Bucket Mouth

In case you think my column is about that loud, obnoxious person that you have to work with each day…relax, I don’t know them. You can probably guess what today’s discussion is by looking above at the photo; for as you may already know, bucket mouth is short or slang for largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) for those of you into scientific names.

The only thing that really rings a bell for me is these large mailboxes that are abnormally big and look like some gigantic Florida bass on steroids…each time I see one of these; the term bucket mouth is what comes to mind. Such was the case on Sunday, March 23^rd as I was sitting atop my ODC 420 float tube made by The Creek Company; I had the bank of this small 7 acre lake to my left, 5 weight Cabela’s TQR rod in hand, Rio sink-tip line and one of my own-hand tied shad patterns tied onto 1X tippet. The water was cold…how cold you might ask? Honestly I don’t know because I didn’t have a way of measuring it, but let’s just say that I had my 5mm neoprene waders on and within 5 minutes I could feel the briskness of the water through the neoprene…so, my guess would be mid- 40’s? The wind was also a factor as it was out of the northwest and scooting along at 15 to 20mph; in essence it was pushing me from my put in to the other end of the lake without much effort. That might sound great but anytime you float ‘downhill’ you are going to have to kick ‘uphill’ on the way back. Those same gusty winds made it tough to cast a heavy bass fly and thus I stayed close to the shore…close enough to make an accurate cast but not so close as to spook a big fish as it was indeed very clear water. With all this in mind I was taking in all the beauty of the day and in the back of my mind was a simple thought…today would be a nice day to catch a lunker!

Sitting about 50 yards to my right was my buddy, Frank Terkhorn…who was wrapped up like Ralphie from The Christmas Story; he even had on this pair of glasses that looked like my grandpa’s old ‘Black and Decker’s’. When I asked, Frank gave me a story about the secret powers of the glasses… all I could think about was how my grandpa might have looked exactly like this-sitting on a float tube in his protective glasses. We are a good pair in that Frank is left handed and thus goes clockwise around a lake, me being right handed, I go counter-clockwise and we usually meet somewhere along the circuitous route and compare notes; that wouldn’t be the case today.

I had made about 20 casts and was getting an occasional bluegill tap; while concentrating on bass I was doing my best to ignore these pesky reminders when I felt a ‘thud’ on the other end…it wasn’t a snag or a smaller fish, it was something big. As is usual my left hand (line hand) made an emphatic strip set and my rod immediately went double. My first thought was that I had hooked a big catfish as my mystery fish was 7 or 8 feet deep but quickly my mind reasoned that it was too early and the water too cold for one of the lake’s big whisker fish to be feeding. Oddly enough the fish then moved away from the shore and proceeded to ‘tug’ me toward the middle of the lake…in the same frame I could see Frank about 40 yards away and calmly hollered that I had hooked something big but wasn’t sure yet what exactly IT was?

As they say, “This wasn’t my first rodeo”…and remaining calm is always the best advice. I kept tension on the fish with the line under my right finger and little by little stripped in a few inches of line a little at a time and there below me was not just a big fish…but a bucket mouth. A little more poise and I carefully raised my rod hand and lipped what turned out to be a beauty of a fish that weight somewhere between 6 and 7 pounds on my hand held scale. I raised the fish up to show Frank, who had used his oars to quickly paddle over; we shared a moment of appreciation for such a gorgeous fish and then Frank took my camera and snapped a few pictures…it was one of those special times.

Before the day was over (actually before my feet became too cold) I caught two more bass; the second of the day was about 14 inches, the last was closer to 18 inches and weighed 3 ½ pounds and put up a pretty good fight for such cold water. All said it had been a memorable Sunday afternoon spent doing exactly what I love to do; immersed in water, nature all around…and a good friend to share it with. Don’t let this spring pass you by without grabbing your fishing gear, a good buddy and heading out to one of the hundreds of quaint Indiana waters in search of your own bucket mouth…all while Enjoying the Great Outdoors.