A 6-pound bass provides the last laugh in this fishing story from back in the day

Once in awhile in fishing, circumstances converge in such an unusual way that you have to wonder if someone is actually setting things up behind the scenes to balance out the universe!

It was a beautiful early summer day over 25 years ago and my dad and I had decided to throw the aluminum boat in the back of the old Ford pickup and head out for the San Joaquin River to catch some bass. A buddy had been doing well fishing some ponds off the main channel using topwater plugs. That’s all my dad needed to hear.

Dad was a topwater fanatic, and he loved nothing more than having a big bass clobber a chugging Hula Popper or a floating Rapala. Even if the conditions weren’t good for that technique, you could count on him at least trying it during a trip. The funny thing is that it worked many times when you wouldn’t expect it.

We launched the boat off a sand bar. The calm river conditions were perfect for throwing topwater plugs. Dad was known for making huge, arching casts with topwater plugs, hitting perfect little pockets from distance. I always harassed him about casting over me, hitting the best spots before I could.

We worked along the shore for awhile until we came to a small fork in the river. We went right. This led us through a 40-yard wide by 70-yard long cut of slowly flowing water ending in a medium-sized pond. As we floated through the cut I saw two guys camped on the willow-covered island – in sleeping bags, surrounded by beer bottles and fishing stuff. Looked like they had fished all night and had slept into the day.

As we floated within about 30 yards of them, one of the guys woke up and told the other guy about us. It was calm and I could clearly hear them saying stuff like, “Those guys aren’t going to catch anything here, we fished hard all night!” There were a few other choice words. Dad and I laughed, we had fish to catch.

It was getting to be early evening when we began working back to the cut to get back to the main channel. That brought us back past the two guys on the island.

One who was standing started giving commentary to his buddy still in a sleeping bag. As the mocking continued, Dad unleashed a huge cast to a perfect spot.

The lure just sat there as the rings went out in the flat calm water. Then he gave it a slight twitch. Pandemonium ensued! A huge bass engulfed the lure. As it thrashed across the surface, one guy on the shore screamed for his buddy to get their poles – now!

The guy in the sleeping bag staggered up, then fell down right in the middle of their extinguished campfire. At the same time, his buddy was getting the poles tangled in the bushes. They were still yelling at each other as we netted a 6-pounder. We floated out into the channel laughing with sounds of cursing fading away.

Mocked and abused fishermen make comeback on big stage with huge bass at perfect time.

Never give up!

This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 11:53 AM with the headline "A 6-pound bass provides the last laugh in this fishing story from back in the day."