Another Personal Best

Day two in the quest for big fish saw us on a different body of water, targeting smallmouth. I wanted to have both of them land fish in excess of five pounds and had plenty of places to try. We were faced with the dreaded cold morning once again but this time it would hopefully work in our favor. With water temps between 55 and 64 degrees, it really had the fish spread out. I headed to a fairly shallow area to begin and instructed them on how to fish the twitch baits they were using. Once I was satisfied that they had it down, we moved in to the zone. Howard was working the bait pretty good and had the first take on it as well. Although not the trophy we were looking for, the 3.5 pounder was still a welcome treat on the light tackle. He immediately went back to fishing once the bass was landed and not long after had an even bigger one on the line. This time it was over 4.5 pounds and things were looking up! After a great fight, I was able to slide the net under her and he finally had a fish worthy of pics. In the next couple of hours Howard managed to have several more on, landing most. He even had another 4.5 pound smallie to add to the one he caught earlier in the morning. As I had live welled them, he was able to get a few nice double pics before being released back to this area. Andrew wasn’t as lucky with his fishing and only managed to land one small bass just under 2 pounds. Although they both had several more follows, I decided to pull the plug when the sun appeared. The overcast skies had given us the advantage but now our presence was known and all we could do was watch the fish swim. I made a long run and decided that they were going to continue with the same baits. In the next place, both of them hooked up almost immediately but too much pressure was applied and both fish were gone. I think Andrew was the only one to land anything here but Howard had his chances too. Light line and tiny hooks require finesse but too much pressure caused early releases! We kept moving and I stayed pretty shallow hoping for quicker action, but only a handful of fish were caught. I had wanted to try deeper and headed to another area a little further away to give it a try. They dropped down to the abyss and once they got back in the groove, the games began. After several misses, they hooked up in tandem and both good fish. A couple of four pound bookends came aboard and were put back quickly due to the pressure change. At these depths, you don’t want to keep them out too long as fizzing would be required. We stuck it out in the deep for the balance of the afternoon with only incidental fish here & there. I think more fish were lost than landed as it proved difficult for them to keep tension on the rods. We ended with a fish Andrew landed and called it a day. Although no fives were caught, they still had a fair share of quality bites and Howard managed another personal best, twice! Tomorrow I think I just might take them back for more sturgeon action. Who knows, maybe they’ll get another personal best one more time!!