Private Lake Angling 4/7 - Ninja

[Lucky Bassturd]

Fished a private lake from 6 - 7:45AM with my 10 year old niece. I haven't been to this lake in about 6 months, so I wasn't sure what was happening there. I had tied on a small Cordell Spot for my niece and a Speed Trap for myself fish one area for about 15 minutes and got nothing. Gave my niece a wacky rigged Senko and 1st cast she gets bit, she hasn't fished in about a year so her hookset is the sloooooowwww pulllling deal, reel setting, which doesn't work well with plastic worms, so she farms it. She catches one 1 1/2-2lbs. a few cast later, but it's still too slow. So we move. She continues to get bit regularly on the Senko but still isn't grasping the hookset concept, so she is landing about 1 for every three bites. I throw a Storm swimbait and get several hard hits but fail to hook up, so I switch back to the Speed Trap. I start catching fish right away I catch 5 fish from 1 1/2 - 3 1/2 lbs on the trap. Times is running out on the clock , so I run the Trap past a structure point and I feel a nice heavy weight pull my rod tip down, "Nice Fish" I tell my niece as my line starts coming up to the surface, I drop my tip down to counter the fish heading upward, but I nice 4 pounder's head breaks the surface and spits my Trap right back at me.... I decide to pick up a jig and through right back, boom! There she blows, I hook her on the jig. Taking the hint I fire off "one" last cast with the jig in to some current and get hit on the fall, but when I set the hook it's too late...Fire "one" last cast same spot, fish on....Nice 2 1/2. Make one last cast.... BAM another fish same spot, 3 lbs. I feel like I'm possesed by Mike Ike at the end of one of his City Limits shows and I'm all crazy yelling at my niece, she looks at me like I'm nuts..... Anyway a fun day with my niece and always nice to catch a few nice bass.

Final count - My niece landed three and farmed ay least six, ouch! (need to teacher how to set the hook)
For myself 5 on the Speed Trap and 3 on the Jig.

[Fishbreath]

Sounds like fun. You know you can use an O-ring and circle hook on that wacky rigged Senko, and she would be doing it just right.

[Lucky Bassturd]

Fish Breath - Good call. Of all the "Stuff" I have in my tackle boxes, I left my the pony tail rubber bands I use for wacky rig O rings at home. I did think of that after losing two senkos on two fish. Like the circle hook idea. The best thing was after losing the 1st two Senkos, my niece finds a Senko copy bait on the ground and wouldn't you know it lasted the rest of the trip? I personally love Senkos, but some of the "fakes" do last a bit longer. I will take your advise for her next time. Thanks again.