Dan Carns
I have a couple of fishing buddies up north that I just can’t wait to hang out with every year as I try to take a break from the relentless heat of Florida in the summer time. This year was no different; the weather is always cool in the mountains of Vermont and can be downright chilly. The three of us decided to fish in this remote pond where the largemouth bass fishing can be spectacular! I’m camping at my friend Jim’s place, so he and I load up early and meet Pat at the launch, kayaks in tow, the Dog Pond is still, but overcast, with low mountain fog. Armed with our best and latest bass gear, we launch and scatter to our respective holes that we’ve now fished for over 20 years. The morning is slow, a couple of small fish, but all in all no topwater action and very little to show for our effort. I’m across the pond and have a huge school of very large fish milling around and can’t entice them for anything. I’m a fairly confident bass fisherman, as my dad taught me to fish at a very young age in the south and most of my tactics work up north, so I’m now just a bit frustrated. After an hour or so I join my friends and we’ve now worked our way to some fairly shallow water towards the back of the pond and there are fish all around us, but they are not feeding and ignore every offering.
We’re now resigned to hanging out in our kayaks shooting the bull as we always do so we can catch up on family news while we casually cast out around our perimeter. By now the sun has broken free from the fog, the air is warming and as usual Pat is doggedly determined to catch a fish. I see him tie on a six-inch pumpkin colored rubber worm that he rigs wacky style (a rig I never have luck with) and proceeds to cast out between the three of our kayaks and lets it drop. Pat is a very good bass fisherman and I watch in awe as he barely twitches his rod, sets it down and doesn’t reel in any slack. Again, he picks up the rod tip for a tiny twitch and again he takes in no slack when his line starts to move off he sets the hook and its game on! We get a great photo and resume our typical trash taking and Pat does the same thing right in front of us with the exact same results. Jim and I follow his lead and catch fish all around us for the next hour until we’ve run out of time! Pat’s perseverance and skill do him and us proud
It’s A Wild World-Get Out There!
Fishman Dan
