Two Personal Bests

I headed to the water this morning with a couple of guys, that were looking for an action filled day. Masood & Moazzam were hoping to have one of those outings that had fish biting all day and that’s just what they received. With the onset of Hurricane Sandy on the way, most people held off from going out and I planned on taking full advantage of this. After yesterday, it would be nice not to be looking over my shoulder all day long! Overcast skies and light NE winds were what we began with but it was to get much worse throughout the day. I think it only took 2 or 3 casts for Masood to get the ball rolling and land the first bass of the day. He missed a couple more after that and then both of them picked up a few smaller ones up to 3 pounds. It was a little slow here and I knew the fish couldn’t be too far, so I moved out to deeper water near by. One cast later, Masood was locked up again and simultaneously, Moazzam was tight to another one as well. Although smaller than I had hoped for, these two pounders were just fine in their eyes! They already had more action than they see on most days and it had just begun. I kept them casting the same depths and they landed several more before moving off to another area near by. I wasn’t happy with the overall size of these ones and pushed on to find bigger & better. The next spot had Masood into one of those bigguns that I was searching for and now they knew why we were on the move. He was locked up with what was to be his personal best smallie and I wanted to bring it to net. After several leaps and a line screaming battle, the fish was ours! Although not a 5 pounder, it was close & definitely the largest smallie he had ever taken. Several pics later, it was returned back to the water to grow even more. Not far from there, he managed to get into a spot that saw him land 4 fish in as many casts. Moazzam was picking at them as well but not as frequently as his friend. Between the two of them however, it seemed like someone was almost always fighting a fish. We remained here as long as they were hitting and monopolized on all the possible bites. Eventually we had to move as it seemed like we overstayed our welcome when hits were few & far between. A couple of other smaller areas held only a handful of fish, so I didn’t stay long there either. We eventually stopped in a place that I knew would hold numbers and both guys were into bass almost immediately. This reef had a high volume of bass in all sizes and was where Moazzam was to get his best ones for the day. By making long casts, they were both able to cover the entire shoal and find fish in different depths. While Masood was working a crankbait, Moazzam caught on a different set up all together and hooked some big ones in the process. One was covering water and the other was on the bottom just to see what the activity levels of the fish were. Moazzam found out as he finally located some big fish and brought to net a couple in the 4 pound range. It didn’t take long to switch his buddy up and now they both were concentrating on the bottom. Several pics were taken of Moazzam’s fish before they were released and they both had personal bests for the day. We spent well over an hour just in this area alone, catching many more fish before relocating. It seemed like every time I mentioned one last cast, someone hooked up and we stayed a little longer. A slight adjustment along a current break for Masood and he cranked his way to several more, smaller bass. I thought we’d try a few areas after, that may or may not be holding fish, but were prime spots for bigger bass. Unfortunately, while refining one of these places, I locked up on a real big one! It would have been much nicer to have seen it pinned to one of the other rods! Although difficult to hold with wind against current, they did manage to land several more decent fish from here before moving once more. Moazzam also picked up a slot walleye from one of the holes and decided to take it home for dinner. With the winds howling, I thought we’d try and find some different areas slightly less painful to fish. The shift was welcomed as I slid back into a tiny section, totally protected from the winds. Too bad the fish didn’t want to be there though as only a couple of small ones were caught! With time running out, I decided to try one last area before ending the day. The fish here weren’t too big, but there were several more added to their already high numbers count. By the time it was all over they had both caught more fish than they had taken all season. They also had a couple of personal bests for them to remember from today. Despite the high winds and difficult fishing conditions, many a bass came out to play. Who could ask for anything more!!