Photos by Eddy Stahowiak
…the nonsense stops. Or something like that. Serious largemouth bass fishermen look at a falling barometer the same way my wife looks at a big sale at Macy’s: Drop everything and get out there.
That wasn’t exactly the reason why Eddy Stahowiak and I had planned to hit the water before work this morning, but as we launched the kayaks, Eddy said, “Watching the storms roll through last night, I had a good feeling about today.”
The fish weren’t big, but they were hungry. As the sun climbed over the trees and broke through the dark clouds, the hits came every other cast. We lost count of the pint-size pickerel, post-spawn perch and little largemouth bass that fell to our lures. It seemed like only a matter of time before one of us would hook into something larger, but when Eddy did, the fish’s final lunge under the kayak was enough to pull the hook free.
“A reason to come back,” Eddy said as we paddled to shore. And a reason to be late to work when the pressure drops.
That’s a recipe for a perfect day, a falling barometer, a blue chrome/fire orange HJ6 (or an HJ8) and an erratic stop and go retrieve. It’s probably my top trout/bass/pickerel/perch plug…and I’ve even caught a few fluke, stripers and stripers with the larger ones casting from the beach…
where were you fishing????