March 30, 2010. Today, I took out Jim Butler and his 14 year old son Eric Butler from Rockaway, NJ out on the Maitland Chain of Lakes for a 6 hour fishing trip due to the mild post cold front conditions. This is a great chain of lakes to fish when this happens, we planned on going to the Butler Chain and would have definitely caught fish there, I felt that switching up and putting them on better fish that would bite better at this chain of lakes that I know very well would be a hit.
The morning started a little slow with the cool temp, but as the sun came up and warmed up the water a little the bite turned on. Eric who is just getting into bass fishing did a fantastic job with setting the hook and even caught a few fish off beds today using a white “Bitters Bat” soft plastic bait. Jim caught the first bass on a Junebug Bitters Vibe a plastic lure similar to the zoom speedworm. As the artificial bite slowed a little the shiner bite turned on. Eric and I made Jim set the hook on a shiner bite which produced a 3 pounder. Eric is trying to get his father more into fishing and Jim wanted Eric to catch all the fish. We felt that Jim should catch some too!
Although a little slow today we still managed to catch 12 bass and missed 2 on the artificial. The wind was blowing from the west at 15-20 mph constantly and I have a big fish stretch that runs South to North and we had an Osprey diving on our shiners so we made a few moves that paid off. Eric caught the biggest bass so far in his life today and although it was almost 5 pounds I am certain that he will catch many more and bigger ones the next time he is down here. The kid has talent and patience and plans to join a bass club in New Jersey soon.
To Jim and Eric, it was a pleasure fishing with you both and hope to fish with you again.
Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Staff Writer Jeff Worth fishing@bassonline.com
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