FishDr Posted July 27, 2019 Report Share Posted July 27, 2019 (edited) I've tried, over the years, to get my children interested in swimbait fishing and, in particular, swimbait fishing at night but until recently they tend to give me the "are you nuts Dad?" look when I suggested that they forego sleep to join me on the shores of some lake during the vampire shift. On Thursday night, however, something changed - I suggested to my son that we go out and throw swimbaits in the dark, expecting the usual "no thanks Dad" response but instead he said "sure!". Big smiles from me at that moment. We went to a local lake that has a decent population of willing bass (albeit smaller ones) and that could be fished from the dam, so that we wouldn't stir up clouds of mosquitos by wandering through the long grass and bushes. I explained the approach to him - we'd leapfrog each other throwing our 7" Slammers and perhaps Whopper Ploppers as parallel to the dam as possible, because the fish typically hold right on the rocks. He was using his swimbait spinning rod (a St. Croix Mojo Inshore rod running 50# Power Pro, and I was using my usual Okuma/Curado setup. Things started off excitingly, when, on my third cast I reeled the Slammer almost to the rod tip before something blew up on it in a splashy explosion, showering me with water and making lots of noise. The fish, naturally, missed the hooks and didn't come back. Still, the sound of the strike and my reaction got everyone's heart pumping a little faster. A little ways down the dam and about 45 minutes later, my son started to tire (he'd had preseason practice that afternoon and they'd run him hard) and he sat down for a bit to rest. He also switched from his Slammer to the Whopper Plopper. I told him that we'd fish for 15 more minutes and if that didn't pan out we'd call it a night. He got up, and started throwing the Whopper Plopper again. He wasn't quite getting it as tight to the rocks as I would have liked but then he also wasn't hitting the rocks. I did put my Slammer on the rocks at one point - you know you've missed the water when you see sparks coming off the rocks as the hooks on the lure scrape them. My sone had a small fish blow up behind the slammer - it sounded like a classic bass strike, but the fish missed. I moved ahead, made a few casts, and then he leapfrogged me by about 90 feet and prepared to cast out along the dam. Then it happened — I watched him fire a cast off at about a 25-degree angle from the dam and then looked down to make sure I didn't face plant on the rocks as I walked. I think I heard his lure touch down but I'm not sure, because there was a horrendous explosion off in the vicinity of his lure that seemed instantaneous, followed by the sound of the drag on his reel starting to scream! I asked him if he was hooked up and his reply was a grunted and yelled "Yes!". Forgetting about the risk of face planting, I proceeded to run along the rocks, in the dark (his headlamp had died just after we started so I'd given him mine) while fumbling in my bag for my backup flashlight. He worked the fish and sometimes the fish worked him - the sound of the strike clearly indicated this was more than the typical 12 - 15" bass and the intermittent wailing of the reel backed that up. I got to where he was, mostly intact, and flipped on the flashlight - he flipped on his headlamp, and there was a moment of panic when he thought the fish was gone - but it was just running towards him and my frantic suggestion to "reel, reel, reeeeel!" got him back in contact. Then we saw the fish - I thought, given the size/sound of the strike it might be a really big bass for this lake, or perhaps a walleye (I've caught DD 'eyes here before) but when we saw it in the lights the eyes didn't light up, walleye-style but it clearly wasn't a bass. Maybe a northern or even a tiger muskie, because those are in the lake? Didn't look quite right, but it was long and it was not happy. Eventually he worked it close enough that we could see what it was - a chunky Colorado channel catfish! How to land it - I didn't have a net (strike one against Dad), I didn't have my lip grippers (strike 2 against Dad) and there was no way I was going to lose this fish! So I did what any self-respecting Dad would do — I waited until it was right by shore, grabbed the heavy fluoro leader, and lipped it, dangling hooks be damned! After sorting out the hooks and narrowly avoiding getting hooked while the channel cat was still hooked, we exchanged high fives and measured the fish - it was a touch over 2 feet long and, naturally, Dad had forgotten to bring the scale (strike 3) so we didn't get a weight - I'm guessing 5 or 6 pounds - it had a solid gut on it. I tried taking a picture with my son and the fish but it didn't come out, but did get a picture of it on the shore ('cause Dad forgot the WCZ measuring board - strike 4). We released the fish, which promptly swam back to the dam, stuck it's head in a hole between to rocks, and sat there, sulking! My teenaged son wasn't sulking, he was grinning from ear-to-ear and so was I! His first decent fish at night and it was a species I'd not ever caught at this lake before. I knew they were in there but on my many trips I'd never landed one at night. We exchanged high fives again, fished for about 15 more minutes and then walked back to the truck, serenaded by the local coyote packs. Not a bad way to finally start getting one of the children exposed to the fun of night swimbait fishing! Edited July 27, 2019 by FishDr CaliBassin, yev14, largemouth and 8 others 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaliBassin Posted July 27, 2019 Report Share Posted July 27, 2019 Nice story and fish! FishDr 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthefisherman Posted July 27, 2019 Report Share Posted July 27, 2019 What a rad story! I hope I get to enjoy fishing with my kids if I ever have any...congrats and nice fish to your son! Keep em coming! FishDr 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porkmeatballs Posted July 27, 2019 Report Share Posted July 27, 2019 Awesome night session story! Glad you could get your son on that cat! Any fish on a swimmer is fun! FishDr 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKNNH Posted July 28, 2019 Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 Congrats to your son! FishDr 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yev14 Posted July 28, 2019 Report Share Posted July 28, 2019 Great story and fish! FishDr 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noreaster603 Posted July 29, 2019 Report Share Posted July 29, 2019 great memories made that night, congrats FishDr 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfk9 Posted July 30, 2019 Report Share Posted July 30, 2019 Great story Chris....it's a night you'll both remember for a long time....family memories...michel...Go Fish!!! FishDr 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogervang Posted August 1, 2019 Report Share Posted August 1, 2019 That is awesome man, A Day To Remember! Hes going to be asking you to take him out more often now. FishDr 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishDr Posted August 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2019 Thanks for all the positive replies, everyone! My son and I are planning some more trips and with luck he'll cross paths with some more fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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