Doubling Up On Bass

This Spring hasn’t started great for me fishing on the river. I have been out there 3 times and haven’t caught a bass yet. So my dad and I decided to get some practice and bust my slump we would go to a pond on a farm his friend owns.

            It’s a lot of fun to fish this pond. We always catch a lot of fish in there. Never anything big but I’m not a trophy hunter or fisherman. I’m there for the fun of it. And some of those little fish still pull like they mean it and make for a good fight.

            It was a beautiful day. The sun was out but it was cold for April. A low of 36 degrees that didn’t seem to move for the first hour or so we were on the water. Luckily we put the boat in this pond and immediately started fishing so there was nowhere we had to run. My hands still got cold.

            We fished around the edge of the pond. Right at the dam where we put the boat in, I usually always catch fish. I threw a spinner bait all down it and had no luck.

            We fished the entirety of the pond and I eventually caught two fish on a chatterbait. It felt great to just finally put one in the boat. On our second lap around the pond I looked at my rods and said to my dad “We should probably tie on a worm before we get to this beaver dam”.

            Catching bass on a plastic worm is something I just learned to do last year. There has been long stretches of time where I didn’t fish much. But my dad bought a bass boat a few years ago and recently retired so we have been making up for lost time fishing.

            But I learned to fish when I was very young catching bass in ponds on live minnows. Then I moved on to fast moving baits. Spinner bait is usually always my first go to. But catching a fish on a worm is different and takes some patience and finesse. While also taking strength. You have to set the hook a lot harder than with a spinner bait.

            But we tied on worms and got to this beaver dam. There are a couple of different dams and downed trees in this pond. I casted the worm out there, bounced it up and down a few times, and felt the movement of something clearly pulling the worm. I set the hook hard and the fight was on. Not much of a fight. The fish wasn’t very big so it didn’t take much to pull him in but that didn’t make it any less fun.

            We had definitely found something with the worms over this beaver dam. I didn’t catch one every time I threw the worm out there but a lot more times than not I did.

            In less than an hour we caught probably around 15 fish. Again none of them were big. Our biggest fish of the day were probably just over two pounds but like I have said I wasn’t there to catch big fish. I was there to practice and get better at setting the hook so I can catch some fish on the river.

            But while we were slaying them on worms over this beaver dam a really cool moment happened. My dad and I had both caught a few when I threw the worm out there and bounced it up and down a couple times. Something was definitely pulling it. I reeled down to it and set the hook hard. I said “there he is”. Which is usually my go to line whenever I hook a fish. Again the fight was on.

            As I got the fish about halfway to the boat I looked over and my dad had hooked one at the same time. He barely realized it was hooked because he was busy watching me. He coaches me through every fish I hook no matter how many times I have done it or how much I know what I’m doing. I finished the fight and pulled my fish in and a few seconds later my dad did the same. We had to take a picture. My dad joked about not wanting his picture out there with such a small fish. But I had to have the memory recorded.

            Some things are just cool. It may not resonate with other people the way it does me. But doing something the right way at the same time with the man who taught me how to do it all is something special.

            My dad would rather me catch a fish than him. He asks me if I’ve got him every single time I set the hook. Even if I’m just bumping over a stick or stuck in a tree. And he is more excited than me when I pull one in. We have our little jabs and competitions but I can always tell he gets more excited about any of my success than I do.

            But it was up to me we would always catch a fish at the same time. Well maybe not every time. I’d like to catch a few more and have bragging rights. And also when I think about it catching them at the same time wouldn’t be as special if it happened every time.

            Catching a fish is a great feeling that can always make me happy. Catching a fish right at the same time as my dad made my day.