Ever Had A Double?

February 6, 2004

A few weeks ago, I had a call from a member of the local Chamber of Commerce asking me if he could tag along on my next fishing trip.  I was pre-fishing for an upcoming Seniors Tournament, so I told him to meet me the next day at the ramp.  I was a little nervous because he had never been bass fishing before and I didn’t know what he would expect.  Unlike on TV, real bass don’t commit suicide on every cast.  Or do they? 

We left the ramp and ran to one of my favorite canals.  I knew the bass were beginning to move into the canals to bed and was hoping to find a few good ones.  It was a warm morning, so after settling down, I cast a Devil’s Horse top water lure toward a sea wall.  I wasn’t expecting much, but I decided to use a top water lure just to get my arms moving. 

I hadn’t moved the bait more than a few times when the canal exploded under my lure.  I struck the fish and immediately felt the weight of a big bass.  But something was wrong.   The fish stayed down and sort of just wiggled at the bottom of the canal.  I slowly worked the fish to the boat wondering what in the world I had hooked.  As the fish came to the top I was surprised to find two three-pound bass hooked on my lure.  To say the guy with me was impressed was an understatement.   It will take me a while to get over this guy telling everyone in Lake County that I catch two bass on every cast! 

In forty years of fishing, I have only had this happen three times.  The first time, I actually got to see how it happens.  I was 16 years old and fishing on a small catwalk hanging over a canal.    The bass were schooling directly under me and would come up every now and then to hit shad that were circling below.  When the shad would come to the surface, I would lower my lure into the water and catch one each time they came up.  One time, I lowered the lure and hung a bass that immediately ran out into the center of the canal and started jumping on top of the water.  I could see everything because I was at least 10 feet above the water.   In the middle of one of the jumps, a huge bass tried to take the lure away and got hung at the same time.     I was using a spinning rod with 10-pound test, but through some miracle I was able to work the two fish to the bank.   The bigger bass weighed 6 ¼ pounds and the small bass weighed about 3.   Now, why doesn’t that ever happen in a tournament?

 See you next week!

 Captain Phil Kelley