Why You Always Need a Plan B

My kayaker friend, Charlie, headed out the door this past Monday morning, with nothing more planned than a photo shoot on Stumpy Lake. He was going to paddle his way to a bald eagle's nest he found sometime back to see if any chicks had fledged or were getting ready to fly.

At the last minute, he decided to grab a spinning rod and a package of Senkos, which mimics something Dewey's ol' friend, Woo Daves, used to advocate during earlier Richmond Bass-a-Rama days. I vividly recall his saying that all you needed for a fishin' trip was a rod, a package of worms, and some hooks.

As Charlie would learn, there's something to be said for this "fishing light" idea. He found that, by flipping those Senkos way back under low-hanging cypress limbs--ones that were touching the water--the bass would jump all over them. Ditto the white perch and crappie, too.

At the end of his photo-shoot-turned-fishing-trip day, Charlie had bagged bass weighing 1-12, 2-0, 2-8, 3-0, and 3-6, for a grand total five-fish limit of 12 lbs. 10 ozs.

Said my friend, "I've never done really great on Stumpy before, but I knew they were there. And now I've seen it for myself."

Earlier today, I told Charlie he ought to plan a few more of these one-lure trips. I mentioned that I had done a couple of them in recent years without having the day turn out too badly. In my case, having only the one lure to fish all day precluded any distraction from thinking about other lures in my box I could be trying. All I could do was knuckle down and concentrate on making the one I had produce results.

Oh, I forgot to mention it earlier, but at the same time Charlie grabbed his rod and a bag of Senkos, he also decided to pick up one camera--just in case--which he used to video Monday's trip. If you would like to take a look at the results for yourself, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dbq_aWy8V8.