
Keith Lusher 03.21.25

You don’t see snow in Louisiana a lot. So when the climate referred to as for 34 levels and the most important snowstorm in 100 years, going fishing was the very last thing on my thoughts. However I stored serious about this deep gap I knew about. I watched them dig this lake 15 years in the past, and I remembered precisely the place they dug out a 15-foot gap in what’s principally a 7-foot-deep lake. This deep gap within the lake has at all times produced in the course of the winter months, so I figured if there have been bass in 40-degree climate, there must be loads in 30-degree air temps.
The reasoning is easy: the bass are going to be looking for the realm with the warmest water, and a gap that’s 15 toes deep presents water that’s in all probability 5-8 levels hotter than the remainder of the lake, which is 7 toes. I pulled as much as the lake and trudged by way of the snow on to that deep gap. I might already really feel my fingers going numb as I tied on a black-and-blue Beast Coast Hustler Hybrid Finesse Jig.
I fished that spot for twenty minutes straight, simply dragging the jig slowly throughout the underside. No fancy stuff – only a sluggish, regular pull. My fingers have been starting to throb, and snow was beginning to persist with my fishing line and rod guides.
That’s after I felt it. My line simply stopped, then moved left. I dropped my rod tip and set the hook laborious. This was fish, however I might really feel it was a bit torpid because it didn’t put up a lot of a struggle. After I received the fish about 10 years away, it surfaced, and I attempted to make a half-hearted leap. That was all it took to see how large it was. All I might say was “No manner” time and again whereas I watched my line reduce by way of the falling snow.

Whereas the bass didn’t put up a lot of a struggle, it appeared to outsmart me because it ran beneath a submerged log that had a number of branches protruding of the water. Positive sufficient, My line received tangled within the branches. There I used to be, watching this fish swim in circles proper in entrance of me, simply out of attain. The road wasn’t coming free. So I did what any already frost-bitten fisherman would do – I jumped proper in after it.

That water felt like ice, however I received my hand on that bass’s lip. I yanked it out of the water and scrambled again up the financial institution, grinning from ear to ear. I’ve caught loads of larger bass, however this four-pounder was particular.
They at all times say the very best fishing occurs within the worst climate. Most instances, that’s simply discuss. However once in a while, if the place to fish and also you’re loopy sufficient to strive, it seems to be true. Even in Louisiana. Even within the snow.
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