There’s an old saying that states something like “there’s no such thing as a bad day fishing.”
But any angler will take that a step further by acknowledging that a day of fishing is certainly better when it also becomes a day of catching.
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to do some farm pond fishing on a perfect spring afternoon at a friend’s property in eastern Texas County. He said he figured we could catch some fish in the remote body of water, probably even some bass.
Man, he wasn’t kidding.
With the temperature at about 68 degrees, almost no wind blowing and no humidity in the air to speak of, we headed out in his UTV and traveled a bit less than a mile to where the pond lies. I had my tackle box with me, which is pretty well stocked with virtually all manner of artificial lures.
I assumed my host would have some sort of opinion about what I should toss into the water, so I asked him what he thought I should use. After observing the various options, he pointed at a particular plastic worm and made a suggestion.
“Yellow usually works well around here,” he said.
That statement turned out to be pretty prophetic.
After attaching the bright, wiggly lure to my line, I stepped up on the side of the pond we both identified as possibly a good spot to begin our quest. I hadn’t cast a line for a while, so I pretty much missed where I was aiming on the first try.
But on my second cast, the worm dropped in the water right about where I intended, just a short distance out from a row of reeds along the edge. As I reeled in, nothing happened – until something happened.
When my lure was about two-thirds of the way back to where I was standing, I got a strike. But it wasn’t just an ordinary pond fish that had locked onto the fake yellow target; the way my pole was bent, we could tell it was obviously something with some bulk.
Houston resident Doug Davison holds up a sizable largemouth bass caught in a pond in the Yukon area.
“Holy cow!” I said. “Look at this!”
My friend quickly grabbed his phone and snapped some photos and shot some video. I got the big largemouth bass to the shore and picked it up by its ample jaw.
“Dang, that’s awesome!” I said.
The fish had to be in the neighborhood of three pounds.
“That’s definitely a nice one,” he said. “I knew there were bass in here, but I guess I didn’t realize they were like that.”
After releasing my momentary aquatic buddy, we both settled in for more. Moments later, I pulled in an even bigger bass.
Then my friend (using a tan plastic worm) got what was obviously an even bigger strike and landed what was surely a whopper bass from anyone’s perspective. The beast was surely close to a four-pounder.
“My gosh, this is unreal!” I said.
Before we were done, we both ended up catching several of the largemouth beauties, but something else that took place during our outing really surprised me. I got a pretty big strike and expected another bass to be on the end of the line, maybe a bit smaller this time, but as it came within view we could tell it was something highly unexpected: A huge pumpkinseed sunfish.
And I mean huge; the thing was bigger than any pumpkinseed I’ve ever caught – big enough to hit a yellow plastic worm and put up an impressive fight. Before we left, I reeled in another big sunfish and my friend got one, too.
We released everything we caught, but I know from experience that four or five of those big pumpkinseeds would make for a heck of a fish-fry.
Anyway, going “catching” that day was an experience I won’t soon forget and will I’m sure be a topic of discussion between the two of us for quite some time. At least, until we do it again.
May all your fishing days be enjoyable and may all your bass be beautiful.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald.
Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.