This week I had the opportunity to fish with my cousin who is turning 16 soon. We went to a local lake that we both rode our bikes to many times to fish growing up. Jesse wanted to go out and fish it from the boat. We finished up work early and hit the water.
Started out right away throwing a Spro Frog and boated a 3 lb. 14 oz. largemouth on about the second cast. I then continued to pick up legal fish on the frog. Jesse had started with a Gary Yamamoto senko, which according to him is the only bait a guy should have in the boat. After I kept bringing bass in and Jesse kept not, I offered him a frog. He said no and continued to work the senko.
We crossed sides of the lake, and Jesse picked up his first three pounder of the night. Landed the fish and let me know that the senko is really where it was at. Now we had a contest. I was unaware at the time, but Jesse was keeping score and every fish counted, no matter if it was legal or not. Let me tell you, there are some tournaments that I really wish we were using Jesse's scoring practices. We then continued down the shoreline, and we were suddenly going fish for fish. Jesse caught up to me in numbers (I still had him in weight). He refused to put down the senko and had tremendous confidence in it.
This was a good lesson for me to relearn in this part of the season. It reminded me that any bait can be the best bait for any person at a particular time if you give it a chance. I have a lot of baits in my boat, and sometimes if something isn't working I'll jump baits faster than I should. Sometimes blind confidence is enough to produce big bites.
As the sun started to set, we moved to an open water rock line. Jesse asked me, "Now what are you going to do with that frog?" Told him that I was going to work it and outfish him in the open water. We continued to go fish for fish. In the end, in a tournament based on quantity and not quality, my cousin Jesse beat me by one fish, all on the senko and I never put down the frog.
Started out right away throwing a Spro Frog and boated a 3 lb. 14 oz. largemouth on about the second cast. I then continued to pick up legal fish on the frog. Jesse had started with a Gary Yamamoto senko, which according to him is the only bait a guy should have in the boat. After I kept bringing bass in and Jesse kept not, I offered him a frog. He said no and continued to work the senko.
We crossed sides of the lake, and Jesse picked up his first three pounder of the night. Landed the fish and let me know that the senko is really where it was at. Now we had a contest. I was unaware at the time, but Jesse was keeping score and every fish counted, no matter if it was legal or not. Let me tell you, there are some tournaments that I really wish we were using Jesse's scoring practices. We then continued down the shoreline, and we were suddenly going fish for fish. Jesse caught up to me in numbers (I still had him in weight). He refused to put down the senko and had tremendous confidence in it.
This was a good lesson for me to relearn in this part of the season. It reminded me that any bait can be the best bait for any person at a particular time if you give it a chance. I have a lot of baits in my boat, and sometimes if something isn't working I'll jump baits faster than I should. Sometimes blind confidence is enough to produce big bites.
As the sun started to set, we moved to an open water rock line. Jesse asked me, "Now what are you going to do with that frog?" Told him that I was going to work it and outfish him in the open water. We continued to go fish for fish. In the end, in a tournament based on quantity and not quality, my cousin Jesse beat me by one fish, all on the senko and I never put down the frog.