Lake of the Pines 4/28-29 another cautionary tale, plus good fishin'

After playing tennis in the morning on Saturday to make the wife happy, and then doing yardwork for another couple hours, I was able to convince Maggie to head to one of the beaches to fish/paddle. Maggie goes out first in the Scupper armed with a 5" baby bass (watermelon/white laminate) Senko, rigged wacky style. She missed a couple takes, then manages to stick a pounder or so.

In the meantime, I'm waist deep in water just outside the swimming/no-fishing area, tossing a white spinnerbait for no particular reason. On about my third cast, the spinnerbait just stops. So I swing away. Feels like I just stuck a log. Then the line starts moving up, up, up. And out of the water emerges what would have been a personal best. An H-A-W-G hawg... Bucketmouth...  Basszilla. That tosses the bait. My cry of anguish could have been heard across the lake a mile away. At least the nanny saw it. She kept saying "heng da yui!!" -very big fish.  I had done a fingertip sharpness test on the hook, and felt it "good enough" straight from the package. Not good enough apparently, given the longish cast, medium light rod and 10 lb test. Next time I'm going to touch that hook up with a file, no matter what... I later manage to lose another good fish from the kayak on a heavier setup, but this is no doubt due to the fact I was using a 3/16 oz jig and a double-wide beaver trailer. I've got to find some light jigs that use 3/0-5/0 hooks, or rig up a trailer hook for this setup. Which by the way, does work very nicely. Something about the slowwwww fall of the jig, I'm sure.

Anyway, I get back on the water at about a half past six on Sunday evening. My mission was to paddle the length of the lake just to get a little exercise, then do some fishing. Paddling done, I start to toss that baby bass senko, and immediately come up with a nice 18" fish. And of course lose the Senko. I ought to invest in Gary Yamamoto bait Co. So I toss the beaver/jig combo in the same area for naught, then head over to the most consistent producing area of the lake. I had 3 more fish, from about 13-19" within 30 minutes. And that 19 incher, while still a nice fish, looked about half the size of the one that got away... 

Moral of the story - SHARPEN THOSE HOOKS!!

Scott

Scott - I hear ya on the "'sharp hooks" but sometimes some bass usually have mouths full of holes (victims of previous catch and release). I've had that similar situation happen to me at Folsom Lake. The water was high that year and there were trees below the water and I was jigging a Kast master (with a single hook). I felt a heavy tug and this beast of a LMB came shooting up the water right next to the kayak - it was so close I could have caught him with my bare hand  Anyway, I was able to get a good glimpse of the fish and noticed a couple of holes along the lip of the fish.....as it spat the lure back on my deck  The funny thing was I sent the lure back down right away and hooked the same fish again....and a couple of head shakes later...it self-released I had flashbacks of that fish for the entire weekend 

Can't really do anything if the hook can't grab......