The Perfect Storm

Well, today was a real treat! Craig & Herm joined me once again for another shot at some jumbino smallies. Herm still hadn’t landed a smallie over 5 pounds and was determined to do so on this hurricane like day. To say the conditions were adverse would have been the understatement of the year. They were insane! We had 37-degree air temps with a wind from the W blowing at 20 to 30 knots with gusts exceeding 40 knots. If that wasn’t enough to bring you to your knees, throw in rain and snow from time to time just for kicks. The possibility of any sun was as good as winning the lottery & we had to settle for thick cloud cover the entire day. Water temps were hovering around 47 degrees and really dirty. I think it was on Craig’s second cast that he was locked up and a nice walleye of 2.5 pounds was soon swimming in the livewell for their evening dinner. Herm got into a few smallies not too long after, but they were a little on the smaller side and I decided to relocate. Into the hurricane we went and a rolling we did go! The most difficult thing about today was just to feel the bottom and any pickups that we had. I’m sure we all missed many fish that we never knew were there! Both Herm & Craig managed to catch several fish, but it was really slow. Between the wind and the weeds, it was difficult to detect any bites and the fish almost had to commit suicide in order to get hooked. At one point, I had to go to a heavier jig just so they could feel the bottom. I guess this was the ticket as Herm finally locked up on his personal best. When I saw the fish take to the air, I knew he had a real giant on the end of his line. When I got her in the net though, we were all amazed at just how fat she really was. Now we were sure it was over five but weighed the fish just for confirmation. It locked on at 5 pounds 6 ounces and Herm had gotten that monkey off of his back! Under these conditions I was surprised that we were able to catch anything, let alone a fish of that size. Several others were taken around the same size and many slightly smaller before we threw in the towel and headed to the truck. We had stuck it out for the entire day and that was amazing in itself, but to actually have Herm land his personal best on a day like this was something to be proud of. I’m sure there will be plenty of stories told about this day & how crazy we were to be on the water in pursuit of another lunker smallmouth!