# Happy Bassday To Me – 1/22/10



## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

Believe it or not, since the beginning of the year I have been out fishing for bass more days than I haven’t.  I’d estimate that I’ve made a few casts someplace, at least 14 days so far. In all that time, with all that cold weather, I’ve probably had less that a dozen nibbles total. : Pretty disheartening to say the least… [smiley=1-sobbing.gif]


Well, today is my birthday, and I figured what better present could I give myself that to catch my first respectable bass of the year. [smiley=1-thumbsup2.gif] So, as I headed off to work this morning, I grabbed a handful of new bass flies I’d tied up and made plans to hit the ponds for lunch.


Now yesterday, when I “pre-fished” this spot, I’d seen signs that the bass were beginning to bed. Several new sandy patches were clearly visible and one of them even had a male, I assume, stubbornly holding to his newly designed love shack.  However, I could get no strikes on any plastics or plugs I tried, but I did get one hit on fly, so I knew small, subtle presentation would be my only chance to catch a bass today. 


When I arrived at the pond, I was happy to see things looking even more promising. There were 4 or 5 new males working on nests, and the one I’d seen yesterday now had a darker female with him. So I immediately went to one of my favorite bass flies, the Mylar Minnow,  but the bedding bass weren’t interested.  Only a couple of cruising fish gave it a curious nip, before turning away.


After several minutes I went back to the tackle box and tied on a White Eyed Rabbit Zonker instead. Since the bed with the pair was closest, I started there and on the first cast the male came up and whacked the fly! [smiley=yeah.gif] Annoyed that I’d missed the hookup, I cast over and over and over to those fish, but it seemed they just wouldn’t strike again.  I could see the male getting more and more agitated at the repeated intrusion, until finally he bit it out of frustration and I made sure it bit back…Yay! [smiley=toast.gif]


















I was really stoked about that catch, even though it wouldn’t have been particularly impressive to anyone else. : But, I still had time for a few more throws and I noticed that the male hadn’t returned to the nest yet. Instead, the larger female had moved in and was periodically chasing off small bream and young bass. That was a scenario I just couldn’t pass on, and within a few casts I had her pulling line and actually working the drag a little bit. [smiley=thumbsupsmileyanim.gif] I let her run and played her a little longer than necessary, just because it was fun and it had been awhile since I’d last caught a decent largemouth on fly. [smiley=cheers.gif]


















So, the good news is that the spawn has started and I’m sure there’ll be a ton of opportunities to target even bigger bass very soon. [smiley=thumbsup.gif] The bad news is that now I’m even farther over the hill, and it just keeps getting steeper on the way down… [smiley=skull-n-bones.gif] [smiley=1-tears1.gif]


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## St._Sophie_Girl (Dec 13, 2006)

Nice!! Happy Birthday!!!


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## mark_gardner (Mar 18, 2009)

happy birthday dude!! [smiley=partyguy.gif] mine will be here in a few weeks  i'm hoping to get out and repeat last years birthday , got on a great bite and turned out to be one of the most memorable birthdays to date


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## FSUfisher (Jul 16, 2007)

Happy Birthday!  [smiley=1-beer.gif] I'm still trying to figure out how to get those bass to bite when they're on their beds.


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## Big_Fish (Dec 10, 2006)

Happy Bass day to you! 
I also had some luck yesterday most were in the #2 range. But I did manage 1#4 and a#6 1/2 pic on cell phone camera battery was dead will have pics this weekend though as I will go back!


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## Snookdaddy01 (Jan 23, 2010)

Happy bass day to you.Gonna post two i got this morning myself...check'em out.


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## phishphood (Dec 15, 2006)

Happy birthday. My mom's is the same day too. How bout that?

Nice bassfish too.


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