Wacky Bass

In the morning I'd waded the Fox and caught a single smallie. In the early evening I decided to try my local pond, on the off chance conditions might be better (read: warmer, less windy, and sunny) for another outing.

I've been keeping track of my fishing this year, and noticed that this pond trip would be my 27th time fishing since January 1. That's a lot of casting practice. Wow, I sure wish I'd been catching more fish.

The pond

I got to the pond, and it was beautiful! Not too much wind, the sun was out in full force, and I was comfortable in a t-shirt. Inspired by fellow WCF'er Drinkbourbon (Anthony) and his blog post about carp fishing (carping?) I thought I would bring along another rod to see if there were any carp in the pond. Everything I've heard about carp is that they taste bad but are awesome fighters. I like fighting fish.  I had half a loaf of white bread and a handful of corn from my freezer, hoping to at least fight a carp.

Apparently for carp fishing, one good bait is some bread, squeezed around a tiny hook, and left alone on the bottom. Ok, sounds easy enough. I grabbed some bread, smushed it around my tiny hook, put it in the water... and the bread slowly floated off the hook into the water.

Ok, I'll try again. I grabbed some bread, dunked it in the water, squeezed off the excess, smushed it on the hook, cast it out.... and the bread flew off into the pond while the hook fell inches from my feet.

Ok, seriously. How can this be so difficult!? I grabbed some corn, put it on the hook, cast it out... and the corn went flying off into the pond, hitting the surface with a little "plink."

Was I missing something? Determined, I grabbed some more bread, soaked in some water, squeezed it out, mashed it around the hook, and ever-so-carefully-and-gently dropped it into the water, and low and behold the bread stayed on the hook. Great! I stuck my rod in a hole on the pipe, and grabbed my other rod.

A few months ago I'd bought some hooks with a weed guard real cheap that seemed useful for wacky-rigging. A few weeks back I was fishing in Ohio with some family, and Uncle Kevin caught a long thick plastic worm (the only thing any of us caught that day). He donated it to the Chris Beckstrom tackle box, so I figured the least I could do was use it. I wacky rigged it on my weedless hook, cast it out, and let it slowly sink.

I went to retrive it, when I realized there was a fish on! After a short an uneventful battle, I pulled out a lethargic largemouth bass. I estimated about 12" or so.

Largemouth bass caught on a caught-and-then-donated
wacky-rigged plastic worm

I fished for a while longer, going through my entire tacklebox, with no more takers. I tried a 1oz swimjig, which I was amazingly able to cast right to the middle of the pond, but nobody was interested. After a few casts I noticed the green paint had completely come off the lead jighead. What the hell!? If I'm going to pay $5 for a jig, I think the paint should stay on. I should just make some myself...

I tried some corn for carp, but as with the bass, no takers. I decided I'd try again later; I was intrigued by carp- I'd seen a TON almost everywhere... Big ones at Busse, small ones in local creeks, it seemed like it would be a great time to tangle with a giant fish. In my head, I added it to my list of 2012 fishing goals.

For those keeping track, here's my updated list:

FISHING GOALS FOR 2012

• Catch some trout - DONE - I caught some small brown trout on the Rogue in Michigan
• Catch a pike
• Catch a walleye
• Catch some more smallies - DONE - The Fox has been relatively kind to me this year
• Catch a bass in the kayak - I still haven't done this!
• Newly added: Catch a carp - Maybe it would be even more fun on my new ultralight...
• Catch and cook some fish - I'm thinking perch from the big lake would be good for this...