Two weekends ago I got out on pool 11 to chase a few smallies. Not knowing what the water conditions were like I didn’t know what to expect. The water level was much higher than expected with the current whipping pretty hard and lots of grass floating down the main strip. First rock point I pulled up on a 17” bronzeback smacked my bomber fat free shad, I thought oh boy this is going to be a day to remember! You guessed it, I was wrong, the rest of the day was TOUGH going. With the water being high, whether it was a wing damn, channel marker or just a rock point the fish were on the inside of the current breaks tucked way back in out of the current. I ended up catching 6 total smallmouth, 2 being legal fish. Pretty disappointing to say the least but it was still good to get out and play a little tug-of-war with those hard pulling bronzebacks! Best baits throughout the day was a bomber fat free shad and a Picasso football jig tipped with a rage craw.
This past weekend my buddy Jared was able to make it back for the weekend from college and make a trip to Pool 10 with me. We main target was both smallmouth and largemouth. We hit a few wingdams early before the wing picked up then the plan was to head to some backwater areas for largemouth. One nice 17” bronzeback fell victim to my bomber crank and we had had enough of the wingdams and decided to chase “my bread a butter” largemouth. The key was to find the healthiest looking weeds that you could find and you were on fish for the most part. The best technique of the day was slow rolling a white spinnerbait around wood and weed clumps. I did manage to pick a few fish up on a jerkbait but the spinnerbait out-produced it by far on this particular day. We caught quite a few largies throughout the day but only had 4 legit keeper fish. I took big fish honors home today with a nice fat 3 lb fish which was our biggest. Not a great day but we had a blast. For those of you who have winterized your rod and reels for the winter you may want to think twice as this is IMO the best time of year to be out! Get out and enjoy some late season bassin 
-First Pic is a 30+ inch pike i caught a few weeks ago on Pool 10
– The next two pics are Pool 11 smallmouth
-Next 3 are pool 10 fish
. Did you ever hit the wingdam below “old snaggy”. It was this time last year when they stacked up on it. Looks like some weeds are still looking fairly decent in the retirement hole. I have retired my 
i plan on chasing smallies a couple more times atleast. glad to know your gettin some 
