Lil Brother
New member
During the last week of March, my son and I took a well needed vacation down to southeast Arkansas to Lake Monticello. This is the HOTTEST lake in the state right now for largemouth bass and could produce a new state record at any given time. As a matter of fact, one of the local residents said that the arkansas game and fish commision had already stocked it. A 17 pounder!
Neither one of us had ever been to this lake, but we decided that we would check it out just for the heck of it. After John boy got us a great map of the lake, we loaded our gear and took off. David had gotten us reservations in one of the local motels and so we were set. We got up Saturday morning, ate a big country style breakfast and took off. It is a 2 1/2 hour trip down a bunch of two lane highways. Carol and I had went down a month or so in advance to check things out. We looked at the room we were going to be staying in, then drove the 5 miles out to the lake. I brought my detector and detected the small beach area but didnt find a lot.
After checking into the room, we finally made it on the water at a little after 12:00pm. I had selected one of the northern coves to go in to first hoping to find some bedding fish. The lake was packed with weekend traffic, but I knew that that would change after Sunday. One of my friends who is a taxidermist had told me that a guy had brought him a 10 pounder the previous week. He also told me what he said he caught it on, so away I go to throwing a june bug colored lizard. Like all of my fishing trips, our arms were tired of casting cast after cast. We would throw plastics and then spinnerbaits, back to plastics and then crankbaits.
Before the trip, John had spent a lot of time working on my little basstracker making sure everything was in order. Every since I had bought the boat, I have had a little trouble with the trolling motor. John had made sure it was in tip-top shape and it was....until about 4:00pm. We had fished for four hours with not even a bump. It was a little frustrating, but thats the way fishing is. Patience and persistance!
Around 4 pm we were trolling around going towards where an old underwater pond was.(Before they built the lake they had stocked Florida strain largemouths in all these ponds and then flooded the area when the dam was complete.)Just like always and after all the hard work John had done, the blame trolling motor stopped running. It really wasn't all that bad though because the wind wasnt really blowin much at the moment.
Now, every one knows that us Garretts have always had a little temper,(you should have seen us 20 years ago!), but I am working on not saying many cuss words and have not thrown stuff for years, even though it was a hot Spring day. The only thing that I threw was the plastic lizard and I threw it as far as I could before making my 4000th retrieve of the day. Normally, I try to feel the bottom with my bait, but this time as I said, I was a little bit perturbed. I was fishing the lizard much too fast and really not paying a lot of attention because another boat was just about fishing in out back pocket and that was making me madder, but then it happened. Something on the end of my line went "thump thump." I set the hook with everything I had and didnt feel anything but weight on the end of my line.
CONTINUED
Neither one of us had ever been to this lake, but we decided that we would check it out just for the heck of it. After John boy got us a great map of the lake, we loaded our gear and took off. David had gotten us reservations in one of the local motels and so we were set. We got up Saturday morning, ate a big country style breakfast and took off. It is a 2 1/2 hour trip down a bunch of two lane highways. Carol and I had went down a month or so in advance to check things out. We looked at the room we were going to be staying in, then drove the 5 miles out to the lake. I brought my detector and detected the small beach area but didnt find a lot.
After checking into the room, we finally made it on the water at a little after 12:00pm. I had selected one of the northern coves to go in to first hoping to find some bedding fish. The lake was packed with weekend traffic, but I knew that that would change after Sunday. One of my friends who is a taxidermist had told me that a guy had brought him a 10 pounder the previous week. He also told me what he said he caught it on, so away I go to throwing a june bug colored lizard. Like all of my fishing trips, our arms were tired of casting cast after cast. We would throw plastics and then spinnerbaits, back to plastics and then crankbaits.
Before the trip, John had spent a lot of time working on my little basstracker making sure everything was in order. Every since I had bought the boat, I have had a little trouble with the trolling motor. John had made sure it was in tip-top shape and it was....until about 4:00pm. We had fished for four hours with not even a bump. It was a little frustrating, but thats the way fishing is. Patience and persistance!
Around 4 pm we were trolling around going towards where an old underwater pond was.(Before they built the lake they had stocked Florida strain largemouths in all these ponds and then flooded the area when the dam was complete.)Just like always and after all the hard work John had done, the blame trolling motor stopped running. It really wasn't all that bad though because the wind wasnt really blowin much at the moment.
Now, every one knows that us Garretts have always had a little temper,(you should have seen us 20 years ago!), but I am working on not saying many cuss words and have not thrown stuff for years, even though it was a hot Spring day. The only thing that I threw was the plastic lizard and I threw it as far as I could before making my 4000th retrieve of the day. Normally, I try to feel the bottom with my bait, but this time as I said, I was a little bit perturbed. I was fishing the lizard much too fast and really not paying a lot of attention because another boat was just about fishing in out back pocket and that was making me madder, but then it happened. Something on the end of my line went "thump thump." I set the hook with everything I had and didnt feel anything but weight on the end of my line.
CONTINUED
..............don't keep us on the line too long !
