Bye Bye Monkey

We headed out this morning in pursuit of that elusive, lunker smallmouth bass for Norm. He had wanted a fish over 5 pounds all fall, but would this be the day? The weather was a chilly 27 degrees when we arrived at the water and it really didn’t climb that much. A high of 35 degrees was all that we were to see today along with overcast skies and winds from the S/E at 10 to 15 K. Water temps were a balmy 41.3 degrees at best and I knew it was going to be a tough bite! I told Norm that we would need to really slow down our retrieves and allow time for the hookset if we were going to manage to catch anything. The morning bite was more difficult than usual and I had to move around plenty to finally find what I was looking for. With the colder water temps, the fish weren’t moving too much and we had to almost deadstick our tubes in order to get bit. The fish were averaging 4 pounds or better, but they were not coming easy! We caught a number of them along with a couple of walleye, but the largest that Norm could manage to land was one that weighed 4 ¾ pounds. Damn four pounders! I wasn’t fishing much but still managed to get into a fish that weighed almost 5 ½ pounds while searching and wished I hadn’t made that cast! We continued moving around, catching a few here & there and then it happened. Norm set the hook on a big one and I knew he had finally latched onto the one he was searching for. When it jumped, we were both in awe as she was barely able to get her fat body clear of the water. I netted the smallie and when we finally weighed her, she went 5 pounds 9 ounces. The monkey was officially off of Norm’s back too! He had paid his dues and overcome the possibility of ending the year without his five pounder. After several quick pics, she was released to the water and swam off to the depths from where she had come from. With a couple of daylight hours left, we decided to continue fishing and managed to get into several more bass along with another nice walleye of 3.5 pounds that Norm had landed. Although the action wasn’t fast & furious, I was still pleased with the outcome. This is the time of year for big fish, not numbers and Norm had definitely succeeded! I’m sure he’ll sleep better tonight!