Tough Break Today

Jason & his son Max were wanting to learn about the lake they fished, so I took a road trip to see what I could do. We met up about 8:00 and headed out in search of some smallmouth bass. Soft plastics were going to be used and hopefully the fish would cooperate!

Jason was the first to hook up and it was a real good one too! He had been having problems in the past, catching anything, so this was a real treat. After a great fight, I slid the net under his catch. He was absolutely amazed at its overall size and after a few pics, it was returned to the lake unharmed. Max was into the next one from the same area, but unfortunately it came unpinned. We covered water in search of more, but it ended the same way, with lost fish. I hoped this wouldn’t be the norm for today!

I jumped to a different spot and Jason did land another, slightly smaller in size. Along with this one, he added a few more lost ones as well. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there as Max had the same thing happen too! For some reason they were just coming off! With each place we fished, similar results were happening. The next move saw several fish in the area, swimming and I knew we just had to get lucky! Despite Max’s blow up on one of the baits that ended poorly, another did fall victim to a dropshot.

I had about given up on this place when another pick-up was had and this time Max was into a big fish. I just hoped that it stayed pinned! I’m not quite sure what happened next, but somehow the line tangled around the tip of his rod and I had to hand line it into the net. At least this one stayed on long enough to be landed! It was so big that Max decided to let his dad hold it for the pics instead. He wasn’t sure if he would drop it and didn’t want to take the chance. We shot fast and released the fish unharmed!

With each spot we hit, more fish were missed or lost. It was just one of those days where luck was not on our side. They just couldn’t catch a break today! This continued to the very end with more missed fish and we finally ended the misery. By 4:00 we were ready to go!

Jason & Max may not have been the luckiest today but they did leave with a better understanding of the water they fish. Hopefully in the future they will refine the techniques they learned and be able to adjust to the conditions on any given day. They do know now that there’s still fish in the lake and will try harder to catch them the next time out. Better days ahead!!