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What do you think is more fun, catching a lot of fish or catching big fish? Last weekend I had the opportunity to experience both.

On Saturday I had my Northern Colorado Junior Bass Club qualifying tournament at a group of private ponds. I started out at a submerged pile of trees and started catching fish on almost every cast. They mostly ranged from 11 to 14 inches. I had fun catching the fish all day and was excited whenever I caught one, but I was always hoping for that one big fish. I primarily stayed at my little pile of trees the whole day because they were producing fish and when I moved somewhere else I wasn’t having as much luck. Finally, it was time to hear the results and I knew that I did fairly well, but I heard of a few big fish that were caught, so I knew that I didn’t get first. I ended up tying for fifth out of 17 people in my age group. In total that day, I caught 27 fish. I was happy catching so many fish but was disappointed because I didn’t catch that big fish.

Sunday though was very different. I drove down to Valco Ponds to participate in a “just for fun” fishing tournament with the Fountain Valley Junior Bass Club. In the early morning three fish were caught fairly quickly by two other kids. Then the fishing really slowed down and got tough. After a while, an adult volunteer called me over to a spot he was fishing and pointed out a bedding bass. I went over and sure enough there she was about ten feet off shore. I started casting on her nest and was trying to find that certain quarter-sized spot that would get her to bite. I finally found it, but all she would do was nose down to the bait but not bite it. The wind started to pick up and I could barely see the bass, much less my lure, so I decided to switch to bright colored baits so I could see my lure through the waves on the water’s surface. At this point I had been trying to catch this fish for about an hour, and I was getting frustrated that she wouldn’t bite. I started going through my tackle box and just putting on whatever I thought she might bite. After trying at least ten different baits with no success, I finally decided to put on a chartreuse/white senko on a shaky head to get the lure up in front of her face. I put it on the sweet spot and she nosed down to it like with all the other baits so I let it sit there for a few minutes. She stayed nosed down to it so I gave the lure a quick, firm jerk and she went after the lure but totally missed it. I threw the worm out again and this time she ate it after the jerk. I set the hook and her splashing told everyone around me what was going on. I had patiently waited almost two full hours to get this 3 pound 5 ounce fish to commit. After getting her weight and pictures, I was just as happy to release her as I was to catch her. That was the only fish I caught all day and I ended up getting second place out of 11 in the tournament and winning the big fish award.

Both Saturday and Sunday were fun fishing days even though they were very, very different. Sometimes you have to be happy with whatever you catch whether it’s a lot of fish or one big fish.