Hot After Dark Action!

[The Bateman]

I went out with my tourny partner John, and his friends Matt and Jeff for a little late afternoon action Saturday. We started about 3 pm with texas rigged worms and caught small to medium sized bass sporadically, with a couple of 3 pound fish thrown in to keep it interesting. We started fishing the small lake, (which we nicknamed "stickmarsh"), just as another boat was leaving, so we knew we were fishing leftovers. We managed about 40 bass by 5pm, and decided to move to our crank bait lake.
To our surprise, there was already a boat on that lake as well - unusual for this small, private lake. We started in my favorite little cove, and caught small bass on our first 4 casts. The action remained steady with jerk worms and t-rigs. I was throwing a Storm swimbait in the deeper water, trying for our bragging rights prize for largest bass, but not getting many bites.
We were working our way to the ramp to leave at about sunset, but the other boat beat us there, so we trolled around casting Pop-R's and jerk baits while they loaded up. Suddenly a nice 3-4 pounder blasts my bait, but comes unbuttoned with his first leap into the air. As the darkness settled in, we fought off the mosquito's, and the top water action came alive. We could barely see our bait, but the unmistakable "baa-loosh" sound as a bass blasted our baits, had us all setting our hooks and laughing as one guy hooked up and 3 other baits came zinging back to the boat!
When the top water action slowed a little, I picked up a rattletrap and nailed a couple of nice 2 pound fish. Then, as I worked it erradically over a ridge in the middle of the lake, the lure suddenly stopped dead - and then my pole doubled over and drag started peeling off. In the dim light, we could see a huge outline clear the water and land with giant splash! I fought her all around the boat, and finally pulled her along side and got my hand in her mouth. She weighed in at 7 lbs 13 ozs. In the dark, it was going to be too difficult to get pics with the tape measure, so I skipped entering it in the bragging rights tourny in order to get her back in the water quickly. Maybe she'll be bigger if I catch her in the daylight in the future.
It was another one of those classic fishing trips with good natured kidding, and great fishing fun. Thanks to John Caitlin for bring the boat, and Matt and Jeff for the great fellowship!