BY AARON BALL
My path to Master Angler IV and the march to Level V has been a combination of luck and stubbornness and citation number 23 was no different. Me and my buddy Chris Moxley usually get out a few times each winter and chase some largemouth, and I’ve slowly been converting him to a crappie angler as well. He really wanted to get out and see livescope in action, so we decided to hit the cooling ponds of Lake Anna at the end of January so he could get the full experience.
I hit the road from Charlottesville early and at about the roundabout in Gordonsville I had one of those sudden flashes that most anglers have probably experienced at one point. All the sudden it struck me; in my excitement I left my graphs at home! I texted Chris to let him know the bad news, but we were both well on our way to the lake, so we just decided to fish and see what happened.
Once at the lake, we idled away from the ramp and discussed a game plan and what we wanted to do for the day. We hit the first bridge we passed, and Chris quickly put us on the board with a largemouth caught on a drop shot. The first fish in the boat is always a relief. We eventually made our way to the top of Pool 1 and picked up a fish here and there, but by “hot side” standards we were having a relatively slow day.
I’ve been trying to get more confidence using bigger glide baits, so I was throwing that off and on and had four different fish come unpinned on the way back to the boat, so my frustration level was growing by the minute and not having the graph was weighing on my mind. Chris and I decided we would move down to Pond 2 and see if that would change our luck.
As we pulled up to a main lake point that I really like to fish, I decided to do a mental check of what was going on. There was a fair amount of cloud cover, and the wind was blowing into the point. I had just purchased a new Megabass 110+1 from Fishing Protech at the Richmond show so I thought what better time to tie that on?
I positioned the front of the boat into the wind and hit the Spotlock so we could effectively fish the point. After just a few casts a fish or two busted behind the boat and I spun around and fired the jerkbait to where the fish had busted. After just a few twitches with the jerkbait and a solid fish hit. A nice 3 ½ pound bass found himself in the net and my spirits were lifted. I immediately threw back out and connected on another three-pound bass. At this point Chris was casting out there also but he was not getting bit.
I quickly fired out again and within just a few twitches I felt another thump! I told Chris that this one felt nice, also. I played it to the boat and could see a slender torpedo underneath the water that Immediately recognized as a saugeye. I yelled to Chris to grab the net and he quickly slid it under the fish and the jerkbait fell out of the fish’s mouth. I was in disbelief because I had never caught a saugeye before and I knew this was a good sized one – at the 24” mark for Virginia’s Trophy Fish distinction and citation #23 for me and my trophy quest!
My partner finally took a Megabass jerkbait from me and proceeded to commence in the catching as well. Just a few minutes later he connected on his first saugeye. I think not only have I converted him to a crappie fisherman, but I have also made him a believer in the Megabass 110 jerkbait.
With a saugeye crossed off my list I want to turn my focus onto a bowfin this year. If anyone has any tips or ideas on where I can target them or if you want to accompany me on adventure to cross this one of the bucket list feel free to reach out to me on Instagram @Psuhntr.
