Smallies & Sore Hands

Christian & John were finally able to coordinate their schedule and were with me today for some smallmouth action. We were going to have a great day with well above average air temps that could reach 70 degrees! Is this actually November? Sunshine started the day but soon gave way to clouds and the winds became insane. They weren’t supposed to be that bad but who can figure out the weather forecasts! At one point they were blowing 15 to 25 knots with heavier gusts over 30 from the south. Although it may have been incredibly strong, it was also unbelievably warm. The first fish of the day was from Christian and it proved to be his personal best at over 4 pounds. I thought this was great and told him that he would be breaking that record a few more times throughout the day too. He managed to get the first 4 or 5 fish in the boat before John finally locked up. It was taking him a little longer to slow the presentations down but once he did he was on his way to many more. I don’t want to say that these guys were competitive but they were counting each & every fish, keeping score. Christian was always slightly in the lead but John was not too far behind him and it seemed like someone was always locked up. They had several doubles during the day and were having a blast with these 2 to 3 pound smallies but I was looking for bigger & better. Although Christian had broken his personal best 3 or 4 times now and was officially at 4.54 pounds, I knew he could still do better. Somewhere late in the afternoon he finally hit one that I was pretty sure would top all the rest and once on the scale he saw that it went slightly above the five pound mark. I think we could have gone home after that one as his day was made! A few quick pics and back she went to join all the others from this day. We fished until somewhere around 4:15 and with darkness approaching quicker each day, decided to call it a day. Ironically with all the fish landed they ended in a tie. Both John and Christian had the winning fish on many times but broke even in the end. No bragging rights for anyone today as they would have to settle for the same amount of fish, but that’s not a bad thing. They had caught plenty of bass and had a great time doing it too. I love the fact that both of them are going home with sore thumbs and a little less skin on the fingers too. Now they know how I feel each and every day. What a great day to be fishing!!