. : Jon Bondy's All You Can Catch : .

戞2夞
With Mickey Bruce丂

丂 As I arrived at my friend's house on Lake Lanier, near Atlanta, Georgia, I was excited about fishing one of the most famous bass lakes in the U.S. I was about to spend 3 days with one of America's top bass pros on his home lake. Mickey Bruce has fished this lake ever since it was created, and has won several hundred thousand dollars by catching the big bass that call this place home. He is a true living legend in this area of the country.
丂So I was shocked when he told me that we weren't going to fish for spotted bass because something more exciting was going on. He proceeded to tell stories of the last day's fishing where big striped bass would school up on the surface, hitting whatever you threw at them. It all sounded like a big fish story to me, so I couldn't wait to get out there.

丂The next morning was beautiful. No wind, nice warm temperatures and sunny. As we launched the boat you could see large fish breaking on the surface. I was amazed at what I saw, they were everywhere. We rigged our 7 ft baitcast rods with 17 lb test and started out using old 8" Rebel Redfins. Mickey taught me how to reel them back to the boat real slow on the surface so they would wag back and forth creating a wake.
丂 As we motored away from the ramp, we came upon our first school of fish busting shad on the surface. Mickey made the first cast and hooked a fish immediately. To our surprise it was燼 4 lb spotted bass, which is a big one. This was a whole school of bass! We were all amazed that a 4 lb bass could hit such a large lure. Soon the school went down and the action slowed, so we motored further up the lake.
丂About 2 miles away, we came across a school of striped bass breaking the surface. You could tell they were stripers because they would splash water 2 ft into the air, and you could see it a half mile away! During the hot part of the day, the schools of fish would only stay on top for about 1 minute, so you had to be real quick and run over to them, and try and make a few casts before they would settle down. We were fishing in the lower end of the lake by the dam, so the water was deep. Most of our fish were caught on the surface over 135ft of water! They would just cruise around half way down, and every once in a while, 'push' a big school of threadfin shad to the surface. That's when we would see them!

	Part6 KVD Interview 2004/05/20

I called up a long time friend of mine, Kevin Vandam for an interview with time. It seems like he likes Japanese bais like I do.

	Part1 Fishing on Lake St. Clair 2002/03/09

Hello. My name is Jon Bondy of Wondsor, Canada. I am a full time fishing guide on燣ake St.Clair, and today I start off my column on basswave.jp.

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	Part2 With Mickey Bruce 2002/06/13

I had a time to fish with Mickey Blues, a long time friend of mine and a famous Tour compeditor. We caught tons of bass and stripers.

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	Part3 Walleye, another great game-fish 2002/07/15

Walleye is one of the most popular types of game fish in North America, but they don't live in Japan. I thought I should introduce a walleye story a little bit.

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	Part4 Smallies! 2002/08/28

When you wish to fish smallmouths, I bet St. Clair is the best choise. Thanks God, I live near by. So, I tell you how fun to fish smallies here.

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	Part5 Monster Fish 2004/03/12

In Japan, I heard big long muskie lures are used to catch monster sized bass even though muskies don't exist over there. I will introduce how brual a real monster muskie can do.

丂 As the day wore on, the best lure seemed to be a zoom super fluke in any shad or pearl color. We would rig it with a 5/0 wide gap Gamakatsu hook, and put a small barrel swivel about 16" up from the lure. The swivel helped with casting distance and also worked to keep line twist down to a minimum. You had to reel the lure in as fast as you could. This really got their attention. I just couldn't believe that a fish could swim fast enough to catch a lure going at that speed.
牋 When these fish struck, I could not believe the power and strength they had. There was no way to just 'horse' them in. They ran where they wanted to, so you just had to wait them out. I broke a $200 rod on a big fish that refused to give up! Mickey's son, John, tried rigging up two flukes on the same line. When he cast out there, he hooked two big ones and they just busted all his tackle up! It was some of the most amazing fishing I have ever experienced, and I fish 200 days a year.

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丂As the sun would set, the fish would get a little more bold. Instead of staying on the surface for a minute or two, they would stay up for half an hour! Imagine this if you will....We pulled in this little cove and THOUSANDS of big striped bass came up and surrounded the boat. You didn't know where to cast because they were everywhere!!! They had so much power, that if you threw out a big topwater like a Sammy or a Zara Spook, and they missed the lure with their mouth, they would knock it 4 ft into the air! When it would land, another one would grab it! You couldn't really catch that many of them, because they took so long to bring in! I think we had about 40 fish for the day.
丂What an amazing trip that was. I really wanted to visit this lake to fish for spotted bass, but the big striper tried to eat them as you reeled them in! They reminded me of big toothy musky on my home lake, Lake St.Clair.

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