What makes you get up before dark to hit the lake? Why won’t you get up to work out or do things around the house when you hit the lake at six sharp?
If you’re like me, there’s no easy answer. Maybe it’s the early-morning caffeine rush of coffee or the quiet road at 4 a.m. Maybe it’s the beautiful sunrise on the water, the pink clouds, and the warm gold sun. For me, a bank fisherman, it’s the birds caroling from the trees, the frogs croaking from the bank, and the dewy grass waiting to be explored. It might be the love of a favorite combo or the water spraying forth from your reel on each cast. Is it an explosive topwater bite or the strong thump on your jig? The constant, shifting puzzle of offering wary bass what they want to eat?
Or maybe you focus on the memories you’ve made over the years. Your bucketmouth of a lifetime. The fishing trip where you forgot the boat plug or stepped on a cottonmouth on the banks of a pond. The hooks impaled in your arm, or the hopeless tangle of a baitcast reel. Those awards you’ve received and tournaments won. Past fishing trips with your friends and family. You are taking a kid fishing. Acquiring a collection of tackle that rivals those of professional bass fishermen. Those memories will last a dozen lifetimes.
2014 was a year of many of these great adventures for me. There was a time when my friend managed to embed a large hook in my head. I was thankful the hook did not go deep into my scalp. And the time when I sank up to my knee in mud on the bank. And I’ll never forget the look of my baitcast reel when my jig hit a bush behind me. One major headache and multiple scissor snips later, that backlash was gone. That exercise ball I hooked and landed is still on my pond bank.
The time I attempted to pinch a split shot onto my line with my teeth and managed to get it stuck onto my tongue. And, of course, some adventures with a more upbeat ending. Catching a bass over three pounds was crossed off my bucket list. Many lures I’d never caught fish on got to see some action. In particular, I recently discovered the magic of jigs and buzzbaits. I had fantastic times in ponds and lakes across the country, from a large lake to a miniature urban pond. I enjoyed taking my little sister fishing, seeing her joy over a quarter-dollar-sized bluegill arch her $10 rod into a bow. I laughed watching her trying to teach a friend how to cast or imitate my constant pitching practice. My new baitcast combo is performing flawlessly, and I can’t wait to land some giant bass on it.
And then there are the memories I have yet to make, the trips on my bucket list, and the 23-pound bass still lurking out there somewhere. I have yet to catch a fish on a jerkbait, chatterbait, or a frog. I’d love to double my personal best weight to seven pounds. Catching a limit over 20 pounds would be an excellent experience. I’d enjoy organizing a bank fishing tournament at my favorite pond.
You may be a veteran basser or a newbie like me: it’s all the same. The allure of bass fishing will never die. I always want one more cast, one more tackle order, and one more adventure. It’s the way I am.
Here’s to last season and the season ahead of us. To the records shattered and tournaments won. To friendly landowners and new ponds, early morning adventures, stunning sunrises, and cold mornings. It’s what we do. It’s who we are.
Kyle Bumgardner is a 13-year-old avid bank fisherman from North Carolina who loves to share his passion for the outdoors.
