Can you catch them again?

[gpfishingdude]

I was fishing a heavily stained power plant lake that had been a strip mine many years before. I had heard that they were catching big stripers from shore but by the time I got there a week later the bite was off so I tried casting lures for bass. I didn't have much luck in the cooler water the farthest from the power plant so I motored over to the side where the water warmed up to 79* along the side of an island and trolled a crankbait. I thought I snagged up at first so I dropped the motor in neautral and then it started moving and I couldn't believe that it was pulling that hard. I managed to get it near the boat when it dove under the boat I was afraid that it would get wrapped around the motor leg so I was pulling pretty hard to keep it from getting wrapped and my 7' medium heavy rod was bent pretty good. I started saying "Oh let me see what it is at least." Then it started coming up and just as it got to the surface the hooks pulled out but I did get to see that it was a largemouth bass all I got to see was part of it's head and one side as it rolled back down into that heavily stained green water. My wife said I should have been saying, Oh at least let me get it into the boat and get a picture of it." I don't know if that fish will ever hit another lure after battling it out for so long and then having the hook come out. Should I wait a couple of weeks and try again? If so would you use the same lure or try something different?

 

[coolbri70]

Re: Can you catch them again?

i've caught lots of fish that had old hooks/lures still in them. i think i was told 2 weeks it takes em to forget

 

[JB]

Re: Can you catch them again?

I have caught large mouth bass that had broken off just an hour or so earlier and still had my hook and some line in its mouth.

 

[LongLine]

Re: Can you catch them again?

I've caught salmon on Lake Ontario that had lures still in their mouths. I've also caught caught smallmouth bass that have had major lip/jaw damage.

Tom B.
(LongLine)

 

[gm280]

Re: Can you catch them again?

Oh go try again now. Who knows you could catch the same one or even his friend that is just a bit larger. Never stop, there are more then one large bass there...

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: Can you catch them again?

Tuesday was the last day I have been out. We have had wind and torrential rain for several days around here followed by cold sleet and snow. So I have spent most of my time in the driveway underskinning the pontoon boat. The nasty weather doesn't want to let go easily but the weather is supposed to be milder for awhile. The power plant lake is designed so that it catches wind to cool the water so anything above 15MPH winds makes it dangerous to be out there. I'm hoping to get out there a few days this week and give it another try.

 

[1980Galaxy]

Re: Can you catch them again?

I was fishing a drop shot and hooked up with an 11" smallmouth bass when all of a sudden a muskie latched on to him. After a long battle, the muskie finally let go and i brought in the mangled smallie... Two days later I was doing the same thing and caught the same smallie... still beat up and still hungry. I know it was the same one because I took a picture of him the first day and compared the two. Yes, they will bite again...

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: Can you catch them again?

Between all of the cold, heavy rain and wind around here I haven't been back on the lake. The weather is supposed to warm up for a awhile now so I'm figuring on going after them again. The day I hooked into that bass was the second mild day in a row. I have had a lot of time to get ready to go back now. I have been studying a map of the lake and have some interesting places to try the next time. I have been getting the 16' starcraft boat set up better too. I have a bow mount trolling motor and a pedestal seat in the front now. Nice to hear all of those stories about catching them again. That smallmouth was having a really bad day being hooked and having a muskie chomping on him too.

 

[MolsonCanadian]

Re: Can you catch them again?

Where are you? Our bass season doesn't open until the end of June.

 

[Petey742]

Re: Can you catch them again?

Like pretty much everyone else has said, use the same setup as before. I actually went fishing the next day after a bass had broken my daughter's line above the bobber. It still had the hook in it's mouth and the bobber still attached. Makes for really cool fish stories.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: Can you catch them again?

Where are you? Our bass season doesn't open until the end of June.

I'm in Illinois and if you can catch them through the ice it's legal. I think we do have seasons on small mouth bass and some other species though Maybe in certain bodies of water too. I try to be sporting about the fish I catch though, no dynamite, or netting, and if I snag a fish it is just by accident. I just go after the big ones and if I catch one I take a picture and release them.

 

[greenbush future]

Re: Can you catch them again?

Had a salmon break off in the AM, then trolled all day and hooked the same fish (on the same rod) right at the end of the day. Still had the spoon we lost in his choppers!! When you fish on the great lakes, the odd's of this are off the charts, but it did happen. Fish aren't that smart, all they do is swim, eat and reproduce. Not much more to it IMO.

 

[stevecur]

Re: Can you catch them again?

Last Saturday was fishing with a friend. I ended up catching about a 15 pound snapping turtle. Got him to the boat and cut my leader and let him keep my hook. Twenty minutes later my friend catches a turtle. Still has my hook in his mouth. Now he is swimming around with two hooks.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: Can you catch them again?

The last time out my wife was reeling in a bluegill and a northern or muskie grabbed it and hung on for a while. She was about jumping up and down yelling LOOK-LOOK. I took her bluegill off her hook and hooked it onto my line with a big hook and bobber and it hit once and I missed it then the bluegill was about dead and floating up and it hit it again. That time I set the hook and he started to fight but cut the line. I'm taking some steel leaders along today. I didn't even know there were toothy critters in this lake.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: Can you catch them again?

I never hooked into that big bass again that I was asking questions about. I tried a few times and talked about it so much that my neighbor started calling it my great white whale. The water in the power plant lake has gotten so hot now that I don't enjoy fishing it, so we are fishing a strip mine lake now where the water is 63* and clear. The weather has been great lately, cool mornings and warm days and the best part is that we can fish or I can work on the boat without bugs bothering us yet.