Airfield, 4/23/19

We bounced out tonight, about 1/2 hour before dark, to do a little fishing. It was a little warmer (upper 70's), light breeze, and fair skies. The insects are really beginning to pick up quite a bit. Debbie started off with a Zoom Craw Jr in watermelon, rigged weedless and weightless. I pulled out the fly rod with a small floating bream fly. About dark, Debbie switched to a 5" Yum Dinger in watermelon and pearl to work the bottom, and did the same, but with mine being in a new orange sherbert color. We fished until about 9:15, and decided to call it quits and head home. Here's a few pics...

Airfield, 4/22/19

Debbie and I headed out to the Airfield just before dark, for a little fishing. Debbie started out using a Zoom Craw Jr in watermelon, and I was throwing a Ribbit frog and working it top water. Debbie immediately started picking up bass, and I was only getting a slap every now and then..no takers.  I noticed a lot of subtle top water activity, so I pulled out the fly rod, and picked up a couple of nice bluegill and some small bull bass. 

As dark set in, I could no longer see my fly, and changed to a 5" Yum Dinger in watermelon, rigged weedless and weightless. That worked well, and I started catching bass while working the bottom slowly. Around nightfall, Debbie said the craw was no longer working, and she switched to a 5" Yum Dinger, rigged weedless and weightless, and started catching bass. 

After dark, the action really picked up. My phone was having a hard time taking pics with the flash, but it sorta worked. After a bit, the biggest surprise of all happened...

So, my phone was almost dead, and I had put it on the charger in the truck, and would only take it out to take a pic. The voltage got so low at one point, the flash wouldn't work. Debbie yelled out that she had something big, and then I heard the SMASH that sounded like someone dropped a bathtub in the pond :-) . I grabbed the net and and ran to where she was. We're working in the dark, with only those little headlights strapped on and turned to "green light" mode, and when I got there she was fighting this thing like it was gonna pull her in the pond. It was a big bass and it was pissed! I got the net under her, grabbed the line to steer her in, and the line broke just as I scooped her up. WOW, this girl had probably come off the bed a couple of weeks back, and she still weighted 4lbs 10 oz, Debbie's personal best and the 2nd largest LMB we've ever landed. What a thrill!! 

 

A look down the mouth of that big girl...

After we came down from that exciting time, we continued to fish. The phone was in bad shape, so a couple we caught didn't get photographed. All in all, we caught 20 fish and had a blast!! Here's a few more...

New Rod Rack For The Truck

We had a rack in the ceiling of the truck for some time, but kept running short on space. Rods were propped up in the back (one recently got broken when the side door closed on it), always falling over and such. I had some scrap 1 x 3 pine in the garage, and decided to build a larger replacement to hold 10 rods. Here's what I did...

I cut the 1 x 3 to length, then measured and used a hole saw to bore the holes in the wood. I found, with my reels, a 4" center t0 center spacing was about right. I wanted the rods to hang low in the rack, that's why the holes are closer to one side. On the side of the boards that were going to be near the ceiling, I marked an angle cut to provide clearance at the edges of the roof where it begins to curve down. 

I sanded and deburred the holes, so they could be stained. 

Debbie stained the boards. This should help repel any water that might get on them from wet rods, and looks good, too :-)

I cut strips of self adhesive felt backing material to install in the holes. This should help stop the rod rattling like I had in the old racks.

Here's a pic of one of the holes with the felt installed. 

All finshed and ready to install on the mounting plates I also made from 1 x 3 pine. 

Here's a pic of the mounting plates that attach to the headliner in the truck, also drilled & stained. 

Rod racks, installed onto the ceiling mounting plates from the previous photo.

Here, the rod racks are installed in the ceiling of my Ford Escape, loaded up with rods. Now, we can store the 10 rods we use on a regular basis and keep them safely out of the way.

Airfield, 4/19/19

We went to a private pond we call "The Airfield" this morning, before that powerful band of storms rolled in. We only had about an hour to burn, so we got right on it. The Bass Forecaster app was calling for an "Epic" day, with a rating of 10. We started off with 5" Yum Dinger soft worms (kinda like a Senko), and switched to Zoom Craw Jr's in watermelon. For sure, they were liking the Craws much better. and the bass were certainly up in the flats. Here's a few pics of what we caught...

 

Barrett's Farm Pond, 4/17/19

We got up pulled the Jon boat over to Barrett's Farm Ponds this morning. The temp was nice and the water was like glass!! We got into a bunch of Black Crappie on the beetle spins out int he deep water. The Bluegill and Bass were all up in the flats, and were mostly hitting crickets and red wigglers rigged weightless with no bobbers. We picked up a few small bass on a fluke, but they were wanting live bait for the most part. It took about an hour to get a good read on them, but after that, it was on, and what a great day fishing it was! Here's a few pics and a little video of the water in pond #2...

This is a beautiful place!

This little guy looked like he came from an aquarium :-)