I decided to fish the Aitch section of Raystown Lake. Raystown is a very popular lake, rumored to be around 140 feet deep in some areas. I have caught some nice fish out of here, but since I have only been fishing it seriously for a few years, I have much to learn. I packed a Shakespeare Tiger Casting Rod, which had a little more length and backbone than my usual rods. While I generally fish for the black bass species (smallmouth, largemouth, and spotted bass), I would not at all be against hooking a 20+ pound striped bass or lake trout, that Raystown is known for. So, I decided to use the Shakespeare to troll the deeper waters.
On a side note, for those of you who are following the news around Central PA, the body of a missing Michigan student was recently found at Raystown. You can read about it here: http://wearecentralpa.com/wtaj-news-fulltext/?nxd_id=289927
That is a very sad story, and probably should have had a moment of silence before starting to fish this morning.
I woke up around 5:30 in the morning, mixed a large jug of iced tea, and made the 50 minute trek to the lake. I rarely had the motivation to get out of bed early unless I absoultely had to, so heading out early in the morning was very new to me. I arrived, and noticed a few other boat trailers parked, and a father-son duo in a bass boat throwing buzzbaits towards some cover near the shoreline.
I launched, and headed straight for my favorite spot, the point directly across from the launch ramp. I rigged the trolling rod with a Berkley Gulp jerk shad, and threw it into deeper water to troll, whil I casted on another rod with the same bait. Fished this for the first hour, and missed a few, but didn't land any. I decided to move to a spot known as "the 100 foot wall" which is a cliff that goes down into the water, and quickly drops off. It is lined with submerged vegetation. While fishing this, I managed to catch one smallmouth, about 9 inches, and one decent bluegill. I was happy to finally get into some fish, but I was hoping for more size. I hooked into something nice on the trolling rod, but nearly had a heart attack after I felt the line go limp.
After noticing that some fish were jumping in the weedy areas, I decided to throw some topwaters, and see if I couldn't get a big blow up. I spent the next hour tossing a Zara Spook and a Zoom Horny Toad (hmm I wonder how many sexual harassment lawsuits the guy who thought of that had to deal with) through the weedbeds. Surprisingly, nothing touched these, but I had to admit, I was running out of ideas. I noticed one last cove, which was mostly open water, but turned to weeds in the far back. Nothing was touching my topwaters, so I switched back to the jerk shad, since there were some baitfish dimpling on the surface. When I finally had a cast that didnt end in a ball of weeds, I felt movement on the end of my line, and pulled up a decent sized largemouth, about 12-13 inches. Not quite a keeper, but I was happy to see the fish were getting a little bigger. Also, I heard several loud splashes around me, and when I turned, I saw a small wake in about five feet of water, right next to a downed tree. I threw my lure into it, and sure enough, my line went out quickly, indicating that something had nibbled. It did this a second time, and I felt resistance. Set the hook, and began to reel in, although I had a ton of weeds on my line. However, most of them shook off, and I felt I was pulling something up. After seeing a silver-greenish flash in the water, I knew I had a bass on the line. Several minutes into the fight, the bass tried to make a break for the bottom, but I pulled it back up.
The fish jumped out of the water a few times, I could tell it was a giant, and before he could throw the hook, I had it in the boat..
The fish was nearly 18 inches long, and over three pounds, my largest bass of the summer. I unhooked him, got the measurements, took some photos, thanked him for biting, and sent him on his way. Unfortunately, I wanted to fish more, but I had prior commitments to pressure wash the deck at my parent's house. I loaded the boat, packed the truck, and headed home, stopping for a sub and a smoothie at Sheetz.
So, back to the initial question, what did I learn from all this? Well, I learned that sometimes, when things aren't going your way, instead of changing your strategy, you should instead stop, relax, and use your usual strategy, except better. 90% of the time, I fish plastics, with some scent. When these did not produce the desired results, I went crazy, and constantly changed my approach, with no results to show. Finally, I went back to the plastic jerk shad, and caught the nice bass. It was alot of work, but thats where the fun of bass fishing comes, when you work hard for the bass, and finally land him.
I have a busy next few days set up, which include heading to Jersey this weekend, and possibly doing some surf fishing. I will let you know how it goes. God Bless, and Tight Lines!!!
JP
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