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Knowing that today was gonna be hot and stinky, I told Bob that 12:30p would be our end time and then we could head over and get lunch. There was no threat of rain.
We were on the water by 6:45a and there was only 1 boat out there along with a couple of kayaks. Apparently, the top water bite was over because we only got 1 sniff in 45 minutes!
So we moved over to spot #2 where Bev and I had some success. Here, we both got our skunks off...
...and scored a total of 4 smallies!
I wanted to duplicate what Bev and I did up river a bit so we went.
It was slow at 1st, no love in the deep water.
Both of us got bites and also had fish on for a few cranks but we lost them. I think we "lost" 6 in total. At least we were getting some action.
The shoreline did not produce nor did the walleye hole. But that was my bad because we visited the wrong hole at 1st. Once we got to the real hole, the water was shallower. Then Bob got stuck and that was it.
So, we floated the middle.
My best bait was a white Berkley Max Scent Hit worm (the smaller one). I switched to a darker one and only got one fish.
Then, I went to grab my other spinning rod (put the white on it) and realized that it was the wrong rod. I said, "crap, this is the wrong rod, this is the one Bev uses"! So I made a cast and immediately got hit with this brute!
Guess the size and weight!
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It was a FAT 14.5" and weighed in one ounce shy of 2 lbs!
Great fight too!
A few minutes later, I got slammed! Just like a carp! It took off for DC and then it porpoised out of the water. Yep, looked like a carp. The next think I know, it's on the way to Leesburg and I am all entangled with Bob. But he's smooth and was able to clear his rod and line. No question that this was a carp because he was peeling line like crazy!
The fight was fierce, so much that my left hand cramped up! Bob was laughing his head off!
Finally, I control the fish and get him close and it's a big smallie! Surprise, surprise! Bob nets him and we get the pic!
This beast weighed in at 3lbs, 2oz. and was "only" 17.5"!
One of the best smallie fights that I have ever been in!
As we were getting ready to call it, Bob got another one.
I also had 2 fish on right before that, which I didn't get in the boat. One, I never saw but the other one was a channel cat that got off a few feet from the boat.
We got off the water and I kept the cover off the boat as I needed to gas it up and work on something when I got home.
While eating our Cuban sammies, it started to rain. Hard! It's a good thing that we didn't stay out longer and eat sammies on the boat. We would have gotten soaked!
Once it subsided, we both took off but it seemed that the T-storm that hit us curly cued back to us and stayed over me while I got gas. Boat was soaked!
I got home and it rained again so no boat work. Hopefully, the boat will dry up.
The fishing was a bit slow (total of 8 smallies).
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Those are some fat, healthy summer smallies, WTG.
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Nice report and nice looking smallies! Some dark ones. I was thinking about going out, but between not sleeping well and water not at 2 foot, I decided to wait. Solo in the new boat is a workout and had to take wife to PT at 4pm.
Really cool to see you did well. From what I have seen lately, topwater is done by 6:30am most mornings.
Last edited by drxfish (Jul-05-23 4:22PM)
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I forgot to post this pic that I took on the way home that day..
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Cool! I hear them out there and have seen them on the islands, but usually in the Spring and Fall.
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