Yet Another Hookset

I suppose I shouldn't complain, given that photos were a major objective of the day, but it seemed like every time made a decent cast, I'd barely begin working the bait when Nathaniel would once again set the hook hard. That meant cranking in my offering in a hurry and scrambling for the camera so I could get shots of him landing and displaying yet another chunky largemouth.

Nathaniel coached me on what he was doing: He was throwing a YUM Houdini Shad with the tail reduced to a fork and with the bait rigged weightless on a 2/O Daiichi Bleeding Bait Red Wide Gap Worm Hook. He was working the bait slowly enough for it to stay out of his sight, watching the line carefully and setting the hook hard at any unusual movement. Line watching was critical because he felt very few of the bites and the fish weren't hanging on long.

I did my best to follow Nathaniel's direction, and I did manage to land a few bass by doing so. That said, he obviously was picking better targets, making more accurate casts, putting a different twitch on his bait or doing a better job of detecting strikes, because the number I caught, even by using his overall approach, was only a fraction of what he continued to catch.

Nathaniel getting in such a good groove really was great for me, photo-wise. More significantly, though, it was fun watching him figure out a pattern, refine the approach and execute it well -- and the be rewarded by catching bass all day long.