Florabama Trip...

[kjackson]

I got back last Friday from a trip to a private lake in Alabama just north and west of Pensacola. Since I'm once again snowed in, I thought I'd write about it.

The lake is part of a resort and is managed for catch and release with some tight restrictions. First, you have to pay to play...usually by owning property and buying a fishing membership in the property. Second, you can only use boats that are on the lake--the owner doesn't want the chance of any stray nasties being carried in on other boats. While it is a small lake--about 200 acres or so--it is intensively managed, monitored and fertilized. It has largemouth bass and bluegills.

This was a trip with Shimano that was intended to highlight their new products: revised Curados, Metanium reels and Jackall, Shimano Expride, Crucial and G.Loomis IMX rods. The plan was for me to fly in on Sunday, fish the next two days and leave Wednesday morning. Another shift was scheduled to come in then and replace me and the other guests. Tuesday was expected to be on the cool side with a low of 19 and high in the upper 30s.

A buddy predicted fishing would be dirt slow because of the approaching cold front, and since the bass were Florida strain, they should be inactive. If what we found was "inactive", then I want to see 'em when they're at full speed.

Monday started slow with my partner, FLW pro Cody Meyer, running the trolling motor--electric motors only in the lake. We had a couple of bites, and I caught the smallest bass of the trip--a two-pounder-- when I trolled a crankbait as we moved from one spot to another. Then I hooked and landed what was the largest bass of the trip and my personal best--a 10-13 (in my avatar). It was on a Texas-rigged Jackall Cover Craw fished in some shallow stumps. Cody next popped a fish, around eight pounds. As we were moving back to the boathouse, I hooked another fish that tore off, pulling drag. It had shoulders; it fought much harder than the 10, and it fought harder than any of the other fish I caught on the trip. I didn't see it, so I can't even guess at weight, but 10 days or so before out trip, one of the members caught a 13-6. I also had another good bite just before we left the lake for lunch.

After lunch, I went out with the product development manager for Shimano, and he got on a jerkbait bite, using a Jackall Squirrel, a deep-diving jerkbait. I tied on a Jackall Muscle 7 with the idea that I could fish this very slowly through some of the same water. The word we got when we arrived at the lake was that a couple of days earlier, some guys had been tearing the bass up deadsticking lures by the dam. They even caught bass letting an A-rig lie on the bottom. So I though that a very slowly retrieved crankbait might work--and by slow, I mean about a crank per second.

Just after we launched, I hooked another big fish, but this one came to the surface about eight feet from the boat and looked to be larger than the 10-13 I landed earlier. The hooks pulled free before I could get it in netting range, but I did land one about nine, and as I recall another one that was slightly smaller. I also hooked and lost two other bass. My 'guide' also caught fish on the Squirrel. What was really fascinating was seeing the big bass coming up and busting shad on the surface. We'd hook one occasionally, but the surface activity was incredible--something I'd never seen. Robby (the Shimano product manager) said it was like what you'd see if you were chunking tuna and had a school right at the boat. Here were bass in the 5,6,7, 9-pound and larger category surfacing and working in a school on shad.

That night the freezing rain hit, and it was followed by snow. Temps dropped fast, and the morning was a lot colder than predicted--something in the lower teens. The roads were impassable, and walking outside was kind of tricky. We did make it down to the boathouse and hit the lake.

The surface activity was mostly gone, or if it was there, it was hidden by the wind that was blowing 15-25 mph. Talk about cold! It was brutal. Yet the bass were still biting. I don't recall exactly what I caught that morning, but there wasn't anything over eight in the morning session. In the afternoon, after getting warm and having lunch, I went out with the Shimano PR guy. I tied a Muscle 7 crankbait on his line and one on mine, and we headed out. I had two strikes. He had two as well, but he landed one of his, a 10-12 or 10-15, depending upon the scale bounce.

The next morning was my scheduled departure, and American Airlines assured me I was good to go until about a half hour before we needed to leave for the 40-mile drive to Pensacola. The flight was cancelled as the airport closed as did just about everything in the area. I spent about half the morning getting ready to leave and then the rest trying to find a flight out. I was shunted to a Friday flight out of Ft. Walton Beach. I fished that (Wednesday) afternoon, but I can't remember if I did much beyond trying to keep guides free of ice and my fingers from falling off.

The next day was a lot better, weather-wise. The wind was down, the clouds were holding off, and the fish were once again moving. Birds would show where the shad balls were, and by following them, we could get into fish. The morning was slow for us, but Robby, the product development guy, got into fish using a small jerkbait. Afternoon was better with the warming water and increasing air temps. Robby and his partner caught seven or eight fish, topped by three that were a few ounces shy of nine pounds. I landed one fish--a nice, chunky six-to-seven pound bass.

Again, I caught it on the Muscle 7, but it was slightly different. We'd seen bass moving in the back end of a little cove, and we fished our way back to it. I cast the crankbait out (my partner for this shift was using a jerkbait), and as the lure approached the boat, I saw a shad flip just in front of it. I killed the bait. Then I saw a swirl, so I set the hook and landed the fish. That was my last fish of the trip.

This wasn't a numbers trip by any standard. I think I caught fewer than a dozen bass, and I hooked maybe a dozen more plus maybe that many hits. The bass were barely nipping at the baits, which accounts, I think, for the loss of so many. I did have the honor of catching the smallest and largest bass taken on the trip. It was a great trip, and I wish I was there now...

I'll try to add some pix when I figure out how...I'm having trouble resizing and moving them to spot where I can attach.