Wife and two of her kids hit Banks for the week-end. It was time to teach. First off was the 13 year old boy who has never cast a line in his life. Gave him the quick run down and off we went at 5:00 a.m., Saturday morning.

Started out throwing poppers. The kid had one hit and, literally, jumped two feet off the deck of my boat. He did manage to, inadvertently, half-set the hook while he was jumping up in his startled fashion, and then he just hung on, lol. He never reeled or anything, just stood there with the pole up. I was like "Reel him in". He says "Oh, I forgot".

Too late, bummer.

Off to some rocks. Set him up and tried to tell him what to do...uh, the fish will hit it on the fall...hmmm, set hook...reel in...keep line tight...give them no slack... WELL, you got it.

First fish of the day was a story. Maybe one to be remembered. I hooked it on a dropshot and a powerbait minnow. I could tell it was a nice fish so I told him to jump up to my end of the boat and take my pole. He had one of those pesky little line loops on the spinning reel that had started to unravel on him and he voiced his concern. I said "Don't worry about that, take my pole".

I go to the back and traded him poles and he starts to play my fish. I start to pull the loop out and I can feel his line getting a little tighter. I am like "You got a fish too, double header".

So, he plays and lands my fish, and I play and land his fish, lol.

We ended up catching probably 20 or 25 fish in 4 hours. Had 5 good ones hooked, lost two of them as I gave him the pole and he is not too refined on fighting fish, yet. Of the 5, all between 2 and 3 pounds.

Saw a beast. Thought carp at first glance but it was most definitely a smallie. It was with a 4 pounder, I would guess, and it dwarfed the smaller fish. I would conservatively guess 6 pounds. It was the biggest bass I have ever seen, dead or alive.

Took the 16 year old step-daughter out in the evening after a day of swimming and cliff jumping. Did not have a whole lot of fuel left or daylight when we took off so we stuck close to Sunbanks Resort. She has cast before as I have taken her to American Lake once or twice. She did good and had a great time. She only caught one fish, a dink that she named Alfred (don't ask). I caught, probably, 10 more. Mostly all dinks except for one 2 pound even, that she named Peter (I really don't know, she was having fun and feeling goofy, I guess, lol). Oh, and forgot the camera this evening.

Good times, fun trip. Biggest problem of all was that I beached my boat at the resort and they were draining the lake. It seemed to go down about 10 to 12 inches a day, or so. I had to keep running out and try to get my 17' BassTracker unstuck from the sand. Pretty much strained my milk about 6 times performing this routine about 6 times over the weekend. I would leave the boat out a tad and a bass boat would rip by doing 70 and shove it right back up into the sand. My back hurts:(

Water temps. 72-77 and the lake was down about 3-4 feet from normal when we left this a.m.

Tried many many times to upload my photo's and it was all epic failure. Best I can do is Photobucket, I guess, sorry:(

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l12/glock_27_2006/Banks8-6-11015.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l12/glock_27_2006/Banks8-6-11018-2.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l12/glock_27_2006/Banks8-6-11017-2.jpg

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