The Smallies Win

Harry & Peter were to accompany me to a local lake today for more smallie action. This was the first time in a while that either had fished and I had my work cut out for me. The sun was out for the morning, but clouds were soon to follow for the afternoon. Air temps began in the 50’s and barely climbed no more than a couple of degrees by days end. The water temps were also between 56 & 59 degrees depending on where you were. I told both Harry & Peter that at least one of them would be into a fish in 1 to 3 minutes after they began their drift. They looked at me like I was crazy! Well, it took less than 1 minute for Harry to hook into and lose his first as it went airborne and threw the hook. Within seconds after setting the lines into the strike zones again, same thing. Harry was 0 for 2 before Peter could even manage a strike and it began. Fish after fish was prematurely released as both began to drop fish. I think it was somewhere after the 10th lost fish before Peter finally landed one. Nothing too big at 3 pounds, but it was definitely a blessing as they got that monkey off their back. Soon after, Harry was also landing another of about the same size and it began. Many fish were hooked, but many more were dropped as they tried to get them to net. I think the fish were striking a little short this morning! We tried deep water to begin and eventually moved shallower hoping for more success. Pretty much the same thing was to occur as some fish were landed but most were lost. The winds began to pick up and blow much stronger by mid morning and before we knew it, they were gusting at about 30 knots from the S/W. This was making boat control really difficult in some areas as I tried some shallower water. Once again, more fish lost than landed including one over 5 pounds as she jumped and threw the jig back in our face. Harry finally managed to get into a real good one over 4 pounds on a spinnerbait and the hook fell out when I netted her. At least this one came to net! We moved around a little more, hooked a few more and decided to call it a day. There weren’t too many fish landed, but there were probably between 30 & 40 fish on today. I guess the fish have to win one once in a while!