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Submitted by Ned Kehde - May 18, 2001
On an unseasonably warm and windy Tuesday in early May,
Bob Laskey of Lawrence cured all of his piscatorial woes in one
fell swoop.
Laskey is an avid bass fisherman who possesses an uncanny
knack for
catching a lot of fish and an occasional big one to boot. But
for the past
several years, his new vocation in the golfing business has crimped
his
abilities to get afloat. Once the weather turns balmy and the
golfing crowd
commences traipsing around the fairways, Laskey becomes virtually
chained to
the links.
So nowadays Laskey has to get in fishing licks in late winter
and early
spring before the golfers stir.
Thus, every year in late February or early March, he and Jon
Kindlesparger
spend a week at Lake Fork, Texas, and neighboring largemouth
bass lakes.
After his Texas foray, he and a friend chase the white bass on
their
spawning runs into the upper reaches of Clinton and Perry lakes.
Then there
are periodic forays to the warm waters of Coffey County and La
Cygne lakes
for smallmouth and largemouth bass. And just before the grass
on the
fairways turn viridian green, he pursues the acrobatic and pugnacious
smallmouth that abide in Melvern Lake.
But for the past two years, the fishing has been trying on
Laskey's days
off.
Mostly it has been foul weather that wrenched Laskey's fishing.
Sometimes it was a horrid wind that kept Laskey at bay. At other
times, the
fish turned either mulish or sullen by too much rain or cold
weather or a
combination of both.
That was the case in Texas this winter. What's more, the bass
at Fork
were recently afflicted with a virus that killed many of them
In addition, the white bass populations at Clinton and Perry
have hit an
all-time low. During the springs of the 1990s, Laskey and a friend
would
fish until they caught and released a 101 white bass, which normally
took
about four hours. But during the springs of 2000 and 2001, Laskey
and his
friend struggled to tangle with 50 white bass.
So by early May Laskey's case of bass deprivation became so
severe that he
needed a quick remedy. In the lexicon of avid bass anglers, a
quick remedy
is a 100 bass. So he and a friend ventured to a sure-cure: An
acre-and-a-half pond nestled between two wooded hills and the
fairways of a
golf course northeast of Lawrence.
This pond is seven years old and seldom fished. Its waters
are clear as
the air, partially littered with large red quartzite boulders,
and brimming
with largemouth bass. Moreover, it was the ideal spot to hide
from the south
wind that roared at 20 to 30 mph for hours of end.
On this outing, Laskey wielded a lightweight casting outfit,
sporting an
1/8-ounce brownish-green Strike King Bitsy Bug Jig and a two-inch
plastic
frog chunk. His friend worked with a spinning outfit that was
adorned with
a three-inch black Berkley Power Grub affixed to a Gopher Tackle
1/l6-ounce
mushroom jighead.
They caught fish straightaway. Within 40 minutes, they tangled
with 50
bass, and Laskey's left thumb quickly became raw and sore. Then
during the
next few hours, his thumb became bloody and almost useless.
The bass were so ravenous that several of them were caught
more than
once, and two big bass attempted to consume smaller ones that
Laskey and his
friend were battling towards the shoreline.
By the time Laskey executed his last cast, 287 largemouth
bass -- eight of
them broached four pounds -- had been caught and released. By
the way, his
thumb remained sore for nearly a week -- a sure sign of stupendous
fishing
and a tonic for any angling malaise.
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