Whopper in the Water- Fishing with Joseph!: October Bass

For the last few weeks, I have been looking for my favorite fish in the Looking Glass, and unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful. The fishing has been quite discouraging, but what has kept me going is the thought of catching a three-foot pike that I have spotted several times recently. But this weekend, I went to a place where I knew I could catch some fish- the pond at Central Park in Meridian Township.

Before heading out, I stopped at Grand River Bait and Tackle and bought some suckers in hopes of landing a big pike. The big pike was at the pond, all right. I gave him five of my minnows! After dropping down right next to the dock with my sucker, it was immediately hit, but, when I set the hook, my bait would be gone. I did this four times before I finally waited about 30 seconds after the initial hit to set the hook. After that, I hooked the pike, but he came off just as I was dragging him to the shore to land.

I didn't see any more pike that day, but it was open season on bass!

Because I did not get any more bites on my normal pike rig, I switched my rig to a lipped-hooked sinker on a fluorocarbon leader. And then, I got results.

I was letting the sucker swim along the top of the weeds, when I hooked and landed the first fish of the day, a chunky fall 17-inch largemouth bass.

But then there was more!

I cast out the same bait with the same tactic when I was met with a heavy tug on my line. When I first set the hook, I was sure I had finally hooked into a pike for the day. But, I was both disappointed and superhappy when I realized it was a monster bass. I was ecstatic. The fish was 20 inches and turned out to be my largest largemouth bass ever.

After that big fish, the action died down for about 30 minutes and I decided to move to an area where I saw a fish feeding on minnows. I cast into the shallow weeds and was immediately met by a strong pull on my line. Then, the fight began! The fish jumped three times during the fight, and I was almost positive that I was going to lose this big bass. But I finally dragged him up on shore, and it was a beautiful smallmouth bass. Again, I felt the rush of catching another trophy fish- two in the same day!