Made the long trek up north to Niobrara State Park with the boys for Labor Day weekend. Had never visited this park and really enjoyed it. The park was clean and unlittered and had good facilities. Boys enjoysed seeing deer and wild turkey wandering the park grounds. The only negative was that the mosquitos were the size of condors and seemed to laugh at our attempts to ward them off with mere bug spray. 
A storm moved in Saturday night and dropped the temps from the mid 90s to about 80 degrees. While this made for a cooler more comfortable day out on the water on Sunday it seemed to have turned off the fish and put them into a negative mood. 
We worked really hard to find active fish using a coupld different strategies. We were mostly targeting smallmouths and switched back and forth from trying to use finesse worms rigged wacky style under a float and casting squarebill cranks and flicker shads up against the shores. Also made some attempts to troll to cover more water due to the slow conditions. Both boys caught their first pike but neither was willing to hold it for a picture. We lots chances for a few other fish by trying to pass over rods to the boys by hooking fish. Those smallmouths can really shake loose if you give them any slack at all.
Persistance paid off for me towards the end of the day though when I hooked into my personal best white bass. A 17 1/2″ fat pig. Not sure that I will get back to this location anytime soon but it was certainly memorable.
