By Clay Dunbar

It was the morning of February 16th. A beautiful morning for fishing. The temperature was in the 50's with very light wind. My father and I were on Colleton Lake at the crack of dawn. We had with us several sacks full of high end jigs, crank baits, spinners and other assorted "sure things" which we had purchased from Mark's just the day before.

As much money as we spent we were sure to nail the big one. My father started out jig-n-pig'n, and I using a variety of spinner baits and deep crank baits. Well into the morning we had not even had a bite.

The place we were fishing is called Colleton Lake. Nearly 80 acres, and up to fifty feet deep in spots, this lake is prime for catching monster bass. The lake and surrounding land is owned by my father and twelve of his associates, and is managed to produce big large mouth bass. Originally, the lake belonged to Dr. Cantrell, who is still very much the architect of this lake's success. The science behind the lake's management being to flood the lake with food for the bass, including feeding the brim, and extensive fertilization for brim, shad, and other bait fish. In other words, you have a lake full of food-addicted, monster bass, who are also in no particular hurry to access their readily available food supply.

Needless to say, plastic worms seem to be the best way to catch fish in this lake, and the fancy baits don't work as well. Being close to 10:00 am, my father and I decided to resort back to old cheap faithful; The Zoom dead ringer watermelon worm; Purchased at Wal Mart stores world wide, and of course at the great Mark's Outdoor Sports. My father and I have caught easily 25 fish weighing greater than 5lbs on this bait in the past year. First cast, and boom. Serves us right for trying to be innovative. We must have caught six fish inside a half hour.

We had made it a good way around the lake already, and were soon to arrive at the "Honey Hole." The "Honey Hole" is a deep bank on one side of the lake where my father and I have landed many of the big fish we have caught. The cast was just to the right of a submerged tree. I began my slow retrieve when my rod tip thumped twice. I quickly noticed the enormous amount of slack in my line so I hurried to reel up the slack and set the hook. I set the hook in my usual seat-breaking fashion to find what felt at first like a log. At that moment, the enormous dead weight started moving. Clearly this was a fish.

Almost immediately the fish began running for the deep water. My father began navigating our boat away from the bank, and toward the running fish. I fought the fish in the open water for some time as he attempted to dive time after time. Finally, all 10lbs & 9oz came out of the water in a futile attempt to spit the hook. "What a fish!" I continued to fight the fish for what must have been five minutes until we finally got the net under him. The fish weighed out about 11 lbs on our boga grips, while our digital scale read 10 lbs & 9 oz. A real trophy, and my personal best.

Immediately I had the photos developed and began showing them around and sending them out via email. I found myself at Mark's Outdoor Sports probably a week later. As most local sportsmen know, Mark's is a great place to share hunting and fishing stories. I arrived to congratulations on my father's prize catch. "I heard he caught a 13 pound bass", someone said. This article is an attempt to set the record straight. If you ask my father he will tell you that all the planning and finesse was due to his efforts, and that I was but a human winch, so to speak. Anyway, I am here to tell you that I would rather be lucky than good. Clay Dunbar