Personal Best Smallie

I had the day off so I decided to fish with an old friend of mine from Ottawa. Keith was about to experience one of the finest fall fishing days of his life as we targeted huge smaallmouth bass. The weather was a beautiful sunny cool one with air temps in the mid 40’s and no wind. The sunshine definitely makes a difference at this time of year for the warmth! Water temps were 53 degrees and cooling daily with the night temperatures nearing the freezing mark. Keith started his day off right with a smallie over four pounds within the first 5 minutes. Nice fish for a starter, but I knew the best was yet to come. Not wanting to let him lead for too long, I slammed into one even bigger shortly after and showed him what a five-pound smallmouth looks like. Several more fish were caught and a few others lost before Keith finally hooked into what I was searching for. This one came aboard and weighed 5 pounds 4 ounces. A personal best for him! The rest of the day was a little slow, as the fishing seemed to shut down after the big one was caught. We covered plenty more water and caught a few other fish, but nothing really over 4 pounds. I figured we’d take a few quick photos and fish for a little longer before we called it quits. With the sun going down and the temps getting cooler, a few more casts were about all that was left in this beautiful day. I landed one more 4 pounder on a tube and Keith should have topped that one if the hooks would have stayed in. A 4.5-pound smallie went airborne and I’m sure I saw it laughing at Keith as the hook went flying out. With this, I knew it was time to call it quits and headed for the boat ramp. It would have been a sin to have not been out there on this spectacular fall day!