From Cleaning Lockers to Fishing for Bass

First, how about a picture of a bass to keep your interest?

One of 9 bass for him that night

This past week, my 13 (and a 1/2.....I want the credit) year old son and I went out fishing. It was a looooong time in the making considering earlier in the week we had to clean out his locker to find homework that was due WEEKS ago. Hopefully he'll get some credit for those assignments. Kids keep testing your patience for sure!

His locker

So, after cleaning the locker, and spending the next 5 days trying to get him to do the work, he finally finished and we were able to go fishing!

We first went to Lake Ontario to a place where an old power plant sits. Years ago, and all through my teenage years, this plant use to be in operation and this place use to be a favorite place for me to fish. Since then, I realized there were better places to fish, and the shut down of the plant killed the flow of water, and a recent copper theft led to an oil spill. So, we weren't too hopeful for much luck at this location. We ended up fishing the lake side for about 10 minutes before giving up and taking off to another place.

Stop two was one of my favorite local ponds. Unfortunately, a day or two can make all the difference. This pond just a week ago was clear on the surface, but this weekend, after a few days of sun, and lack of rain, the pond was 80% covered in scum. So, we took off.

Our third stop was at a place I call Twin Rock pond. It was a good decision to go to this place since the water was pretty much clear, and this pond often give up a good number of bass.

We ended up having a great 2 hours on this pond and we each caught 9 bass a piece. One of my favorite fish, was the one that got away. I had a huge hit right as my fly landed and before I could get a second cast at it, my son tossed his fly under bobber rig out and had the fish hit. We both lost the same fish and  had a good time recounting our attempt. A while later, we had a double.

This was the first night he released all his fish alone. He got pretty good, and with a little encouragement he lipped even the biggest fish he caught. 

Bass Thumb

A nice 10 inch bass

 I even convinced him to take my picture.

It was a great night and he was telling me we need to go more often. I resisted saying he has to do his homework more often. Hopefully he'll realize the more he does his homework ON TIME, the greater the chance he can get out fishing!

And, I learned that I have to use stronger tippet when using poppers that I spent a long time to make. Small tippet likes to give poppers away to weeds.