Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Wading before Pond Hopping

Sunday I went fishing with my friend Dan who everyone knows as Pondboy.  We started off in Plainfield wading in the DuPage river.  The weather and water is still too cold for smallmouth bass to be in the stretch of river we were in.


Thinking on our feet we made several stops in a Pond Hopping run.


Dan was ready to cast first and got a hit on his ribbon-tail worm immediately after casting.  He went to set the hook and *SNAP*....Fireline broke off.


Like a good fisherman I cast to the spot near where he broke off and set the hook on this bass.




You can see my tackle behemoth behind me in this picture.  Weighing in at 30 pounds it is what makes my pond fishing trips an aerobic workout.


Dan kept working this pond but mentioned another adjacent to where we were that was a little more sloppy/swampy.  I was intrigued and figured I'd go take a look at that area while Dan fished this pond.


While I was walking to the other pond Dan made up for his Fireline's shortcomings and caught these bass on a black ribbon tail worm and a Case Helgramite.  





Meanwhile I was seeing water boils near shore while I was walking.  I cast to one and missed a bass.


I worked the area around where I missed on purpose because I was not going to miss a second time.


I didn't.




On the drive home I was insistent on helping Dan embrace braid.  I had a similar experience with Fireline and I won't buy it again.  I stripped the Fireline off Dan's casting reel and spooled it with Power Pro 30# with a 12# Mono backer.  Of course he had to try the set up out....and of course I get this picture and thanks for helping find a quality braid.




Another happy Power Pro user.  Heck, anyone with a fish in their hand is a happy user of the equipment they have but I'm a big fan of the Power Pro and I think Dan is becoming one too.