With all that traffic, I decided that Bert and I should take the jet boat and head to the river. I fished some of my favorite water from 8 to 11 AM without a strike. I was really getting bummed out when I finally caught a dink on a do-nothing type 3" plastic worm that was sent to me as a sample. Then another, and another, etc. and they kept getting bigger, finally rising to 17" with a belly that looked like it had swallowed a turtle. By then my sample worm was ripped to shreds, and I was cutting Yum Dinger's down to 3.5" and swimming them very slowly on a 1/8 oz ball head jig.
Then I hit the mother lode. On a gravel bar in about 4-5 feet of water, sloping to the deepest hole in that section of the river, I caught about 10, but two were 18" and one was a dandy 20" smallmouth. These river fish of that size are extremely strong and I had my hands full with all of them. (Bert yawned).
I'd guess I landed about 25-30 total between 11:00 and 1:00. It was great. (Bert yawned).
Since this is a tackle site, my tackle was all modern. A St. Croix 6' Legend Elite casting rod, and a Shimano Conquest 50S (Japanese Domestic Market) reel. This is about as nice a smallmouth casting outfit as there is. That reel will be very collectible in the future. (Marilyn yawns).
