Thornapple Lake fishing report-9/27/2015

[Just Steve]

Just bought a second boat a few days ago (off topic thread/second boat) todays seemed like a nice day to go fishing but my wife had a very sore foot and suggested I call on a old fishing buddy to spend the day with. Tom and I have fished together for about 15 years and he is a wealth of knowledge. I called him up and he said he'd be able to get away to go.
We got to the launch site around noon and began tossing weedless rigs, good thing because there is a lot of slop and anything other than a weedless rig and you are just cleaning hooks on every cast.
Things were slow, Tom caught a 12" about a hour into the trip, then a 18"northen another hour after that....yours truly had not even a hit......wondering what I'm doing wrong, maybe should have stayed home and tilled the garden or cleaned out the shop. Called the Mrs. and told her I'd be home about 30 minutes, fish weren't biting (5:00 pm) and I'd grill some burgers. Before she could say ok, I had my first fish on. I quickly hung up and landed my first largemouth, Tom had one on too! I quickly texted her and said "be home later....bite on!" she texted back "Stay! Continue fishing"!
So for another hour or so, the bite was on....and then it was over!
Fishing was along the shoreline next to the weeds, probably 6 feet or shallower, used a #4 Gamatsu (?) hook and Gary Yamamoto plastic in olive shad color.
Tom landed the biggest a 17", all tallied up Tom caught 7 largemouth bass, 1 northern (18") I caught 6 largemouth bass..... had a blast!

[yankee doodler]

Perseverance was the name of the game I guess, eh?

[wicklundrh]

This was kind of a neat post for me. Had it not been for Steve mentioning his name (Tom) I would have never put two and two together. I recognized the face so I sent Steve a txt message to see if this was in fact the "Tom" that I knew.

Steve confirmed that it was.

I've known Tom for about 14 years. He has twin children (1 boy, 1 girl). As a single parent, he signed his kids up for the Big Brothers/ Big Sisters program back in about 2001. I was a member of Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization and I was pared with Tom's son Brian. I spent 1 evening per week with Brian for more than 8 years. I took him hunting, Salmon fishing on my big boat, you name it, we did it.

After Brian graduated, I did what was advised of me by the organization and allowed him to continue his path on his own. It has been almost 6 years since I have seen or heard from him. After texting Steve the information, he informed me that Brian actually works for him from time to time. He was able to give me Brian's phone number and I spoke with him for about 2 hours. We plan on getting together sometime in the near future for some fishing!

[Just Steve]

I always say it's a small world and I believe we all are more intertwined with knowing the same people than we may think.

Rich your giving nature is sure evident in your post, what a wonderful thing you did for a young man, spending that much quality time with him and being so much involved for so long.

Brian does work for me part time, and he never gives me any lip about what I ask him to do, he just does it. He was so glad you two got back in touch.....what a nice story this post turned out to be.

[Just Steve]

Perseverance was the name of the game I guess, eh?

Yes it was Don, so close to just calling it a day, and WHAM!

["D"]

Great post. I have no qualms about catching bass, or eating them. Fried some bass filet's and shrimp for my wife's uncle and aunt in Albuquerque a couple days ago. They really enjoyed them. Great post Steve, I love the goatee, and a fantastic add on by Rich. I am a Michigan C.c fan!