Reservation Number : 23552
Property Name : Five Finger Springs
Reservation Date : 03/27/2020 PM -
Total Fish/Sizes : 13 total (10 bass 3 bluegills)
Lures Used : jig, frog, bug/bream killer, minnows

This is my 12 year old son's first trip bass fishing.  He finished his online assignments for the quarantine about 12:30 putting us on the water about 1:30 PM.

Gate was open.  Two men were waiting on me when I arrived and said that they were bringing a boat for me to use.  They put a trolling motor on it and helped me load up my gear.  Its a flat bottom style plastic boats with padded seats.  They mentioned that the owner had just put 75 lbs of chemical in the water to help the fish grow.  If I understood him correctly it also makes the water cloudy.  The visibility in most of the lake was about 5 feet but in others it was amazingly clear.  

It was 15 to 17 mph gusting winds so I had several concerns with taking my son bass fishing.  The frustrations of trying to manage boat in the wind plus a neophyte fisherman was daunting.  After discussing with the two men, I decided to head in the cove marked in yellow first so I could hide from the wind as I showed my son what to do.  I had got him some minnows and rigged him up with a bobber and then we tied off with an anchor that the two men had brought me.

I had casted my green jig with a red rage tail trailer and let it soak while I was assisting him.  When I turned my attention back I had a bass. Unfortunately the bass had completely swallowed the jig.  Should I pull the jig out or put him back in the lake with the jig in his stomach?  I decided to pull it out and it was a mistake. He was clearly going to die now.  I was not sure what to do with respect to the rules of the club because he was clearly going to die but he was over the slot limit.  I put him on the stringer and he died within a few minutes.  I took him home.  We spent the most time in this cove because it provided the best protection from the wind.  Caught 4 bass by a cypress tree that had fallen in the water.  (all were between 2 to 2.5 lbs.  No bites at all on the minnow.  I also caught 3 bluegill on the fly rod using a popper dropper with a bee colored bug and a bream killer on the 18 inch dropper.  One of the bluegills was larger than my hand.

With the wind calming down we moved to the blue cove.  We first have an encounter with a 6 foot long diamond back water snake and then watch a goose laying down beside us.  I caught two bass on some rocks that we could just barely see but the bluegill kept stealing the claws off my trailer so I switched to the fly rod hoping to get my son a catch.  I make a long cast and was handing the pole to my son when a bass knocked the pole out of my hands.  I picked it up and handed it back to him.  As soon as we had a good hold on the rod the bass broke the line.  It was clearly the largest fish of the day, maybe a 4 pounder.  I was more disappointed than he was.  That would have been cool.

We moved to the red cove. We could see bass cruising through the grass and around the boulders fairly well at this point.  He was full time trying to spot them now.  I caught 3 culls and lost a couple more dinks in less than 10 minutes.  My son was having fun trying to film me catching a fish.  The wind died to zero.  So did the activity on the water. So did the bites.

Its approaching 6:00 PM and we move to the green cove because i want to throw some top water before we leave.  In route, I was trying to explain to my son that with a jig the bass sort of suck it in so sometimes you can barely feel it or you just notice that the line feels different or maybe the lines moves in an unusual way. With a frog the water splashes rather loudly at times. It will startle you if you aren’t paying attention. My son says, “ohhhhh whateverrrrr”. A few minutes later we approach some grass.  I switch to the hollow body frog and cast into a likely ambush point. As soon as it touches the water, the water violently explodes. You could clearly see a bass tail flicking the frog away. My son lets out a high pitch yelp and jumps back rocking the boat back nearly falling out. I laugh. We laughed hard. He turns back and looks at me and says with a very serious look, “we will never speak of this again.”

Good first trip for my son.  He was disappointed that he didn't catch anything especially since I told him he had a better chance than me using minnows.  Its just the way it goes sometimes.

Final note:  It was not clear how to store the boat the two men brought.  It had life jackets, trolling motor, paddles, and an anchor.  The weather forecast was rain so I took everything out and then turned the boat over  You cant turn it over flat because the seats don't come out and would sit on the seats.  I leaned it against the 2 man plastic boat.  I placed all the gear under the boat.

All pictures taken by Jake Daniels.