Wrapping up May Bass

Festive day at Round Valley Reservoir. I arrived at about 4:30 and don't recall ever seeing it so crowded, hard to get a parking space in the main launch area. I shot some photos and fished for about 45 minutes, catching this little 11-incher that looks even smaller through the wide angle that got some colors and patterns besides. With polarized lenses, I sighted maybe three little bass nine inches or so, so I focused on fishing a Senko-style worm about 15 feet deep and more where I hooked this bass.

This is probably the end of my Round Valley bass fishing from shore this year. I've done very little after Memorial Day, although Fred and I always get out in his boat for bass once over the summer. No big ones this year, but I hooked and lost a nice one. Since 2011, I've caught bass over three pounds every May but this year, so I'm happy I hooked the big one I should have caught, had I checked the line further up from where I knew it had got frayed.

Round Valley's been a wonder for me, some of the most enjoyable fishing I've ever done, though in it's own way. I've written elsewhere in this blog how I fall in love with a place, enjoy it to the full...and then let it go, abandon it, never treading on for the mere sake of dead tradition. I feel as if today might have been the matter of a parting gift between me and these May bass, feeling peculiarly satisfied when this one took the worm unexpectedly with so much ruckus and sun about, and if it was the last of this lovely gig, it's captured in a photo that will last online anyway.