A few years back I took my stepbrother Juan out bat ray fishing in Richardson’s Bay. Juan is from Columbus, Ohio and not only had he never been fishing but he had never even seen the ocean. So taking him out for garbage fish was a big deal for him.

We got him his first fish (a small shark) and over the course of the day we caught six bat rays over 30 lbs and a bunch of different sharks and skates. Needless to day his eyes were practically popping out of his head and when he got home he told everyone who would listen about his exotic day of fishing in California.

Unfortunately, now that he has moved out here for good he’s constantly asking me to take him out for bat rays. Now don’t get me wrong; catching giant rays is a lot of fun the first 20,000 times but I’m a die hard bass fisherman and there just aren’t enough days in the week to pass up a day of bass fishing. I have taken him out bass fishing in the past but usually the conditions are poor and without the right skills he has zeroed every time.

I decided that in the interest of not wanting to fish for sting rays and wanting him to start feeling the bass fishing think like I do, I would give him a bait casting reel (Abu-Garcia Torno) and Rod (Cabela’s Fish Eagle II) for his birthday and show him how to use it. So, I took him up to Stafford on Sunday and got him started with the bait caster.

Naturally his bait caster became completely inoperable I about 2 hrs and 17 backlashes. So I put him on a spinning rod and had him drop shotting a 4” Sculpin. The water was very low, very cold, and totally devoid of vegetation. Add to that crisp bluebird skies and you can actually hear th4e fishing sucking. I was worried that this would be yet another skunk and further reinforce my stepbrother’s aversion to bass fishing and lure fishing in general.

First, I had him slow rolling a ¼ oz. tiny spinner bait, then a wacky rigged Senko, and finally a drop shot rig. After 4 hrs without a bite I told him we would hit a deeper spot that I usually fish during winter with a jig and then we would call it a day.

I usually don’t have first timers throwing anything other than wacky Senkos, drop shots, or tiny spinner baits, but this spot is a jig spot so I tied on a brown ¼ oz football head jig with a 4” Yamamoto twin tail grab in green pumpkin w/ black flake on 6# fluorocarbon on a drop shotting combo, and explained the simplest super slow hop and drag retrieve. When he was good to go I started throwing a big crank and 4” basstrix baby bass swimbait, working my way towards the dam.

From 50 yards away I heard him screaming and I watched him land a 3 lb bass that flops back into the water because he did not know how to pick it up - all the while screaming his head off. I could not have been more proud and when he caught a second smaller fish I snapped a quick photo and we called it a day.

I don’t know if he is going to bug me about bat rays again, but seeing him go cuckoo bananas and working a jig was a lot more fun than you think. So what the hell man, share the love.