It had been nearly a month since I last got my line wet. If you know me, and I think you do, that is as rare as a month of no court appearances for Lindsay Lohan. Especially considering that Fall is my favorite time of year to fish for Largemouth. Finally, today, I was able to jet out for a couple of hours of Lake Sherwood action. I arrived about 60 minutes before sunset with partly cloudy skies, a good 10-12 MPH breeze, 50° air temps, and slightly stained 53° water.
The first hour brought nothing but cold hands, despite throwing a wide variety of baits. Then, just as the sun had set behind the surrounding foothills, I flung a 5″ Kinami Flash in Mad Melon between a couple of docked boats. After a couple of subtle line twitches I felt the faintest of pick-ups on my ultra-sensitive Big Bear worm rod. I leaned back into a solid hookset and battled this stout 2.75 pounder into a quick submission.
After several more fruitless casts, I scooted over to another spot and started burning my go-to GBO Yo-Zuri Rattl’n Vibe. On just my second cast, I nearly had the rod yanked out of my hands by this hyper-aggressive 3 pound football Bass. I did the quick catch-picture-release (CPR) and quickly made another long cast. About halfway home, I ripped it out of some grass and got absolutely hammered. I fought the fish for about 30 seconds when suddenly the hooks ripped free despite having good pressure and no jumps.
I vainly tossed the Vibe a few more times and then tried several other baits before picking up the worm rod again and casted to the edge of some Tullies. Once again, if it wasn’t for the incredible sensitivity of the Big Bear rod I never would have felt the stealthy pick up of the lure. I started to reel down when the fish decided to start swimming off with his artificial meal. BOOM! I laid the wood to that bugger … yet, after about 30 
seconds he came free, as well. Though, after redressing the stick bait, I quickly re-casted to the same spot and felt another sly pick-up before I could even close the bail. I gave another bone-crushing set which stuck long enough to pin this 3+ pounder all the way home. By the way, that leaf is not stuck to the fish … it just fell at the perfect moment to become eternally immortalized on this cyber-rag! 😆
I made a few more casts before heading to one last spot on the other side of the point I was fishing. On the first cast with the Vibe I got whacked hard but couldn’t connect. The second cast brought a similar result. I turned the other way and made a few casts before turning back and giving it another go in the original direction. I also started giving the bait quick pauses on the retrieve. That was 
the ticket as the 3.5 pound fish completely inhaled the bait and gave me my best tussle of the day before posing for the last pic of the day.
That was all I had time for. However, I was very happy with the results of my first session of the Fall season, especially considering my time restraints. I know the next couple of weeks are going to be super busy, but I’m just going to have to find a way to get out there before the tough Winter conditions set in for the duration.
Caveman Catching 