Camping and Fishing Adventures

Bass fishing at its BEST!

I’ll be the first to admit that catching bass is not a major priority, and I don’t fish for bass like I see most bass fishermen fishing.  So these might be small to those hard core bass fishermen.

You see, I like catching many other types of fish like Tilapia, Bluegill, Warmouth, Mayan Cichlids, etc.  Mostly because these type fish are a lot easier to catch and taste just as good.

I do however return a lot of fish that I hook into because of size mostly, but now and then there comes along a fish that I won’t throw back, and it’s marked for dinner!

Since we do a lot of camping and fishing here in Florida, we arrived on Wednesday afternoon and immediately set up our RV.  Then we decided to launch our little Sea Eagle inflatable and check out how the fish were biting.  It was a little bit of a shock to see that fishing was very slow.  If I didn’t get a bite for 30 seconds or so, we’d move to another patch of lily pads!  I guess we’re kind of spoiled since we usually experience bites within seconds after dropping a nice, juicy worm in front of all those hungry fish.

You see, my beautiful wife Karen and I were camping at South Bay RV resort, which is at the South end of Lake Okeechobee here in Florida.  The next day was not only my birthday, but the fishing was unusually slow, so we proceeded to motor to one of our favorite areas.  A place where we’d caught bluegills, bass and even some big channel catfish in years past.  Not much luck there and for the rest of the day.  However, we did drive into Belle Glade and have a wonderful Chinese dinner!!

On Friday, August 2^nd, we repeated our launch routine and motored to another favorite spot we’d fished the day before.  Hardly any bites this day either, so we motored to another place on the lake, where I immediately caught a small bluegill.  After hooking it through the mouth and casting a short distance, I sat the rod down and proceeded to fish for other fish. 

It didn’t take long before the bobber with the bluegill started moving rather quickly.  I picked up the rod and pulled back as hard as possible.  I reeled in a bass that looked to be around 16” or 17”.  As it got right at our net, it literally spit out the bluegill and swam off.

We relocated a short distance, where I caught and hooked up another small bluegill.  About 10 minutes passed before the bobber went under and the line started moving.

This time I reeled in a 16” bass that actually made it into the net.  Finally, success at last.

The next day we repeated our routine and about 1-½ hours into our fishing day, another bass took the small bluegill.  This one was 17” and the hook literally fell out of its mouth as I was removing it from the net.

After calming down, I finally caught another baiter bluegill, hooked it up and let it swim freely, pulling the bobber all over the place.

It didn’t take long before the bobber went down again; so I picked up the rod and pulled strongly back three times. 

The fish was not only big and powerful it was stripping line faster than I could reel it in.  Then the unthinkable happened, it headed straight for the bushes and went deep inside before I could turn it around.

Finally, I managed to pull it out of the bushes and get it coming toward our boat, where Karen had the net ready. 

After about 15 minutes of fighting this monster, Karen netted it and let out a very loud yell of total excitement.

After placing my fingers under its gills, I lifted it out of the net only to see that the small bluegill was about 50% swallowed and the hook was right at the beginning of the stomach.

During the hook removal, the big bass swallowed so hard that my fingers got scraped up as I watched the bluegill’s tail almost disappear into the stomach.

When I measured this bass, I yelled again in excitement because it was 19” and the largest bass I’ve caught to date.  So, for that day, we took home a 17” and 19” bass that I later filleted. 

This type of fishing isn’t for everyone, but for us, it’s the most exciting way to catch bass and any of the other types we enjoy catching!  You see, we just love being in the outdoors!

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