Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Livy and I go Bass Fishing

There is a lake not too far from here where there are a lot of bass. They aren't big bass but there are a lot of them. this is the lake where I finally learned how to catch bass on the spawn. Bass spawn each spring. The males go up into the sandy shallows and make nests, divots in the shallows and then hang out at the nests waiting to attract a female to his handiwork. If a female comes and they leave fertilized eggs then the male hangs out for a while to protect the nest. Kind of like salmon coming back to the rivers in fall, this makes the bass a touch easier to find. Unlike the salmon in fall, the bass become highly aggressive and well, chompy if you will.

The differences between bass and trout or salmon are as bountiful as the day is long. Bass like warmwater, trout like cold. Bass spawn in stillwater, trout need the flow of a stream. Bass are bony, spiny and built like a British bulldog. Trout are elegant and beautiful. The thing that makes bass fun to catch is that they can be aggressive and fight like demons when hooked.

The general procedure to catch the durn things is to take something big, noisy and borderline outlandish, throw it as close to the bank as you can and retrieve in as obnoxious a manner as possible. This sounded right up Livy's alley (plus she needs more practice casting) so I asked her to come along. She is turning out to be quite the consistently happy fishing partner. She doesn't complain hardly at all, loves casting, catching and fighting fish and most importantly brings a smile to her Daddy's face.

After listening to Livy's ipod on the way there (two renditions of Skater Boy at least) we dropped the boat in the water and did some pre-salmon fishing testing by firing up the gas motor. She took on the first try and cried out joyfully and Livy and I flew across the lake to the sunken logs and reeds where the bass live. I hooked Livy up with a small sinking Rapala and gave her instructions to cast towards shore and retrieve. We anchored off of a big spruce tree and started casting.

I had brought along Mikayla armed with a couple of bass poppers. Bass poppers are a special type of fly used for bass. In the finest fly tying tradition they are carefully crafted to look exactly like aliens complete with buggy eyes and tentacles. You drop them with an audible plop and jerk them back, usually creating more audible plops and generally making as much commotion as you can. It's a very delicate business, this fly fishing for bass.

Livy was casting parallel with shore and not terribly close to the bass but she was casting well and it was good to see practice. Her lack of patience makes casting and retrieving a lot of fun and before I know it she's hooked a fish. Not a bass but a wild cutthroat that probably made its way out of the beaver ponds further West and through the weeds into the lake to feed. His teeth are sharp and his body snakey, like he ran hungry during the winter. We let him go, Livy's smile cut into my memory like a needle into a gold record.

Later I'd catch a couple of small bass on the popper. Proof positive that they eat aliens on a regular basis. We'd run the boat fast back to the ramp and listen to "Gold Lion" and "Cruella Deville" cranking on the radio.

I love bass fishing....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey - where is the best place to go for catch & eat? Terry