It’s been crazy busy the last few days with company in town from California and my dad buying a new boat. I started the weekend meeting dad at the cabin to take him out in his boat and show him how to use his I-pilot, graphs, and just how to run his boat in general. He went from a 16′ 40hp to a 17.5′ 115hp, big step up for someone that only fishes a few times a year. Showing him everything went really good and it’s a nice boat, he will like it.
Sunday was busy and couldn’t get out with a party we had to go to in the afternoon but the weather really looked good for today, warm sun and little wind. I asked Mike if he wanted to get out and try fishing on the river. Mike is a game warden in California and was excited to give it a try, where he lives it’s mostly hunting and he doesn’t get a chance to fish much.
Initially the plan was he was just going to ride along and not fish but he decided to give it a try since he was here and we had to stop for bait. I started the morning by hitting the usual spots and was not having much luck, we actually didn’t get anything the first few hours except someone elses fishing pole that had been laying on the bottom for a year or 2. We started south and worked spots on our way back to the landing. On one of the spots getting close to home Mike thought he may have a fish. I told him to let him take a little line before setting the hook, so he he did and he ended up catching the big fish of the day, a 21″ eye. We continued to work that spot and picked up a couple more before moving to the next spot. On the next spot we tried the same thing with similar results, a couple more nice eyes and a 17″ sauger. We ended the morning catching a few fish and just enjoying a perfect day on the water, 72 degrees and no wind. The smallest fish we caught was 16″, everything on live bait, and the depth varied from 12′ to 28′ (couldn’t put anything together on this).
I saw a lot of smallmouth busting the surface earlier in the day and I thought to at least get him a fish I would put a Rapala on a rod and let him cast to them, that was until I rememebered the season is still closed. Mike didn’t think it would look good to get a ticket in another state for fishing for a closed species.
