More WO sunfish @ Spring Lake - 6-24, 6-26

Fished Spring lake again Friday and yesterday evening for a few hours. Same UL set-up w/mini-crawlers about 2.5' - 3' under a small float, size 8 hooks, 4lb test.

On Friday my buddy Bob and I each got about twenty again. Highlights were Bob's ~11"er that spined him and flopped into the water about half-a-second before I could take a picture, and my ~10"er that popped the hook as I was raising it out of the water. We concentrated in a small cove on the east side of the lake.

Yesterday I went back out with my friend Jeff and his buddy Ryan, they were in a small aluminum. We tried various spots on the lake, but I ended up back at my honey hole. I caught three little sunfish, then on the fourth cast my float disappears and line is RIPPING off my little Shakespeare UL. I played it nicely and tried to keep it out of the submerged branches. It's still pulling line with ease, so I tighten the drag ever so slightly. Now the fish is starting to pull me around - Never thought I'd experience that in FW. Anyway, I finally get it up and it's a bass. My first and it's a gangster! Of course this was the one time I didn't have my camera, and since it was gut hooked pretty badly I decided I would keep it. Jeff said he'd eat it so I passed the fish off to Ryan, who gets the stringer from Jeff, hooks the fish, then drops the stringer and the fish over.....without attaching the stringer to anything.    I tried and tried to snag the stringer, but with 4lb test and no weight it was futile. Oh well, at least I saw it and had witnesses. We estimated the bass to be about a 7lb'er.

We went on to catch a few dozen sunfish each, we kept six of the biggest ones and fried 'em up last night. I'm not much of a fish eater, and didn't care too much for the blue gillets in the skillet, but Jeff and Ryan loved 'em.

Seven pounds is a very nice bass, especially for your first.  Too bad about the outcome.

Spring lake has some huge bass.  A few years ago a guy claims to have caught, photographed, and released the world record breaker out of the lake, as weighed on a non-certified bathroom scale, some 24+POUNDS.  Yes, a largemouth.

Ed

Thanks!

There's a few pictures near the boat ramp at the lake. There's some hogs posted there.

I just feel bad that a big fish died for nothing.