Hello, Everyone! I just thought I'd share with you my unbelievable bass fishing trip that I went on yesterday in the Willy.
A good friend of mine that I've known for awhile but have never gone fishing with wanted to take me fishing for once, and said that he had been going down to the Willy and fishing for Bass over the past few days, and had caught some nice fish (don't worry - we're not keeping them
).
So I thought what the heck, and met him over at his house in St. Johns at around noon or so, and we walked the short 4-5 block distance down to the stretch of river near his house, which is right practically underneath the Railroad bridge near the St. Johns bridge.
The fishing was a bit dismal for the first hour or so - my friend only catching one Smallie, and I was skunked. But that soon changed. As we sat there talking, I was throwing a small 3'' plastic Shad Dart - it had a black back with a silvery-grey underside, and had silver glitter along its sides. It looked like this:
I was using this on a 7'0 Ultra Light rod by Lamiglas (the "Guides Choice" ones you can get at Joes), with a Abu Garcia Cardinal reel, one of the newer models, with 8 lb. Stren line.
All of a sudden, the rod bends slowly, then I quickly set the hook, and I knew that I had hooked into something BIG. The fish immediately turned and took off, swimming profusely and making my reel sing. I did all that I could do, maintaining the rod at a strong yet flexible position, keeping the tip high, and just letting him run. My friend is standing next to me saying "Wow! That thing is HUGE!"
The fish ran out a LONG ways, and as it slowed down, I quickly tightened my drag a bit and slowly pulled against the fish, trying to get it to turn around. It obeyed, and as it swam inward, I reeled in with it, trying to coax it towards the bank.
But after it got about 10 feet from the shore, staying about a foot or two below water so that I couldn't see it, ZING! It takes off again, this time not going so far before slowing down. I gently pulled its head towards my direction again, trying to coax it in again. But only after reeling in a few yards did it take off yet again, making my reel wail as I continued to play the fish. Finally, it took one leap out of the water, revealing its silvery color to my eyes as it splashed its head against the water. "Looks like a carp to me, but I can't tell from here..." I say to my friend calmly. "No way, man! That's no carp! That looks like a salmon or something!" I doubted him, just because I didn't have much of a reason to believe that I would be hooked onto a Salmon at this time of the year, on a bass lure. Especially one with the silver color that this one had.
But sure enough... after its magnificent leap from the water, it seemed tired, which made it easy to pull it towards shore one last time. It surfaced on top of the water, and slowly glided towards the bank. As my friend got close to get ready to grab it... "Sure enough! Its a bloody Salmon!" I looked down at it, seeing its silvery back reflect light into my eyes: a most illustrious light. I looked frantically between it's dorsal and its tail, looking for another fin inbetween... but it did not exist! It was true: I had caught a Hatchery Chinook, using a friggin' Bass lure of all things! It seemed unbelievable to me.
So I snapped some photos of it, and decided to share it with you all.
This remains to be one of the most remarkable - and most shocking - catches of my life. And I hope in the future there will be more!
Hope you enjoyed the story.
~Teddy, AKA Twise95
Unbelievable Willy report - 7/22/07
OSU Class of 2012 GO BEAVS!
Tar Heel
Replica of a Hagg Monster 8.1 pounds!
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