An Accomodating Largemouth Bass
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 3:02 am
Back in the early 70's, before we had children and while I was still in school, I used to fish with my first cousin, Don Russell.
Don was an excellent fisherman, much better than I, and had a knack for putting us on the fish.
His rig, at the time, was nothing fancy, just a 14 ft. aluminum jon boat that we threw into the back of his truck along with a low powered outboard and a hand controlled trolling motor.
Don had discovered a very effective lure for early Spring top water fishing. It required finding a lure by Fred Arbogast, the actual name of which was a "SputterBug". It was a top water lure with a hula skirt on the rear treble hook and a large two bladed spinner between the front eye and the end of the line.
Don had removed the spinner apparatus and tied his line directly to the eye. When the lure landed on the water, it would lie flat for several moments until all the air escaped from the skirt, about the same time it took for the ripples to dissipate. Then, the back end would drop down into the water and the lure would hang almost vertically.
Even the slightest twitch on the line would cause the back end of the lure to go back up to the surface, then it would drop back down again, waving that skirt in a tantalizing way.
Toss that thing up against a bush or bunch of reeds, wait for it to settle, twitch it couple of times and if there was a fish there, they could not leave it alone.
It was the single most effective lure I have ever used in that situation, top water, early Spring pre-spawn to spawn.
The problem was, the SputterBug lures required to make it were extremely hard to find. This was before Wal-Mart and K-Mart came along.
We searched hardware stores, obscure tackle shops, etc. Don was luckier at finding them than I was.
We called the altered lure a "PonyTail". Losing one was enough to ruin your whole day.
We were up in a little shallow backwater slough one morning and had already caught several nice fish.
I was a rather unsophisticated fisherman and was still using a breakdown Shakespeare rod and a Zebco 33 that I had used while I was in the army, because it would fit in a ruck sack.
I tossed my only remaining PonyTail up against a large clump of reeds, waited for it to settle, twitched it once and the water simply exploded as a very nice largemouth bass engulfed the lure. She weighed five or six pounds. She took a couple of hard runs. I turned her from each. She jumped several times. I was able to keep the line tight and she didn't throw the lure.
She jumped one last time, clearing the water completely. What a beautiful fish. When she entered the water, she took another hard run. I pulled back on the rod and.......THE LINE BROKE!!!
It broke about twenty feet back from the fish. I reeled in all that slack line.
My nice fish was gone. Worse, my PonyTail was gone and I had no more.
I asked Don if he had another and he told me his last one was on his line.
I sort of lost my temper. I was sitting in the back of the boat. I slapped my rod down onto the water, and said, "Damn-it! If she's going to get away, the least she could do is give me back my PonyTail!".
As soon as I said that, the fished jumped out of the water about three feet from the boat, shook her head and threw the lure against the side of the boat and disappeared.
I reached down, picked up my lure, cut off the bad line, cut some off the reel as well, then tied the lure back on and caught five more fish before the morning was over.
No one ever believes this story. My cousin died of a heart attack several years ago winching his bass boat onto the trailer. He died on the boat ramp. Fitting.
There is now no one to back me up on my fish tail.
I don't expect you guys to believe this, but it is an absolutely true story.
Charlie Noyes
Don was an excellent fisherman, much better than I, and had a knack for putting us on the fish.
His rig, at the time, was nothing fancy, just a 14 ft. aluminum jon boat that we threw into the back of his truck along with a low powered outboard and a hand controlled trolling motor.
Don had discovered a very effective lure for early Spring top water fishing. It required finding a lure by Fred Arbogast, the actual name of which was a "SputterBug". It was a top water lure with a hula skirt on the rear treble hook and a large two bladed spinner between the front eye and the end of the line.
Don had removed the spinner apparatus and tied his line directly to the eye. When the lure landed on the water, it would lie flat for several moments until all the air escaped from the skirt, about the same time it took for the ripples to dissipate. Then, the back end would drop down into the water and the lure would hang almost vertically.
Even the slightest twitch on the line would cause the back end of the lure to go back up to the surface, then it would drop back down again, waving that skirt in a tantalizing way.
Toss that thing up against a bush or bunch of reeds, wait for it to settle, twitch it couple of times and if there was a fish there, they could not leave it alone.
It was the single most effective lure I have ever used in that situation, top water, early Spring pre-spawn to spawn.
The problem was, the SputterBug lures required to make it were extremely hard to find. This was before Wal-Mart and K-Mart came along.
We searched hardware stores, obscure tackle shops, etc. Don was luckier at finding them than I was.
We called the altered lure a "PonyTail". Losing one was enough to ruin your whole day.
We were up in a little shallow backwater slough one morning and had already caught several nice fish.
I was a rather unsophisticated fisherman and was still using a breakdown Shakespeare rod and a Zebco 33 that I had used while I was in the army, because it would fit in a ruck sack.
I tossed my only remaining PonyTail up against a large clump of reeds, waited for it to settle, twitched it once and the water simply exploded as a very nice largemouth bass engulfed the lure. She weighed five or six pounds. She took a couple of hard runs. I turned her from each. She jumped several times. I was able to keep the line tight and she didn't throw the lure.
She jumped one last time, clearing the water completely. What a beautiful fish. When she entered the water, she took another hard run. I pulled back on the rod and.......THE LINE BROKE!!!
It broke about twenty feet back from the fish. I reeled in all that slack line.
My nice fish was gone. Worse, my PonyTail was gone and I had no more.
I asked Don if he had another and he told me his last one was on his line.
I sort of lost my temper. I was sitting in the back of the boat. I slapped my rod down onto the water, and said, "Damn-it! If she's going to get away, the least she could do is give me back my PonyTail!".
As soon as I said that, the fished jumped out of the water about three feet from the boat, shook her head and threw the lure against the side of the boat and disappeared.
I reached down, picked up my lure, cut off the bad line, cut some off the reel as well, then tied the lure back on and caught five more fish before the morning was over.
No one ever believes this story. My cousin died of a heart attack several years ago winching his bass boat onto the trailer. He died on the boat ramp. Fitting.
There is now no one to back me up on my fish tail.
I don't expect you guys to believe this, but it is an absolutely true story.
Charlie Noyes
