[Jared]

The past few weeks I have barely been able to get in any fishing with all the temp jobs and job hunting. Well last night I said "screw it" and decided I was going fishing this morning.

There is a pond 10 miles from my house called Dargan Pond. Dargan is a bit of a special place though because access to fish it is given only Wednesday and Saturday, April 1st thru Sept 1st. The pond is about 50 acres and does on occasion give up some MONSTER bass. However, due to HEAVY pressure it gets when it is open it can be a tough place to fish. (I will go into more detail in the SC forum later)

Anyway, today was a pretty decent day as far as fishing on Dargan is concerned. I started the morning out with a buzzbait and soft jerkbaits but couldnt even get so much as a blow up. As the sky started to get pink from the rising sun I switched to a texas rigged pumpkinseed chartreuse Zoom U-Tail. I got a couple hits right away and missed em both. Off to my left I caught glimpse of a log that had been under water all this year so far. I was happy to see  that it was visible again and proceeded to chunk my bait up to it. As my bait started to settle to the bottom in the 6 foot water I noticed my line slightly jump and then speed up as if it were sinking down into 20 foot of water. I reared back, set the hook and it was on! She pulled HARD and right away I just KNEW I had hooked up with a double digit bass! Even though I have 20lb test braid on my rod, I keep my drag set (though prety tight) and sure enough it began singing. I immediately started to shake as I felt her head throbbing below. She ran up into the sunken  timber and all I could do was keep pressure on her as I motored closer to her. By now everyone in the area I was in had all eyes focused on my battle. Finally I worked her out of the timber and she raced off again, ripping drag and spinning my boat around. She came close to the surface about 20 feett from my boat and boiled the water. I could tell she had some serious size to her but I still couldnt get a clear view of her. I moved closer as I tightened up my drag and began to horse her towards me. Then she came towards the surface again and this time I got a very good view of her...

DAMNIT!

a 10 lb flathead catfish is what I had hooked into lol  :banghead:

My buddy Ronnie ran the net under her and in the boat she went. It took me a few minutes to decide whether she was getting eaten or she was being released. I ended up releasing her because I figured since she got me that excited and fought that great, she had definitely earned the right to swim another day. My only "oops" was that I forgot to snap a photo of her.

After that event, I went on to catch a few more bass in the 14" area and I ended the day with a 19" beauty that sucked my super fluke in (pictured below) This fish put up a great fight and ended up tangled up in the EXACT same piece of timber the flathead got me wound up in. I caught her from behind a cypress tree in its shade.
I had witnessed a decent fish slamming bait fish in the shade of the cypress and reached for my soft jerkbait rod. My first two casts produced no interest. On my 3rd cast I changed up my presentation and worked it fast as soon as it hit the water then killed the bait off as soon as it moved out of the cypress's shade. WHAM! She sucked it in and ran!

The guys in the boat next to me who watched me fight her and land her were trying to tell me she was an easy 8lbs but I know thats wrong. On my golden rule her tail hung off, making her about 19" long, so my guess is she was 4lbs or so.

Anyway, I gave her a big ol kiss and set her loose so I can catch her again when shes grown some more  :victory:​

Tattered Thumbs n Bigguns, Jared

 

[Guest]

Yup, them catfish are pesky little creatures. However, they are fun to catch. I am not sure that she would have been let go, cause they are such a good eating fish.

The 20" bass that I caught from the Rocky Mountain PFA was 6 lbs. 3 oz. Of course, I do believe that she might have been in the process of spawning, so that would have made her just a little bigger. I would guess that your bass is pushing 4.5 lbs., and if you held your mouth just right, she might hit 5 lbs. She's a gorgeous fish.

I went fishing this morning, and I got 1 bass, about 2 lbs., on a Pop-R. After that, nothing.

 

[Jared]

Thank you John

Yep, I love eating freshly caught catfish but I decided to reward this one for the surprise she gave me lol Besides I still have quite a few vacuum sealed packs of catfish. Although we did bring home some brim and some yellow perch today for tonights dinner. :clap:

My guess is the bass was about 4 - 4.5lbs max. My fishing records over the last 2 decades have shown that a 19 inch average girth bass goes about that much. 20 inches is the average length of a 5lbr so yours was definitely spawn heavy. She must have been a very nice looking fish. :cheers:

 

[Guest]

That's the 6 lbs. 3 oz. baby. ;D Great fight on spinning gear.

 

[fish4funinfl]

Nice story Jared ! Im sure we all would of been pumped up as well .

Nice fish both of yall

 

[TennesseeWlkr14]

Hey LakeCity I just left from Dargans Pond today. I didn't realize you were that close to me. We will have meet there some time.
Robbie

 

[Jared]

Wow man! No kiddin? Thats too cool! I just started fishing that place the end of last year but I really like it. There are some HUGE bass in there.

I still cant believe someone on here fishes Dargan's. Just too cool! Yeah definitely we will have to meet up there sometime!  :cheers:

I am most likely going there this Saturday late afternoon. I have been fishing it the past two saturdays in the evening and have learned that Dargan can be awesome action at the end of the day... way better than the morning so far.

 

[TennesseeWlkr14]

I live in Marion, between Marion and Mullins. Let me know and we will meet there sometime. You ever go to Lowders Lake right down the road?
Robbie

 

[Jared]

Yeah I have been to lauders... I havent ever done too well there though. Though Ive only been twice... and the first time the water was so high it was over the bridge that crosses lauders. I keep saying I will go back and fish it more thoroughly but I always end up at dargans or somewhere else. I hear there have been some very nice fish caught in lauders though.

I am in Darlington, about 10 miles from Dargan's.

 

[TennesseeWlkr14]

Yeah my sister lives in Darlington. I went to Dargans today but we were fishing in the heat of the day. I caught one about 2 lbs. What do you use mostly on Dargans? I never have had much luck there but I don't go often. I would love to start going more often.
Robbie

 

[Jared]

One of the best baits I have found on there is a texas rigged pumpkinseed chartreuse 6" Zoom u-tail with an 1/8oz of lead and a 2/0 hook. I dont get a ton of bites but if I am persistent and stay confident and keep fishing it I will almost always catch some decent bass. The best areas seem to be... well if you put your boat in and go all the way to the right.. right to the stand of cypress trees... thats a well producing area... although it gets beat TO DEATH by all the old men who fish it everytime the lake is open. But persistence can still boat fish the others missed. Another spot I have done well with is straight across from the landing... that shore there is pretty deep up close and the laydowns and cypress have produced well for me.

 

[Jared]

oh one more thing... if you can hit it at a good time and have low light conditions... early morning or later afternoon or cloud cover... many people on dargans will throw pop-rs and what not... they work and people do catch fish on em... but instead of tossing what everyone else tosses... toss a zoom super fluke. shhhhhhhhhh dont tell anyone lol that bait is like MAGIC on dargans! :goldcup:

 

[TennesseeWlkr14]

I started out today using a Carolina rigged Pumpkinseed Culprit worm (7.5") and then I switched to the same worm only I texas rigged it. The trig is what I caught the 2 pounder on. This is the first time I have to Dargans in about a year and the last time I was there an older fellow was coming out as we were going in. He had caught the biggest fish I ever laid eyes on. It had to 10-12lbs. It hung out of his livewell. What are you doing this Saturday. I might can go then, maybe. Hopefully anyways. Thanks for the tip!!!! Shhhhhh!
Robbie

 

[Marzbluffboy]

I live about 10 mins from louthers lake and we have caught some big brim out of there and caught about a 20 pound blue. They say there are some big bass in there but ain't never caught one, but there are defineately some big gar in there and they will bite about anything and they are everywhere in there