Wedding Bells and Hurricane Bass

            I want to start out by saying, “CONGRATULATIONS RICH AND CARRIE CHARLESTON!!!!!”  My old (31) fishing partner finally tied the knot on September 6, 2008 but before he put on his ball and chain (JUST KIDDING) we had to go fishing.  Nothing was going to stop us from wetting a line, not even Tropical Storm Hanna.  I’ve always wondered how a tropical depression would affect bass behavior.

            Rich and I woke up at 5:15 am and headed for Falls Lake in Rich’s new home state, North Carolina.  Falls Lake is a 12,500 acre dammed up section of the Neuse River located just outside of Raleigh.  We launched Rich’s Stratos just as the outer bands of Tropical Storm Hanna swept over our heads.  I was a little worried but overall very excited. 

We made a short run after we launched and started our day fishing around an island with top water baits.  There were fish busting all around us but we couldn’t get one to bite.  We switched baits a bunch but still we didn’t get any bites.  We decided we needed to find a pattern instead of running the bank the whole day.  We started by fishing lay downs with jigs and brush hogs but nothing came form it.  Next, we decided to fish a small rock point with drop shot rigs.  Rich caught our first bass but it was small.  We ended up catching four small bass from the rocky point. 

Knowing that the fish could possibly be relating to rocky points we decided to fish as many as we could find.  We could only manage to catch small bass so we had to make an adjustment.  The wind was starting to pick-up considerably so we targeted rocky bluffs with crankbaits.  I had our first keeper on but it came off because I wasn’t prepared for the bite. 

We continued down the bluff when Rich’s rod doubled over and he yelled, “Here we go, Whoa!!”

It was a monster largemouth!  It made a couple runs for deep water but never jumped.  I was so flustered that I could hardly get the net ready.  After a short fight I netted Rich’s huge bass.  It ended up weighing 8 pounds even.  Now we had something going.  We spent the rest of the afternoon running windy, rocky, bluffs casting cranks for the rest of the day. 

Rich managed to catch a couple more 2-3 pound fish before my Norman’s crankbait was attacked by a giant bass.  I was talking on the phone with my wife about not being late for the wedding rehearsal and using my hip to reel.  My crank bumped a rock and stopped dead in its tracks.  The bass immediately ran for deep water.  Again it never jumped.  After a short fight, some yelling and screaming, the bass was in the boat.  It was a 25 inch 7 pound largemouth that had my DD22 Norman’s crankbait in engulfed in its mouth.  We had had two humongous bass in the livewells and five fish that weighed more than 25 pounds.

I wish we could have stayed out longer but Rich would have been divorced before he was married and there was also a possible hurricane about to hit.  It was a good decision to call it a day.  We had a very memorable time on the water and I was able to hold two of the biggest bass I’ve ever held in my life.  Now I can tell you with all certainty that bass feed right before tropical storms.  Congrats again Rich and Carrie!!!!!