Another Average Day

Well, Norm was back out again today just itching for some more smallie action and he found it. We hit the lake just after 7:00 A.M. and were casting into roaming pods of bass by 7:15. Water clarity was pretty good despite all the wind & rain we had lately and temps were still around 74 degrees. Slightly overcast conditions greeted us along with light winds and mid 70 degree air. It would be getting quite a bit warmer later on with the sunshine and high humidity but for now it was quite comfortable. I believe Norm’s first hookup was on a spinnerbait as it was the easiest locator bait to search for the smallies. Unfortunately it jumped off along side the boat and dashed away with all the other bigguns. It was definitely a four plus and a couple of the others looked to be topping the 5 pound bracket as well. We continued along our way after trying to relocate the pod without any success. Another group was located not too far away and once more Norm was tight to a spinnerbait bass. This time however, there were many others with her and we stayed on them afterwards catching a few more on different lures. Although there weren’t any real giants landed in this group, there were definitely a few with the potential. It’s ironic how fast they spook when you catch just a couple and only the smaller ones chose to bite afterwards. We made several more pit stops on specific areas and picked a few more along the way before I stumbled upon the mother load. It was finally here that the numbers started to climb. Although most were caught on soft plastics, there were several that fell victim to a spinnerbait and an occasional jerkbait too. As with all the other locations, the real bigguns just didn’t seem to want to bite and we had to settle for fish only up to 4 pounds. Tough job for anyone to accept! Norm had brought Buddha along with him once again today and seeing as it was getting pretty hot, we decided to let him out for a quick swim where we were. It wasn’t too difficult to convince him to jump in as the water was below 2 feet deep and solid enough for him to feel comfortable. This went on for about 15 minutes and before we knew it, Buddha was leaping back into the boat like a Gazelle. For a dog that weighs over 120 pounds, he’s pretty agile! Back to fishing and Norm wasted no time hooking up on a real good fish on top water but he thought it was a pike because of the length. Too bad it got off because it wasn’t! It was just an overly large smallie and smart enough to bury him in the weeds, escaping. Oh well, there’s always more! A bunch of other smaller ones were taken on a tube before we decided to try one of the other areas we had found a concentration of bigger ones earlier in the day. Norm locked up pretty much on the first cast when I pointed the area out and it was of better quality too. Another mishap occurred along side the boat when the spinnerbait broke off on one of the leaps. Luckily for the bass, the blades went one way and the smallie went the other. Talk about a slap in the face! He caught a few more smaller ones and we decided to call it quits. Back to the ramp with only an average day to show for our efforts but we did see plenty of fish to know we were in the right areas. They just didn’t seem to want to cooperate today but that’s alright, we’ll be back again soon as “Man Always Wins”, sometimes!!