen three easy steps, gearing up, finding them, and giving them what they want. If you follow these steps then it is only a matter of time before you are reeling in the big ones.

Step 1 is gearing up. I have a separate tackle box just for Bass, and in it is about $300 dollars of lures and other tackle that I will never use, but I have it just in case. I take three different rods and reel with different size lines on them, because some lures are lighter than others so a smaller pound test line will cast better than others. I have an open face reel that has 10 lb test line on it, a bait caster that has 12 lb test and up until last year I had another bait caster that had 14lb test line on it. Yes I said up until last year I had a bait caster with 14lb test line, I should warn everyone once you have perfected these steps all of your gear will take a beating and it will break, catching three to five pound fish all the time is bound to take a toll. Every reel is attached to an ugly stick fishing rod. I only use ugly stick because the company says they will not break, and so far they have been right. If you only have one rod and reel then use 10lb test line (if it will take it) because it is able to cast all tackle that you will be using. And last but not least you are going to need a boat, or a canoe, or something that floats a can get you to a fishing hole.

Step 2 is finding them. Finding them is not always easy and sometimes it can be frustrating, but there are three things I do to try and determine where they are, and then I use Step 3, (I will get into that in a minute) to see if I was right. First thing I do is check the water temp. To do that I use a very high tech. very sensitive, instrument, called my hand. If the water feels warm then they are going to be deep, maybe in 8 to 25 feet of water, if it is cold then they could be closer to the shore, and if it is in between then your guess is as good as mine, they could be anywhere. The next thing I look at is the sun, but not for too long I might go blind. If the sun is high and bright with no cloud cover then the bass are going to be either deep or under something hiding from the sun, they say sunlight hurts the eyes of bass, I don’t know who “they” are or how “they” asked a bass that but they seem to be right about it. The last thing I am going to look at is where are all the bait fish? Bass are going to be where all the food is or in the area, because they are very lazy fish, until they have a hook in their mouth. Bait fish can usually be found at an inlet to a river or stream or an outlet to a river or stream, but they are all through the lake so it should not be too hard to find them.

Step 3 is giving them what they want. Now I have narrowed it down to four types of tackle that I use to get a fish to bite, and I will reveal them in the order that I try them, you may have better luck with something else. Deeping diving lures, all different colors and shapes. I start with a diver that goes about four feet deep, and I will keep putting different ones on until I am as deep as I can go, if I do not catch one then I will move on. Jig and pig is the next one, and all that is is a jig head with a hook and pork bait that is shaped like frog legs or a craw fish and I stick it to the end of the hook. I will for the most part use these next to the shore, and skip them across the bottom until they get to under the boat, the trick is to make them look like a frog swimming or a craw fish moving on the bottom. Next I will try Spinner baits and Buzz baits, and all those are is a long wire with a hook and different color skirts on it on one end and a spinner or spinners on the other. All I do with them is start near the surface and reel them in fast, the next cast I will let it sink a couple of feet and reel it in fast, then next cast go a little deeper then the last until it is almost snagging everything on the bottom. The last one is a five inch senco Gary Yammoto salt impregnated rubber worm, green pumpkin color. If the first three baits do not work then I always fall back to the worm hooked with a #4 hook in the middle, and all I do with that is let it slowly sink to the bottom, and slowly reel it in across the bottom. I have found that if there are Bass in there then the worm will not hit the bottom, they will have it way before it gets there. Now if none of that works then that means there were not fish in the lake to begin with, so I go to another lake, or I will try some of the other $300 worth of crap in my tackle box, it is all trial and error until I find the right combination.

Now picture this, you have all you gear, you have tested the waters, you are seeing red spots from looking where the sun was, you have gone through everything in you tackle box except for an old lure you found in a tree at the last boat launch you were at, and you cast it out on the edge of a bunch of lily pads next to a big log resting on a rock, and BOOM!!! Something just tried to rip the pole out of your hands, you drag is running and you can’t stop it, you’re starting to run out of line. Now don’t panic just set that hook like you never set it before and start reeling, you have 14lb test on your reel so there is nothing to worry about, crank that sucker in. You may start to get tired you may even want to give up, don’t be cry baby suck it up and reel. After about 15 min of fighting with the fish, the fish will get tired and give up, and there it is all your hard work, blood, sweat, and tears have finial paid off and you are looking at a very tired, 6lb, Trophy Small mouth Bass. So kiss the ugly thing, snap a few pictures and throw it back in. WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!!! I know what you are thinking, “throw it back, why would I want to do that?” Because if you throw it back, then the 6lb bass you caught this year will be a 7lb bass next year, and then the fun can start all over again.

So Happy fishing!!!