May 23, 2015 - Hutto Lake Park

I decided to hit the pond about 11:30am today to try out the new rod+reel and some of the new lures. I realized when I got there that I had forgotten to switch the handle on the reel to the right side. For some reason, spinning reels usually come with the handle on the left side while baitcasting reels have them on the right. I wasn't sure how to do it on this new Stradic reel, so I just went ahead and fished with the handle on the left side.

We've had a ton of rain the last few weeks and the weather this weekend is supposed to be more rain. It actually rained overnight several times as the thunder woke me up a couple of the times. So I was surprised in the morning when the rain had stopped. It was still mostly cloudy and some of the clouds were dark, but the rain held off for most of the morning. So I took the opportunity to head on down to the pond. I was expecting it to be empty since the ground was still a little damp from the overnight rains, but when I got there I noticed several people fishing. Luckily, no one was at my favorite spot on the northeast corner.

I fished for a good hour trying out different lures, but got nothing. The wind was a little strong - probably 10-15 mph and gusts of 20 mph - so it was hard to throw at times. As far as the new rod+reel, it took a while to get used to it, but I finally got it working. I switched over to a 5" pumpkin senko worm and after about 10 casts, I finally landed a largemouth bass. It felt huge on the new rod+reel, but ended up only being 16", which isn't too bad. When I was reeling it in, the drag was set too low so I had to adjust it while I was still reeling the fish in. When I got it close to the bank, I just lifted it out with my hands. After raking some pictures and throwing the fish back, I adjusted the drag a little more.

One of the times I was reeling in I just happened to look down and right in the water about 4' away from me was that snake just sitting there looking up at me. It startled me so I jumped a little and when I did the snake took off out in the pond. It circled away from me and swam to the pond grass to the right of me. I figured I had enough for the day anyway, so I packed it up and went home without catching anything else.