I was scheduled to leave Boulder Monday evening, so my brother and I had the morning and afternoon to hit the big bass lake (that is, lake with big bass, not a large bass lake) my brother mentioned my first day there.

I spent part of the morning packing and my brother respooled the rod and reel I used the other day with fluorocarbon since I had so much trouble with the mono that was on it.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we had a 1/4 mile walk to the lake. We parked on the side of the road next to a railroad track with a lake on the other side of it. I asked my brother if that was the lake (I thought maybe we would have to put in on the other side of it) and he just smiled and said, “nope.”

We put our tubes on our backs and the rest of the gear in a big bag and started the trek down the trail. We passed one lake, then another. My brother told me the story of one of the lakes that was stocked with perch. The perch overtook the lake and instead of the DNR taking some of the perch out, they stocked it with muskie. Being that the “lake” was really more of a pond of about 15 acres, I thought that might be an interesting body of water to hit sometime in the future.

By the time we arrived at our destination, the walk felt more like a half mile than a quarter mile. We got our gear ready and were on the water a little after 11am. The steps to the water were at the Southwest corner of the lake. I put in first and and my brother said to pick a direction to go. We’d follow the shore around, then work the middle. I decided to go North and work the West shore.

I started with the green watermelon jig and pig that landed my personal best largemouth two days earlier. Within twenty minutes of getting on the water, I got my first hit. It was this little guy:

Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 12″
Lure used: green watermelon jig and pig

Less than five minutes later, I got another bite and landed this nice bucketmouth:

Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 16″
Lure used: green watermelon jig and pig

I said, “they’re getting bigger.” My brother responded with a laugh.

The lakes we passed during our walk in were like glass because there was no wind. A nice change from our experience the day before. But at about this time, the wind started to pick up. I told my brother I was finding fish about 20-30 ft from shore. I was landing these in about 7-10 ft off water. Another 10 minutes goes by and I scored again:

Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 12″
Lure used: green watermelon jig and pig

About fifteen minutes later, I got a hit that bent my rod significantly. I could feel a good weight at the end of the line and I was not disappointed when the fish surfaced. I thought it comparable to my nice fish two days before and instead of unhooking him, I held his lip and kept him in the water while I paddled to my brother who was several hundred feet behind me. I worked hard to get to him and he was able to snap this pic:

Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 17″
Lure used: green watermelon jig and pig

An inch short of the previous personal best, but not a disappointment.

The wind was getting even stronger now and I didn’t want to get too far away from my brother in case I caught the “big one.” I kept myself somewhat stationary and kept working the area. My brother eventually passed me and now I was behind him by about 200 feet. I landed another lunker, but decided not to bother my brother to take a pic. I snapped this one myself:

Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 17″
Lure used: green watermelon jig and pig

My brother kept going and was on the East side of the North shore as I turned the corner on the West side. By the time I caught up with him, he was halfway down the East shore. It had gotten quiet for me with no bite since I turned the corner and my brother had landed only one little one up til then.

Having had no action for about an hour and a half, I decided I would go back to the West shore. My brother pointed out a lane about a 100 feet from shore parallel to the South shore that he said usually holds fish. Knowing that we only had about a half hour left to fish, I worked the lane pretty fast and didn’t get any bites.

I got back to the Southwest corner and started up the West shore again. I finally got another hit and landed my 6th of the day:

Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 12″
Lure used: green watermelon jig and pig

Five minutes later, #7:

Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 15″
Lure used: green watermelon jig and pig

Five minutes after that, #8:

Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 14″
Lure used: green watermelon jig and pig

A few casts later, as I was pulling up my lure, I looked up and saw the remnants of a fish jump about 50 ft North of my last cast. I turned around, paddled up about 50 ft and cast passed the splash. But then, disaster. I had a big tangle just above my reel. I had been dealing with a few tangles during the outing, but nothing that took more than a few minutes to get loose. Having struggled with this tangle for a few minutes, I realized I wouldn’t get any more casts if I kept trying to loosen it. I literally cut my losses and cut the line.

I quickly retied and a few minutes later, I heard my brother say he had just spooked a bass. He was at the put in point and was about to get out. He said, “it went that way,” pointing East. I was a ways away from him, so before I went after the spooked bass, I threw out a cast near a fallen branch. BANG! #9

Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 15″
Lure used: green watermelon jig and pig

Good thing I retied.

After unhooking this guy, I threw a few casts East, but the spooked bass was gone.

I was a little disappointed I didn’t stay on the West shore where I was getting hits, but you never know what you might encounter going to the other side of a lake. It turned out not to work out for me this time. I probably could have doubled my numbers if I stayed working the West shore.

My brother asked if I hit double digits. I thought I might have at the time, but as you can see, I didn’t. I missed about 6 or 7 hits during the afternoon, so I could have done even better. My brother scored 4.

The day’s outing was a great way to end a great weekend. I’d say it was my best bass outing to date. I caught double digits at my dad’s cabin recently, but the fish were bigger this time around. My brother said he usually fishes this lake after 3pm and 20″+ bass are the norm. If I had time, maybe my next few personal bests would have started biting.

After getting out, we went back to my brother’s place, and got my stuff. We grabbed a bite to eat and my brother dropped me off at the airport. I wish I could have stayed longer, but my vacation time didn’t allow for it this time around. However, I had such a good time that I’m hoping to fly out again next year.

And so I leave you with some of my scenery as I flew home: