A dandy Smallmouth from Coot

This looks like a dandy fish. What is the length and weight and what was the magic bait? Now for the important stuff when are you going back and do you have an empty seat? Steve

This smallie came on the same reef that we were puling our better walleyes off of. It hit a crawler harness pulled across a shallow rock reef. Cool thing was we had the reef all to ourselves. Besides this smallie, we caught several eyes between 24″ & 27″, as well as many “tank” sheeps on the same reef. If you haven’t been on the Bay, Steve, you gotta get up there some time. I just wish it was closer so I could get up there a little more. Would like to get up there one more time yet this fall. Length of the smallie was 20.5″, had a hard time getting a good weight reading on the scale due to the choppy seas and the fish kept flopping so it was somewhere beteween 4 1/2 & 5 lbs.

Dan McGuire, is that you buddy?! I think I ran past you in the WI Channel, the weekend of the Frontenac Tourney, but didn’t recognize you until I was WAY by you. Good to see you around here.

Take care.

That would be me and probably was me. We were in the back channel for a while. How’s the fishing been for you this summer?

It’s been good buddy. The river continues to be good to us although it’s not been as easy as some years. The lower water has forced us to approach the bite in different ways… using light split shot rigs, drifting 1/16th ounce jigs, etc., in real shallow water with current to find active fish. The crankbait bite has been very inconsistent while a plain ole’
crawler has been the best for numbers.

I haven’t fished for walleye downstream of the bouy line / head of the lake in months.