had a few hours to fish today.

[KenDammit]

Went around noon, fished til 3. Wasn't much of an exciting day. I was beginning to doubt the existence of bass in my pond after having blanked the last 5 or so times I went.

Checked the water temp before starting fishing and its moved up into the 50's..56 to be exact. I was a little rusty with my gear at first..having not fished pretty much all winter. Couldn't get distance with the baitcaster for crap to start off..but eventually got back in the flow

Tried X-raps, no takers, slow rolling spinnerbaits...no takers, tubes...no takers. Finally got down to using the shakey head, and had a bass around 8" dart out from under some blown over cattails trying to eat it. Was so close to me that I really couldn't react to set the hook since I was trying to take the bait out of the water and re-cast. Gave me hope though since I actually saw a bass. Finally came to the end of the day..water temp had risen to 58 degree's with the sun...threw a black horny toad(fishing it as a swimmer/on the bottom) right into the cattails, or so I thought. I took a couple turns of the handle and thought I was hung up. Right after I thought that, it started pulling back and swimming towards the middle of the pond..so I set the hook and started reeling, lol. The little guy was probably 10" or so..and since I was so close to a wall of cattails, my line was actually in them and it was a struggle just to get him in my hands and free him. Luckily he was unharmed and I let him loose..but it sure did feel good to get the first fish of 2006 out of the way! I predict spawning temps within the next two-three weeks here.