My Search for New Water Leads to Rowdy Bowfin

That bowfin--about 4 lbs. worth--was my first fish of the day, after more than five hours on the water. I wasn't surprised to see that mouth full of teeth staring back at me as I worked him beside the boat, because he already had showed his butt a number of times. Unfortunately, his disposition still was rowdy alongside the boat. He even rammed it three times with his head--apparently to register his displeasure with having the hook from a Rage Blade chatterbait buried squarely in his one eye.

No matter what I did, he wasn't having any part of calming down. When I finally was able to pop the hook out, guess what souvenir of the battle I had hanging from my hook? If you said his eyeball, you'd be correct--not exactly the result I was hoping for, but it nevertheless demanded my attention.

Once I had gotten rid of the eyeball, I inspected my chatterbait, and it's a good thing I did. The ornery critter had sprung both eyes of the line-connecting device on the blade--a problem I had read about not long ago in an online forum. As advertised in that forum, I replaced that line-tie device with a Duo snap. I very well may do the same thing to all my Rage Blade chatterbaits--just for a little extra insurance the next time I have a big bass on the end of my line.

In my last hour on the water today, I finally managed to boat two keeper bass, starting with this 1-15 and ending with a 1-7. I also lost a rowdy dink that jumped and spit the hook as soon as I set it.

The day was a disappointment, in that I expected a better bite with all the cloud cover around most of the day. I did get one topwater strike and was hooked up for a few moments with a fish that I think was a pickerel. I couldn't tell for sure because he was completely covered with grass. He kept shaking his head and eventually freed himself, which was OK with me. One toothy critter a day is about all I care to deal with on any given outing.

The new water I checked out today didn't yield anything other than a strike from around a downed tree that was located near the mouth. As usual, there were no second chances.

Where do I go from here? I plan to try contacting an old friend I haven't seen in a long while and see if he will talk to me about a spot he and another fella used to pull some nice fish from on a consistent basis. Neither of them fish our tournaments any longer, so it isn't like he'll be giving away any secrets. Beyond that, I'll just keep scouting.