Before George came into town, Greg and I had made an appointment to go fishing earlier this week. As a result, I got to go fishing twice in three days.

In this outing, Greg and I decided to hit a lake in the East end of the Twin Cities. The bass are catch-and-release only, so there have been rumors of monster bass in the lake. However, in my three previous outings on the lake, I’ve pulled nothing out. I was out on my float tube all three times so I was limited to one part of the lake. I was looking forward to exploring other parts of the lake further from the boat launch.

Greg and I met at 6pm and were on the lake shortly after. We headed to the end of the lake opposite the boat launch. There is a shallow flat in a bay that sports a hole 5 feet deeper than the flat. That looked to be a perfect place for fish.

When we got there, there were a lot of weeds in the area and the weed line stopped just before the hole. I started with a texas rigged worm and got a bite on it, but couldn’t set the hook. Greg tried a couple of different options and landed a small northern.

I tried some of the treasures from my recent Mystery Tackle Box hoping to land a big one and be able to post it to my Mystery Tackle Box friends. The wacky hook and worm combo didn’t get any attention and the jig and trailer felt a bit heavy for this lake and this shallow area.

We moved in a little closer to shore by a channel formed by the weeds and Greg was able to land a nice 14″ bucketmouth on a big creature bait–the same one he caught a fish on on Sunday. The only thing I got was a nip on the Rage Tail Space Monkey from my first Mystery Tackle Box.

After working the area for quite a while, it was starting to get dark, so we headed toward the boat launch. On the way back we hit the West side of a point where there were some weeds, but quickly gave up on it due to the quickening sunset. Before going in, though, we decided to try the lily pads that I had been sequestered to in my last three outings.

By now we could barely see the lures in front of our faces, but we weren’t ready to give up. We fished the area for a good 20 minutes with no action at all. Finally, Greg got a follow in one of his topwaters casting away from the lily pads. I was still getting nada.

On one of my last casts, I dropped the Space Monkey to the bottom and just let it sit while I reviewed the night in my head. I was discouraged and pretty much ready to give up for the night. I started slowly reeling in the Rage Tail when I felt something odd. I bounced it again and it still felt odd. I set the hook and… nothing. But after bringing the lure in, the shadow of the lure (we couldn’t see much since it was pitch dark by now) revealed a twisted Space Monkey, a tell tale sign that it was indeed a fish. The fact that I couldn’t hook it was just indicative of the night.

When we pulled up to the boat launch, two guys were also just getting off with a canoe. We chatted a bit and found out one of them caught a 4 lb bass on worms. They pointed out the spot for us. They showed us a picture and while it didn’t look 4 lbs to me, it was still a decent fish. And better than what we ended up with.

This is the fourth skunk on this lake. You would think I would give up, but I’ve now been challenged. I’m determined to figure out where the fish are in this lake and the pattern to catch them. Live bait is always an option, but I’m going to keep trying my artificials for now.

Greg and I planned to be back in a few weekends.