MEA Smallies

Takes a lickin and Keeps on tickin

Nice Colors

Every year, I head to the river over MEA.  The smallies cooperate most of the time, and sometimes you get a big one too.  The biggest I caught was 20", but literally every fish is exciting.  I caught a 28 " cat fish that had me thinking it was a Giant smallie.  It ripped out drag, up and down stream.  I know I caught a few over 19" too.  Occasionally, I will think I have a giant on, and it turns out to be an 18 1/2 that just happens to fight like a six pounder!  This time of year is great, and if you like catching smallies, the river is a nice place to get some 4 plus pounders, and their fight is unmatched!  I don't even take picture of most of the fish.  If it is over 19"  I try to take a picture, but sometimes I just want to get my line back in the water, because when they are biting they are ferocious!

Nice Belly

Big Cat 

October Surprise - River Smallies

 It was a beautiful day to catch smallies on the river.  What a blast! Caught my biggests smallie ever at 21".  I had my cell phone with, so I didn't get the best pictures, but you can see with an 18", two mid 19"'s, and a 21", it was worth it to miss watching a little football this afternoon.  You can see the size of the 21" in the bulging eye photo, and the height of this fish, as I layed it over my waders.  It was a tank.  I thought it was a big catfish at first, until it bolted, and pulled drag.  I probably ended up catching between 15 and 20 smallies.  I know I caught three in three casts at one point.  The water is starting to cool, but I wore the summer waders without any problem.

Fat, Tall, Beast, 21"

Mid 19"

mid 19" again

21" of smallie power!

Nice Cabin Bass

16 3/4,  over 3 lbs

 I enjoyed getting back on the water after having my first child.    I tossed around for musky, and finally couldn't stand not catching them.  So, I grabbed the G'Loomis with the Texas Rig, and started catching bass!    The GL2 pulled these chunker's in nicely.  I did a fair amount of crankbait fishing too with some nice action, and managed to put a topwater frog bass in the boat too.  It was fun to use multiple methods, successfully after being away from the water for so long. Probably not much more than 2 months...   I am very optimistic that these two fish are an indication that the size on the lake could be increasing.  I also saw a dead fish floating this weekend that was probably around 20 inches.   My theory has always been the Musky keep the size down, even though the fish on this lake have always been chunky.  But, lakes go in cycles, and I think the size is on its was up!    Can't wait to start river fishing smallies.    

16 1/2 approaching 3 lbs