The days have been long, but that’s due in large part to the fishing, which has been rejuvenating.
Unfortunately, the card reader’s not reading the photos from my camera and I’m writing this on the back porch in the dark, wearing a headlamp and getting eaten by mosquitoes, so here are the highlights:
On Wednesday a local guide and I endured a pummeling at the hands of several rainstorms (a measured 1.5″ of rain in the rain gauge at the canoe), but still managed to land a steady stream of Big Lake smallmouth.
I had a couple in the 16″-17″ range, and way more than a couple in the 13″-14″ range.
Not exactly world-beating stuff, but damned satisfying on a day when most of the fishermen seemed to be running for cover instead of hooking up.
Thursday (today) was clearer, warmer and windier — the kind of post-front bluebird day that would prompt me to say “we’ll have to work for ‘em today” in one of those statements meant to make me seem like a knowledgeable expert (which I’m not).
For the first half of the day, it was true; only a few bass were fooled, and the Big Shore Lunch was imperiled by our inability to boat fish in the 10″-12″ slot limit.
Luckily, one of the boats trolling leadcore got a couple to match our couple (this was a big family fishing day, with four Grand Laker canoes on the water), and lunch was saved.
Later, we split up, and my guide and I pulled up on an island (that looked like all the other islands) and he said “I’ve always meant to fish this, never have.”
First cast = 13″ smallmouth bass.
Second cast = 14″ smallmouth bass.
The next 20 casts = nice-sized smallmouth bass.
This went on for a good half hour — right up until we started circling the island (we hadn’t moved) because we were feeling guilty about beating up that one spot.
Two hours later we simply gave up and went home, the bite having “slowed” from every-cast to every-fourth-or-fifth cast.
Even gluttony, it seems, is relative.
There’s plenty more to come — but only when the mosquitoes are having dinner somewhere else. (Expect Grand Laker canoe pics and “A Knowledgeable Expert Tells You How to Catch a Smallmouth Bass On Every Cast”
See you on the lake, Tom Chandler.
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