Mike Sawyers Cumberland Times News |
Captain Nelson guides to bass Captain Brent Nelson's Lowrance Global Positioning System was working perfectly. You could see the blip-blip-blip moving on the screen. That was us in Nelson's bass boat scooting rapidly across the surface of Deep Creek Lake. That was all you could see. The 7 a.m. fog Wednesday morning made our world, at least for those few minutes, a swirl of gray that was intermixed with a water spray that quickly coated my spectacles. I wasn't sure which way was up let alone which was North, East, West or South. "The trick is to depend totally on the GPS in this kind of circumstance," Nelson said. "Once you start to rely partly on the system and partly on your own intuition, you will get turned around." Our goal was to catch bass from the popular Garrett County lake. Nelson, a hunting and fishing friend of many years, was Captain Nelson on this day; not Brent and not Otis as he is called by some of his friends. Captain Nelson guides for Ken Penrod's Life Outdoors Unlimited, a bass and striper guide service. "This is probably my thirtieth day of fishing on Deep Creek this summer," Nelson said. The day before, Nelson had guided a client to about 40 bass, all of which were released. Our day would not be quite as productive, though we caught enough fish to make it enjoyable. And the weather on Wednesday could not have been more relaxing. It was one of those low humidity, sun-filled, high-country days that makes you know why Garrett Countians are proud of their homeplace. We speculated that the previous day had been such a success because of an incoming weather front, the kind that makes the bass go on the bite. Wednesday I landed a bass that Nelson said went 3 pounds, or at least very close to it. The day before, his client had boated a 4-pounder. He and his clients have caught even bigger bass there. Nelson, now a resident of Columbia, grew up in the Rawlings-Pinto area and vacationed at the lake with his parents and siblings when he was a child. "The lake was magic to me then and it is still magic," Nelson said. "Somedays, though, the magic is better than other days." Our effort at catching smallmouth bass on topwater lures early in the day was a bust. On that famous "day before" though, Nelson and his client had gotten into the smallies pretty good using the same popping and gurgling surface baits that weren't working for us. "I've seen it like this before," Nelson said. "As the day goes on the fish will start to bite." He was right. Though we picked up some small largemouths around docks during late morning, the bigmouths began getting serious just after 12:30 p.m. Using sinking artificials around the boat docks, we began to get regular action. The first Wednesday after Labor Day was a quiet one at this popular lake. Gone were the water skiers, except for one, and gone were the jet skis, except for two. The lake was loaded with Canada geese and mallards. The breeze was intermittent and mild. The cotton was growing high in the world of satisfaction. Just as the warm and fuzzies were about to lull me to sleep, something tugged at the artificial lure I was slowly fishing. I tugged back. "Cross his eyes when you get a hit," Nelson had instructed earlier. That's when the biggest fish of the day, the one I mentioned earlier, barreled up and out of the 74-degree lake and into the late summer air. He was dutifully admired and then released, without the stereotypical Jimmy Houston kiss. You can contact Nelson at (410) 799-9326. Appropriate Web sites are www.fishdeepcreek.com and www.penrodsguides.com. Nelson's email address is bbnelson@comcast.net Mike Sawyers is outdoor editor of the Cumberland Times-News. |