
Josh Welch cast beyond the stick ups and started his retrieve working a Berkley Hollow Body Frog in a walk the dog pattern through the partially submerged tree limbs. As he worked the frog by one of the exposed limbs, the water exploded in an instant.
“Wham, Ka-Whoosh!” A massive largemouth slammed the frog and bore down into the submerged treetop trying to escape the steel hooks. However, before he had a chance to bury up in the tangled limbs, Welch reared back on the rod and drove the steel hooks deep into the jaws of the bass, which instantly stopped the lunker and spun it around towards the boat much like a roped calf.
As the bass exploded back onto the surface, it thrashed on top and slashed the water violently trying to spit out the biting hooks that were driven deep into his jaws. It was not enough however, as Welch wore the bass down by using every ounce of his strength and knowledge of catching bass that he could muster.
The bass he caught was his personal best and weighed in at 9.3 pounds.
Welch was fishing Lake Monroe in Monroe County, a public lake, which had sustained terrible damage from a tornado a few years ago to the extent that the area was shut down for awhile until the trees and debris could be cut and cleaned out.
“I was fishing the tree branches walking it from side to side and popping it too,” Welch said. “When she rolled on that frog I gave her 2 seconds and set the hook and the fish didn’t move. I thought I’d stuck the hook in a log until she erupted and fought like mad.”
Online kayak tournaments
Welch had arrived around daybreak on Monday, June 3, and had caught a few decent fish along the shallow banks, but then the bite stopped.
“Around 8:30 I went deeper and was fishing structure, which occurred when the tornado blew trees into the lake a few years ago,” Welch said. “The Berkley frog was bone colored, actually called Bone White and it was just the ticket. The bass actually struck my lure at 9:18 and it beat my prior personal best of 8.5 that I caught back in April on a frog also. I actually won a couple of online kayak tournaments with that bass too.
“I felt comfortable fishing that frog even up in the day because I’ve had good success catching big fish on it all day.”
Welch won the April kayak tournament in Mississippi also. He’s currently sitting in first place in June with five fish registered, which includes the longest five fish he has caught during June.
The kayak tournaments that Welch fishes in are open to any publicly accessible waters and don’t include private property lakes to make the competition equal to all. Lake Monroe has 99 acres to fish and averages about 6 to 8 feet deep according to Welch. It is located between Aberdeen and Amory.
“Lake Monroe is an excellent lake to fish and is well maintained,” he said. “There’s no campground at the lake so it is more peaceful than a lot of public lakes. It was also stocked with walleye in addition to the bass.”
Catch and release
Welch was fishing out of a Bonafide Kayak PWR 129, 12’9, which is fully rigged out. The kayak is 3-feet wide and has a 12-volt Motorguide Trolling Motor with 50 pound thrust and Spot Lock. Welch said that the kayak is very stable and the Spot Lock on the trolling motor allows him to stay on a spot without having to anchor or continually adjust his position. It also allows him to stay within 20 to 30 feet of the fish without spooking them. The boat is rigged with a Power Queen Trolling Motor battery which will run 12-14 hours a day. He also has sonar and side scan on the kayak, which rounds out everything an angler would need on a bass boat or kayak.
Whether he fishes in kayak tournaments or just for fun, Welch practices strict catch and release. During the tournaments, anglers must take a picture of the fish on the measuring board, along with a code they receive when they enter the tournament, and they release the bass quickly after measuring and taking the picture.
“Lake Monroe has an 18–24-inch slot and all fish in that range must be released immediately,” Welch said. “Anglers may keep one fish over 24-inches, but I never keep a big one. I carry a flexible tape with me so that I can get the length of the fish, the girth and any desired measurements so that I can have a replica mount of that trophy made if it is a huge bass.”
If all anglers would practice catch and release of lunker bass, then everyone could feel the thrill again and again of catching these big bass. And who knows, you just might catch the same bass that Welch caught and released.
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