Even Bigger Winds

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October 25th 2018

 

Phillip & Ryan were with me today, looking for a few big smallies. I decided to take a road trip to another lake in search of personal best records. Hopefully they would get into them big time!

We hit the water after 8:30 in temps barely above freezing. Added to that was a NW wind that was expected to increase during the day. It was definitely going to be a challenge just to feel the bites !

Our first spot was on a fast current break and I was locked up instantly while making a demonstration cast. I immediately passed the rod to Phillip, letting him do battle with the fish. He was impressed at how strong it fought and loved every second of the fight. We had started the day with a bang and the first smallie was quality! Hopefully now they understood what they needed to do!

Both of them had made several casts to the same general area without much happening until Phillip finally got crushed. I could tell by the way this one was fighting that it was a heavy fish. When I finally saw it jump, I knew that this was the one I was looking for and that he had a monster on the line. It didn’t seem to want to come to the boat much so I released the anchor lock and drifted down to her. At least this way he wouldn’t be fighting the current as much, lessening the chance of it pulling free. Once we were close enough, I locked the motor again and netted his giant. It would definitely be his personal best and well worth several pics before the release. This one fish alone made his day, but I planned on getting them many more!

I repositioned the boat again and soon after Phillip was tight to another bass. Although it wasn’t as big as his previous one, it was still welcomed on this chilly day! Ryan wasn’t having as much luck and still looking for his first hookup. Although he may have had a few hits, he wasn’t able to hook any of them, as of yet! Phillip on the other hand was getting into fish quite regularly and landed several other decent ones while we were there.

A slight change in plans had us running back to the ramp to pick up another friend of theirs by mid day. This also gave Phillip a chance to change the boots he was wearing as his feet had been cold all morning. It would be a win, win for both!

We headed back out with Patrick in hopes of more big fish for the afternoon. With this many bodies casting, I decided to try something different. They would be using jigs and hopefully be able to feel the bites. The winds had picked up considerably now and it wouldn’t be easy to detect the hits with all the slack in their lines.

I had pulled into a rocky area, instructed them where to cast and it didn’t take long for the first fish to get hooked. Phillip battled another big bass and eventually brought it to the net. They may not have been getting loads of fish but the ones we were catching were big! He went right back in after the release and moments later was tight to another good one. This area definitely held fish as they could see. Too bad the others couldn’t hook up! Several misses later I was changing locations once again hoping for more big bites.

I had moved them from one rocky area to another and apparently it was the right choice. Phillip was right back to his old tricks by stabbing another huge bass almost instantly. Although it didn’t fight much until it neared the boat, it did go crazy when it saw the net. He had a difficult time bringing it up for me to get but eventually it came in the boat. Another absolutely huge smallie was added to the ones he had already landed and he was on a role for bigguns today! He even managed to catch a few more from the area before I relocated again. I really wanted to get the others into some fish and was determined to get it done.

We had slid out to deeper water now and I worked with Patrick, trying to get him hooked up. As soon as I hit the area I wanted, he was fighting his first bass! It was another good smallie and definitely worth a pic. It was also his biggest to date and another personal best was had! All that was left for me to do was get Ryan into one now and almost cue, he too was bringing one to net. More pics and more personal bests were had, as they continued casting the area looking for others. Too bad all they could come up with were missed strikes. Time for one last spot before we were done!

I had gone to a place that I wanted to start on this morning but due to another boat there, had opted for a different area. Now I was able to finish up with hopefully a few more fish! My first demonstration cast had me locked and passing the rod to Patrick to land the fish. He also had another on his own a little later and boated a decent bass again. The others only keep their fish pinned briefly before the hooks pulled free, leaving them with slack line. They may have only landed few fish from here but there were definitely plenty of chances!

By 4:00 I pulled the plug and headed back to take out. Today was one filled with size, not numbers and it couldn’t have ended any better. Despite difficult conditions, they were all able to land personal bests with Phillip coming out on top. He had caught several big fish, all of which would have been bigger than anything he had ever seen. This was definitely a day to remember by everyone!!