Bass Hitting just as Dark Sets in

My son and I got up to a favorite North Jersey pond yesterday evening, enjoying the southerly breeze, and as proved to be the case, waiting for the cover of dusk to stimulate a little bass action. It's been hot. Bass have some cover under thick algae, which isn't all that extensive, but before darkness gathered, I began to wonder if a lot of the fish hid under it.

I retrieved the worm over the top, which elsewhere has resulted in the mess exploding. Fished hard. Kept casting. First, I had caught a little eight-incher and another about 13 inches I judged too small to photograph, along the opposite shore in shadow. All of the action on the Chompers worm, weightless of course. I can't get enough of fishing this way. It just gets better and better. I think an angler could fish nothing else over the course of an entire lifetime, and still have room to improve.

I did get to thinking, with light vanishing, that a topwater might work. First Matt caught his little bass on a Chompers, and then I pulled my worm to the surface, where it sort of catches that tense film and even floats with the light wire, size 2 hook. I do use 15-pound test Power Pro and 15-pound test fluorocarbon tied directly to the braid by a uni-to-uni splice. With some cover protecting big bass, it's best.

And just when the fishing seemed dead despite so much life in the air, a big bass just slurped the worm right off the surface. Right away I gave the fish slack, then tightened up and set hard--popping the fluorocarbon at the knot. I felt the weight, a really good bass. Enough weight that it didn't budge at all.

I cast to a bush overhanging the shore edge. Nothing. So I continued fishing along this shore...and returned a cast to that same edge of bush five minutes later. I felt the tick, tightened, set..."Here we go, Matt."

Nice bass, not as big as we usually get them.

Some of us will remember the little green red ear turtles sold in pet shops during the 1960's and 70's. Red eared slider. They grow a lot bigger than this Matt plucked from atop a rock, which took some stealthy skill, but this one's a giant compared to those little pets.