Loving The Smallies

Ross was back with me again this fall and this time he brought along Jim, from a southern state. Last year, he had landed a personal best smallie of 5.4 pounds on his birthday, what would today bring? We hit the water shortly after 8:00 and as usual, were into fish immediately! Although the weather was a crisp one, the sun was shining and this made it quite comfortable. Air temps began in the mid 30’s and barely climbed over 40 degrees by days end. The water temps were somewhere around 47 or 48 degrees and the fish were active. With a light wind from the north blowing less than 5 knots, I knew they were in for a treat today. Once the learning curve passed, both Ross & Jim began to understand the difference between rocks and fish. This significantly improved their hookups! It was like a bouncing ball as it seemed like as soon as one of them locked up, the other wasn’t far behind. There were plenty of doubles in the mix today bringing the numbers way up, quickly. Jim hadn’t caught many, if any smallies before being from down south and couldn’t believe just how strong they fought. Both Ross & I explained that this wasn’t their full potential and he should try them in the summer when the water temps were higher. Nevertheless, he was more than happy to tangle with some of the finest fighting, freshwater fish that swim! We moved only a few times throughout the day as every time we stopped, we fell on piles of active bass. Never leave fish to find fish! We had found fish and were going to catch every one that bit before we up and left these areas. The morning bite was good and once the sun got up warming the air, the afternoon bite was even better. Ross may not have broken last years personal best, but he definitely had a blast trying. We fished right until 3:30, all the while catching bass until the final drift. I really don’t know how many bass were landed today but the numbers were pretty high. These fish were really active all day long and it was great to see them eating everything we threw at them. I’m sure Jim will go back home having a new favorite freshwater fish after today. Another great day to be fishing!