Trophy Away and Bonus Bass

Today we moved the Trophy up to the lake place where it will be stored for the winter. Before I use it next spring we are gonna check the lower unit seals and will need to put in lower unit gear lube.

Anyway after we got the boat in the garage I headed down to the lake front with the "lost jig". Today was absolutely gorgeous weather about 70 and dead calm. As I was casting my way across the shore line I came through a pocket in the weeds and seemed to spook something. I threw back and it struck and missed. I figured it had to be a pike. I let the pocket settle and kept working my way west. After about 4 minutes I tried the pocket again and had a wake follow then hit the jig. Much to my surprize it was not a pike but a 17" bass, kind of skinny though for this time of year. As I worked my way to Jim's dock I got a hammer handle. And fishing off Jim's dock casting West parallel to shore.  About half way out on the dock I got another Pike. I thought for sure this fish was going to be a bass.

I did also fish at Jenny's but didn't get any hits.

Cyberfish shows at the GOMH

Before I get into the report I had a surprise visit at the GOMH tonight when Mike "Cyberfish" "Shake" "MT Bucket" Thompson showed up in his little red car. Man was I surprised to see him. He was on his way back from his annual family outing at Woman Lake and decided to drop on by the "Grumpy Old Man Hole" to see what all the fuss is about.

Cyb arrived a little after 8:30 and decided to join me for a little bullhead or dogfish action on the pallets (SW side). He met GOM Willard and was talking smack about "sewer trout" and how great dogfish are because they are so much harder to catch than a bass. Cyb put on a Cabela's AquaGlow™ Hoochie Koochie Swim™ Shad on a plain jig head and was trying for toothy bullheads, doggies, and walters. He ended up catching quite a few of the famous GOMH jumpin bullheads and he missed quite a few strikes.
While we were fishing together I nailed the Toad in the pictures. Obviously a very ripe 19.5" jumpin bullhead. While we were fishing together I also missed either a nice toothy bullhead or a dogfish (I think it was a toothy) and also caught a few small jumpers. It got dark and Cyb and I called it quits. One downer was that Cyb and I had to listen to this foul mouthed and bigoted dad who was fishing with his son, that baitcaster kid, and making an ass of himself while catching some nice silver bullheads.

As for how the night progressed, I decided I liked fishing the GOMH in my waders and decided to give that another go. When I put the waders on I noticed that the feet were wet from before and there were a couple of obvious cracks in both of the boots. Before heading out I put a new skirt on the "lost jig". I left around 6:40 and when I arrived there was a group of young adults fishing the SE, SW, and NE sides, but by the time I got geared up the NE side was open so I headed down there with a white Booyah Spinnerbait. I had zero luck on the spinnerbait and went up and switched to the "lost jig." I missed a couple of bites, then I tied into a solid 23" toothy bullhead. Willard was no where to be found and another guy there fishing didn't want it, so back it went. I think I might have then caught a couple of small jumpers than I switched to the SE side. While fishing the SE side I got hung up on a limb of the Beaver Dam and things were not looking good for the "lost jig". GOM Bud suggested I walk up on the road and try and get it from the other side. That did not work but I could see the jig was on a single branch up off the water. I played around with it and by some stroke of luck, the jig popped loose and the "lost jig" was not lost again. I got some jumpers on the SE side. Bud commented that I better not have the lost jig on if CO Kuske shows up, but Willard set him straight that the "lost jig" is an effective pike lure. Things slowed down so I went back to the truck and got out a white Outkast swim jig with white grub. I started out on the NE side, and missed a couple of hits than nothing. I went to the SE side and got one jumper. I moved to the SW side and started getting jumpers with a slower retrieve and I was also missing quite a few hits. I had the grub tail completely stolen once. While I was fishing the white jig, the foul mouthed dad and his son "the baitcaster kid" showed up. The Dad started fishing behind me in the bullhead sweet spot and he started getting into the silver and jumpin bullheads right away. The white jig dropped off and so I went to get the "lost jig" again. I hit the NE then the SW side on the pallets getting a few jumpers. I missed a toothy that struck right up close and shortly after that is when Cyberfish showed up.

So on the day 1 Toothy (a couple of missed toothy's) and 19 jumpin bullheads. The foul mouthed dad had 10 nice silver bullheads when we left. Lantern Man was just getting there as me and Cyb left.