A Day Filled Mostly With Tail-Biters and Missed Strikes

Take my word for it. A bass isn't always spooked by the sight of a bass boat. I proved that today while fishing a worm.

I had tossed the worm up next to an isolated piece of grass sitting a short ways off the shoreline. The worm just had hit the water when I felt a slight tick and saw a whole bunch of slack form. As I started taking up the line, I quickly realized the fish was running directly at my boat.

Before I could get all the slack out (with my low-ratio reel), the fish had run halfway under the boat, which created one heckuva position for setting the hook. Nevertheless, I tried, and just for an instant, felt a whole lot of pressure, but then the line went limp, and I reeled it up to find the worm balled on the hook so badly the fish only could have had a very small part of the barb buried.

I subsequently changed to a bigger wide-gap hook, and that was cool until I was fishing the backside of a point a bit later and felt a couple taps, then watched the line moving off at a fast clip. I buried the barb on that bigger wide-gap hook, and for a moment, thought I had found Bubba. With my drag singing and several huge swirls but no leaps, I soon, however, had pretty well figured out what was on the business end of that new hook.

Let's just say there were no surprises when about 5 or 6 pounds of ornery grindle finally rolled up beside the boat. Thanks to a set of boca grips and some needle-nosed pliers, he quickly had his freedom, and I was busy mounting another worm on the hook. I said there were no surprises, but there actually was a little bit of one, in that I never before had seen a grindle with sides so closely resembling (colorwise) those of a bass. It was close enough to make me do a double-take before I released the toothy critter.

All that being said, I only managed to boat two dinks and this 1-2 today while fishing two different kinds of worms and a fluke in Albright's and, for an hour, West Neck. That says nothing, though, of the fact I easily had 10 to 12 pickups in the first half-hour of my day with worms, but when I'd go to set the hook, all I would get was air, with a swirl in the water.

One thing I should make everyone aware of in this posting is that the channel marker down at the cut-through to Albright's has disappeared since last week when I fished there. I would caution everyone to be on the lookout because part of the marker still may be in the water and could do a real number on your boat and/or motor.