I recently joined this board after reading its great articles and reports. Please keep in mind that I'm really a novice bass fisherman.

Yesterday afternoon I was visiting a friend who lives by an Orange County homeowners' lake. I've promised not to give the lake's location, since it has tight security and very uptight homeowners. Badges are required. :(

Before visiting, my bud suggested that I bring some of my recently purchased freshwater bass gear to try my luck, while he and his son worked on their Christmas lights.

Walked the shore for two hours without even a tap. Tried small Assalt jigs, cranks and Robo finese worms on clear Trilene XL, 10 lb. test (color marked the first three feet with felt markers). Nada. Water visibility was about 1 ft., and the water was highly stained.

Decided to change to "Lunker" Bill Murphy mode and stitching. I recently read his book. Took out a 6" Chocolate (blue vein) Muscle Worm and threaded it on a #2 Gammi (ultra thin wire) drop shot hook. I know the hook part sounds ridiculously small vs. the size of the worm, but there is an exact way to thread it which works.

Twenty minutes passed and still nothing. Each retrieve is achingly slow. The effectiveness of stitching is in the slow presentation.

Then, wham... :D I was so excited that now I was entering the annals of bass fame by actually getting a hit from one of these critters. I had a hard time remembering to let the fish play out the slack line. After a few minutes fight I netted it in my C&R wide mouth net. (I may not be very good, but I am prepared.)

While my catch is nowhere near the size of the bass reported on this board, I was still stoked. Like I had actually followed everything "Lunker" mentioned, right down to buying his worms (Lunker City). The fish weighed 5 lb. 7 oz. on my digital scale. Hey, dudes, it's a start. LOL.

Then came the fun. Trying to pull-out the digital camera from my backpack, unwrapping it and getting a shot for the hot sticks on CalFish. Like -- what good is catching without a pic? This was hard, since my pal (the bass) was camera shy. (There wasn't a soul out there fishing to assist me; therefore it was hold the fish in one hand and snap pic with the other.) Gotta get this routine down better.

In all, I'm now a stoked and a confirmed bass pro. Going to buy all the swimbaits at BWW with my Christmas $$ and get my picture in WON (like Swimbait), after catching my first 10 lb. toad. Yeah...Right..

By the way, my catch is back in the pond and enjoying the holidays.

Please take the above with an "tongue and cheek" attitude. Meant only to spread a little laughter. This being my first post, I hope the picture part works. :7


Happy and safe holidays everyone.

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East lake is the place

Fish all day
Read about fishing and type reports at night

Awesome report man, welcome to the site. You seem to be off to a great start, if there's anything we can help you with don't hesitate to ask on the board, or email. Most of us probably caught our first bass on some type of info-mercial, powerbait, bill dance contraption, and you've probably got the biggest first bass out of all of us! Mine was a 12"er on a rebel wee frog. Congrats on the toad, there's no turning back now....
-Brian

I fished for more than 7 years before getting one over 5lbs. Thats one helluva way to come out of the gate. I'll give you a little advice....Work diligently towards mastering finesse fishing and you will be 10 times as successful on the water. Its to the point now that no matter what pattern I'm fishing, I'm doing it with finesse and attention to detail. From swimming jigs to flipping and pitching cranks; hit every angle twice, even three times or more before moving to your next target. If I had a dollar for everytime someone pulled a winning fish from behind me..........

Here fishy, fishy, fishy......

Clay