I fished at Yates Place after bailing out my pond boat from the overnight rain. When I started fishing around 6:00 a.m, the lake was calm, the skies were overcast, and I was ‘pumped’ for one of the big mamma bass for which the lake is so famous. Alas, it was not to be - although I had my chances. I hooked two DDs that I just couldn’t get into the boat. The first one hit a 6” Huddleston swim bait at 2:30, and when she jumped, I almost had a heart attack. The fish was absolutely huge. As far as I can tell, I did everything right. I kept the line tight, loosened my drag a little, got the net ready, and kept my rod in the water to try to keep her from jumping again….but to no avail. She came out of the water again, not 2 feet from the boat and net. I know that bass are “usually bigger in the water than they are in the boat,” but my 63 years of bass fishing, I’ve seen my share of DDs, and I know that fish would have weighed at least 12 pounds. Big head, big shoulders and body, huge stomach/girth, and big tail.  Unfortunately, she got enough leverage from the heavy, single hooked swim bait to toss it back at me. Oh, my, but what a fish! Her mouth must have been at least 8” across in every direction. I was so upset that all I could do was to just sit there in shock. I think I probably said something I shouldn't. After my adrenaline finally returned to some semblance of a normal level, I continued fishing. It was another hour before another strike, which is about what happened all day. This fish hit a black/blue flake, unweighted, wacky-rigged 5” Senko as soon as it splashed down in about 2 feet of water by a reedy bank. I could tell right off that it was another big bass. She must have watched it coming down, for she hit before the worm could sink more than an inch. Ths surface strike showed me her size. The splash she created sounded like someone had thrown a washing machine into the lake. “OMG,” I thought – “another big one – maybe I can boat this one!” She then hung me up on a sunken log.  She still had enough slack to jump again, this time showing her entire body. Wow. No matter what I did, I’d have never gotten that one into the boat – my 20# braid  was tightly wedged in a crack in the log,  and neither the bass nor I could move it at all.  She was able to get off before I could move my boat to the log. Once again, I was the loser to one heck of a big Yates Place bass. After losing those two trophy fish, I was pretty much “snakebit” the rest of the day, and just couldn’t seem to do anything right. I was definitely rattled, and never hooked another fish.  Before I lost the first big girl, I had managed  to boat 4 decent fish in a long, hot morning of fishing – a 4-12 on a Sexy Shad Rattletrap, two just under 4 pounds that exploded on my purple buzz bait, and a 2-pounder that attacked an 8” Huddleston swimbait. I also boated 4 dinks and 3 nice bass just under 14” long, all of which were harvested. I’ll return, of course, always hoping to finally get one of those sows into the boat.

The water temp varied from 82.6^° to 83.8^°, which was quite cool compared to the weather. The heat index was 103^°, but the rain Friday night cooled the lake down. Water visibility was about 12-18” throughout the lake.

What worked:  big swim baits, buzz bait, black/blue flake Senko, sexy shad Rattletrap

What didn’t:  Senkos of any other color, small swim baits, Rattletraps of any other color, deep crankbaits, squarebills, HB frog and perch, 12” worm, 5” Pit Boss , chatter bait, single spin

As always, DeWayne and Kay were perfect hosts, and the property was impeccable.

Posted By: Tom Dillon