Last Thursday was a special day for all Americans. On this day we embrace our independence by doing whatever we choose because we don’t have work.
What better way to celebrate 4th of July then to go bass fishing two times in one day with a good buddy? Well that is exactly what I did.
It was 5:30 am and I had just slept through my second alarm when my roommate/fishing partner woke me up in an abrupt fashion.
“Ohh my God wake up.”
“Could you take any longer”
“The sun is rising”
“Boneeee”
These deep cutting words were not the easiest to wake up to, but nonetheless I was awake.
And ready.
I quickly scrambled up some eggs, made a sammy, and we headed out the door.
The Atchafalaya Basin was our destination and we were excited to get in the water. We literally drove the truck up the levee, got our kayaks out the back, suited up, and slid into the swamp.
Fish were hitting the top of the water all around us. I am not normally a huge topwater fisherman, but I had to try with all this action happening.
I tied on a hollow-bodied frog and begin to cast into the thicc of the vegetation.
Boom!
On my third cast a bass violently hit the frog and, to be honest, scared me a little bit. Kayak fishing in the swamp during alligator mating season definitely keeps me on edge.
Unfortunately I was not able to hook the fish, but the blowup was a good sign for the day ahead of us. I threw the frog for about 30 more minutes and got 4 more blowups to no avail.
It was time to switch to my bread and butter, a Texas-rigged gold flake worm. The sun was shining and this natural colored bait looked irresistible in the water.
After about 20 minutes I caught my first bass and I was lit, even though it only weighed 14 ounces.
Whatever, I’ll take it.
As it got hotter I decided to start casting way back into the Cypress trees. I was thinking that the bass would be trying to get out of the hot Louisiana summer sun.
I was right.
6 bass in total. The biggest weighed 2 lbs. It was a good day. But now we were faced with a different obstacle: hunger.
I am not lying when I tell you that I have never been more hungry than I was on that hot summer day in July. We were about a 2 mile paddle away from the truck when we decided that we have to make a move for food.
We called restaurant after restaurant, but no one was open because it was the 4th of July. Duh.
Suddenly the greatest idea I have ever had hit me.
“Lets go get unlimited sushi.”
“Are they open?”
“Are y’all open?”
“Dude they’re open.”
“Let’s go!!!!!!!”
$16.99 of all off the sushi we could possibly eat. They definitely lost money on us that day. And we were dirty and stunk up the restaurant. Oh well.
Nap time.
3 hours later I woke up on the couch and got ready for round two.
Lake Martin was our next destination. We got there around 7:30 pm, so we had about an hour to fish.
The water was dirty and there was not much action happening. I was able to hook one before we headed in, but unfortunately I did not land the fish. It did jump out of the water before shaking the hook which was pretty cool.
Even though we didn’t catch any it was still nice to be on the water for a beautiful sunset.
I hope y’all enjoyed 4th of July as much as I did. Remember to celebrate the small things in life, like a day off of work.
Thanks for reading.
Reel Finesse 