It can't always be about money

Yesterday I decided to get out and go fishing; the air was cool, the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, and when we got to the pond it had 6 feet of algae that had been pushed up against/grown around every bank. Conditions were not very great to say the least.

A storm had just rolled through less than an hour before we got there, so the fish had gone down deep from the barometric pressure. I put on a shallow diving crankbait and cast out towards the center, hoping for a bite. The pond is in the middle of a cow pasture and has a 25-ish foot dock. The water is extremely clear, and last time we went in the late spring we caught almost 30 fish.

The crankbait came back covered in grass; it was every where in the pond except the center, growing all the way up almost to the surface. I checked my tacklebox, and though I did have a few top water baits I was all out of soft plastic frogs. The dock wasn't cutting it, so we decided to walk the bank and try our luck.

Plenty of time to think about random things when you're sloshing through muddy cow pasture, or you can just let go of your thoughts and experience nature. We came up on a small drain tile surrounded by rock, and I figured "Why not". A few casts in that area gave us three small bass; it was a start.

Fishing through a carpet of algae isn't fun, and you end up spending more time cleaning the bait off than you do trying to fish. It got to the point where I would retrieve the lure all the way to the edge of the algae and then pop it up and out of the water onto the bank beside me. Apparently that was all it took.

As my lure approached the edge of the algae, I would poss for just a second as I got ready to jerk the bait out of the water. That momentary dip was all it took for a bass to decide it was worth the bite. The motion I was going to make to get a clean bait back was an accidental hook set that worked out beautifully. Another bass, 16 inches long, to throw back in the water and we moved on down the bank.

I ended up finishing the day out having caught 17 fish; mostly large mouth but a couple of Kentucky bass as well. It's an awesome feeling when you have a day like that, and I think more people need to get out and experience it. I wrote an E-book a while back about the very basics of fishing and how/why to get started. I put it up free for Kindle Unlimited members, so if you're interested then give it a read. Be gentle, I haven't been a writer very long. Click on the picture below to check it out on Amazon (Total disclosure, I am an Amazon Affiliate - but it's my own product.)

If you liked this article then check out some of my other ones about fishing and other hobbies, making money from home/online, generating passive income streams, reviews, and much more in The Blog! where I make a post 6 days a week.