Outdoor Revelations Bill Cooper 6/15/16 Bass Fishing in the Rain Some of my most memorable fishing trips have been in the rain. Other memorable trips have been with youngsters. Recently I combined the two for one of the most enjoyable trips I have ever experienced. Eighteen year old Julian Brown and 15-year-old Keegan Finch joined me for a day of bass fishing on a nearby lake. The boys live down the rod from me. The pair of anxious fishermen walked up to my house about 7:30 a.m. It had begun raining softly. We elected to cook a big breakfast of sausage, fried potatoes, eggs and toast and hoped that in the meantime the rain would stop. The big breakfast filled the bill for the energy we would need for the day that lay ahead of us. However, to make sure we survived, the boys made up a batch of sandwiches to take long. Rain pelted down steadily as we pulled out of my driveway. However, everyone’s spirits were high. We were determined to go fishing. As we broke into view of the remote lake, the chattered excitedly about the prospects of catching lots of fish fro the beautiful 10acre lake that lay before them. Julian and Keegan are both originally from Texas and hd not had the opportunity to do a lot of fishing. They were in for the thrill of their lives. I had fished the lake numerous times and knew that it was full of largemouth bass, which usually eager to hit a lure. We rigged three rods each, with a different lure on each. We could readily fish the top, middle and bottom of the water columns. Keegan and I teemed up in a canoe. Julian sailed alone in a kayak. I was still rigging rods when Julian took off paddling parallel to the dam of the lake. He intended to catch the first fish. I rigged one of Keegan’s rods with a Fluke, which he hd not fished previously. I made one cast along the shoreline, before we shoved off, to demonstrate to him how to fish the Fluke. A Fluke is a minnow shaped piece of plastic, which sinks slowly and when twitched slightly, darts to and fro like dying minnow. They are deadly. Keegan gasped with disbelief as respectable bass rolled up on my first cast. I missed the strike. We shoved the canoe off of the bank. Rain continued to pepper down. I paddled to put Keegan into perfect casting position. I explained that he needed to cast the weedless Fluke as close to the shoreline as possible, right into the tangles of weeds and brush. He kept casting his lure about two feet short of the target. I instructed him to watch my cast. The Fluke landed six inches from the shore amidst a clump of sedge grasses. I twitched the Fluke one time and let it sink. My rod arched and I set the hook. The scrappy bass managed to throw the hook. Keegan and I laughed and moved on. When we caught up with Julian, he had not had strike. He asked what we were throwing, but Keegan was reluctant to tell. I told Keegan we were going to paddle on across the face of the dam to quickly get to the east bank. I had caught a lot of bass there the week previous. I pointed out a break in the shoreline vegetation and told him to cast his bait into that spot. Keegan made a perfect cast. The water erupted and he had his first bass of the day hooked. He yelled at Julian to watch. The fish came off. “There’s plenty more” I instructed. A few casts later, Keegan was hooked up again. He lost that fish, too. On my next cast, I hooked one and managed to land it. The action was heating up, so Julian paddle over to join in on the fun. What occurred over the next three hours proved nothing less than phenomenal. The rain continued and apparently put the fish into a feeding frenzy. We continued down the east bank, catching fish at a steady pace. As we approached the north end of the lake, hook-ups increased dramatically. One of us had a fish on almost constantly. A small creek enters the lake at the north end. Previous rains hd brought the lake up a bit and grassy flats were covered in water. New food constantly poured into the lake from the run off. Bass had stacked on the grass flats to intercept the new food sources entering the lake. The boys laughed and goaded one another as, bass, after bass after bass fell to their flukes. “This is so much fun,” they both kept repeating. Fun indeed. Even as many thousands of bass I had caught in my lifetime, few times had I ever seen bass that active. Then with the thrills the boys were enjoying, the day quickly became one of the most memorable trips of my life. I tied on a topwater Sammy lure. I hooked good bass on my very first cast. The boys switched, too. Topwater fishing is as fun as it gets and Keegan and Julian received a baptism extraordinaire. As a dark cloud approached from the south, I indicated that we needed to get off the lake. Their moans sounded like thunder rumbling. I explained that we had boated well over 150 bass and had hooked and lost many ore than that. We had, in fact, enjoyed a day of bass fishing like few people have ever enjoyed. Half way across the lake, the rain came down in sheets. We looked like a trio of drowned rats by the time we reached the truck. We kept just enough fish for a fish fry. The boys helped clean the catch and I soon had filets bubbling in hot oil. My only regret. I wish I’d had a recorder on to capture the tails those two told during dinner. I’m sure they will tell their grandchildren about the day they caught a 150 bass in the rain.