Half Day Blues

I was joined by Leslie and his friend Elliot today for a half day of smallmouth bass fishing. We hooked up at 8:00 A.M. and were scheduled to fish until around 1:00 P.M. in almost perfect conditions. Winds were light, sunshine was out and it wasn’t a scorcher. Air temps were around 65 degrees at the beginning and expected to climb to about 80 by days end. Leslie drew the first bass as a rather small one of 2 pounds hammered the jerkbait halfway back to the boat. When it neared, I saw that he was being followed by one considerably larger and attempted to get a jig in beside. Too bad the fish came unpinned and both were soon a memory! Leslie wasn’t aware of the follower and really didn’t know what I was attempting to do but assured me that he would be ready for the next one. A few more bass were hooked into on the jerkbait but they were all loners and we never really got a chance to double by the boat during their fight. They were all of quality size with the largest going in the 4 pound range! Elliot wasn’t doing as well but could have had a much bigger one when it hit right along side the boat, jumped and disappeared back into the lake. It was definitely in the 5 pound class and instantly gone! They had a few more fish in the next hour as we just covered water looking for a bigger school of smallies and Elliot once again had another big one on only to lose it again when she went to the air. Leslie was getting into fish but not the caliber that Elliot was seeing. He was landing most of them though so he stuck to the jerkbait instead of the spinnerbait Elliot was tossing. We decided to try a couple of other areas seeing as how it was going to be a short day and made the run. This turned out to be our last stop as there were plenty of fish to be caught here and some of them were actually cooperating! In the next couple of hours both of them got into fish but Leslie definitely had the hot hand as he managed to land more and larger bass on soft plastics. Somewhere around 1:30 P.M. we decided to pack it in and call it a day. Elliot would have stayed out longer, but Leslie had work to do and needed to get back. Half days go so fast and it’s too bad we had to go because the fish seemed like they were just starting to come alive in the afternoon. Oh well, I guess they will just have to get back out again, real soon. All in all a good but short day on the lake with plenty of action had by all!!