bob johansen
10/3/2017 4:23:32 PMI remember this trip clearly. The photo of Mike and his nice bass will appear in a new Bass and Panfish book now available at Amazon.
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Hicks-Long Lake Safari
by Bob Johansen, June 22, 2005
It was Monday, June 20, 2005. Bob and Mike had planned a bass fishing trip starting at Thurston County’s Hicks Lake for several days. Evidently the folks at the weather department hadn’t caught wind of it. It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny, warm day – Much unlike the cool, overcast and even rainy days of previous fishing trips.
Bob and Mike arrived at the public access on Hicks just after 5:00 AM. The sun was coming up and the lake was beautiful. The water was flat as a mirror, perfect for some top water fishing. In spite of the beautiful conditions Bob and Mike were unable to find any bass willing to strike. Hundreds of fry were seen milling around on the surface – probably bass fry. A few 5 inchers even followed lures back to the boat but none would strike. After a couple hours of fruitless casting, they decided to move over to nearby Long Lake.
Long lake looked beautiful as well. A slight breeze was blowing as they launched Mike’s newly modified "bass boat." Bass anglers were spotted fishing toward the north end of the lake. Bob and Mike decided to motor down through the narrow, shallow channel to fish the southern portion of the lake.
They had not been fishing long before Mike hooked a chunky 9 incher on his perch colored Cabalas floating minnow. A few more fish were hooked on this lure. Bob tossed a white spinner bait to the edge of a pad field and hooked into a heavy fish. He alerted Mike that he had the big one on. About that time, the fish became unbuttoned. They continued down the shoreline with Mike at the controls in the front of the boat. He liked his new pedestal seat as he ran his foot controlled electric motor.
Mike hooked a couple more chunky 9 inchers on his perch colored minnow. Finally Bob hooked up with a nice chunky 14 ½ incher on his black jig. Several more small bass hit Mikes perch minnow and a few struck Bob’s silver floating minnow as they continued along the shoreline.
The breeze picked up a little and they decided to move across the lake to slightly calmer waters. Bob spotted a huge bass casually cruise away from his Rapala. A few more small fish struck and some were hooked. Bob and Mike each also hooked a rock bass on the minnow lures.
Mike needed a break from running the motor. Bob took over the front end. He struggled a bit with Mike’s new trolling motor. The controls were much different than those on his old Mercury Thruster Plus. Anyway, not long after Bob took over the front end of the boat, Mike yelled out that he had a good one. Bob looked into the water and saw this huge bass struggling to spit out Mikes perch colored minnow. It was a monster bass. "You’ve got Ol Jaws," Bob said excitedly.
After a nice battle, Mike boated the big bass and it was weighed, measured, photographed, thanked for the memories and released. It was a huge fish but was on the slim side. It measured 22 inches and was slightly less than 5 pounds. It was blind in one eye, probably from a hook injury years ago. At first Bob and Mike thought that she was post spawn and that was the reason for her svelte figure. Later, after discovering that she was blind in one eye, they thought that maybe her hunting abilities may have been hampered, causing her to be underweight. Regardless, she was a beautiful fish and provided a few minutes of angling excitement.
After releasing the fish, on his first cast, Bob hooked up with a dandy bass on his black jig. That fish was 18 ¼ inches and weighed 3 pounds and 4 ounces -- much smaller than Mike’s fish but still a very nice bass. That fish too was weighed, measured, photographed, thanked for the memories and released.
Bob and Mike continued fishing but the wind was increasing and the water skiers were coming out. About 1:00 PM they decided to call it a day. Before the quite long trip home they enjoyed a little lunch in a cool, shaded area of the public access while sharing thoughts of the day. Another great day on the waters of the great northwest.
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