[.Steve]

After reading so many reports on Lake Arlington, I decided to pay it a visit yesterday morning, and followed it up again this morning.

I've read that many of you have luck on the north finger, so that's where I headed. You'll be able to see exactly where I was on one of the pictures. Basically, looking across the lake to the the beach/boat docks.

I used a 5" Senko both days, both in watermelon and black/blue flake. Both worked great. Hell, they got me bass.

Here is the 1st of 3 caught on Monday.

From my "welcome" thread, you'll notice I'm wearing gloves, and not lipping the bass.

This was the first of today, I flagged down some cute lady jogging, asked her to take a picture.

Again, look how I'm holding it, with gloves. :lol:

This is the 2nd of today.

Finally grew a set, and lipped it. No offense intended, but seeing young people like James and other pictures here might have started to cure my fear of fish.

And the 3rd today. I released the 2nd bass, and immediately cast right back to where I caught him, hoping to maybe catch another. As soon as the senko hit the water, there was a loud splash. Bobber sunk to the pits of the lake. My line was all screwed up, because I hadn't even flipped the bail yet. So my drag is screaming, I'm freaking out. How the hell am I supposed to pull in this monster with just my bare hands?

I drop the pole, put my foot on it so it didn't go swimming with the fish, put on my gloves, and started reeling it in by hand. To the joggers/bikers/roller-bladers, it must have looked like a movie. This hawg was getting more air than Michael Jordan in a dunking contest. I'm glad I put on the gloves, or I would have gotten torn up. After what seemed like a good 10 mintues (probably only 30 seconds), landed her. EXTREMELY surprised when I pulled it out.

And here she is. :lol:

When I pulled it out of the water, I thought it was the same fish, because they both had a spot on its tail. Just now noticed that the spot is on opposite sides of it. Hmmm, I wonder what that is.

Here again the 3rd of today, held next to my 1 Liter of Mt. Dew for a size comparison.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Culprit]

Nice job dude,but lose the gloves its kinda weird lol

were u fishing senkos with a bobber ? :?

 

[.Steve]

I knew that I would get both of those comments.

I'm weaning myself off of the gloves. I'm working on it.

And for the bobber, I suck at fishing. I don't have the finesse yet to be able to tell when I hit bottom, or get a hit all the time, so I just set the bobber about 8-10 feet from the lure, and go from there. It is pretty f'n cool though, to cast out, wait a few seconds, and BAM!!! No more bobber.

 

[molson]

nice fish man, i was out there for an hour yesterday 5-6pm before work and got shit

 

[toothdoc]

Good job dude, but we gotta work on the bobber and the gloves.

 

[Danno]

Ahhh, so thats how you get the cute joggers to talk to ya.. Goood idea, catch a big ole bass and flag em down. Should work pretty good at Busse to.

Gotta try that sometime this week

Good job! Been seeing a few bass with those spots on them at just about every lake lately. I Have no clue what it is either.

 

[FishinMatt]

Nice work

 

[JasonN]

Nice job getting on them fish, Steve. The Senko bobber setup certainly is a new one on me but hey, you're just getting started and catching fish so props to you dude! I'm sure by the end of the summer you'll have some techniques down and the gloves will go back in the garage. Don't worry about it for now though, just have a great time catching fish!

 

[Augy]

dude, that's awesome! that's how we learn man. take your time and try all kinds of experiments. senko and bobber?? kinda interesting. hey, if it works then i'm all for it.

as for the glove, don't sweat it. just don't handle the fish too much with the gloves cause it could remove some of the protective slime coat.

now that you grew a set :lol: and lipped it with the glove, you know they will not bite down. ok, i take that back, they will bite down every once in awhile but even the biggest bass can't hurt you with his bite. you'll just have to cowboy up next and take the glove off. when you lip the bass, it just feels like really rough sand paper.

btw, the glove gotz to come off or you'll never get to wear the badge of honor "bass thumb". chicks dig guys with bass thumb. at least that what we like to think here at wcf. :mrgreen:

 

[ClancyWiggum]

Nice fish!!

I will tell you this, every time I come home from fishing my wife checks my thumb to see how well I did. Bass thumb is definitely a badge of honor.

 

[Big Al]

Don't worry about wearing gloves. I used to lip out fish, until one of them imbedded a treble hook into my thumb, down to the bone. Had to have it surgically removed, tendon damage, the whole works. If you are that squimish about lipping them out, go and pick up some boga grips. Berkley sells a small tacklebox size one with a tape measure for about $20.00

 

[.Steve]

I finally lipped a bass today. Caught a little dink, about 6-7 inches. The little ones wriggle more than the big ones do. But I lipped it. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. :lol:

Casting distance certainly does take a big hit using a bobber and senko. I think because the weight of the bobber causes a small "orbit" and therefore, less distance.

But like JasonN and a few others said, it's all part of the learning curve. At least I'm not getting skunked all the time. I have managed to go fishing for at least 2 hours a day over the past 11 days. The wife and I even went to Twin Lakes yesterday evening. Rented an aluminum boat with trolling motor for $9, for 2 hours. Got skunked, but it was still fun.

 

[.Steve]

I think I know what the spots on the tails are. Was on another forum and asked around. This was their response. Maybe the red sores look like the sores they get when they fan their beds.