I know, I know...it's been a long time since I've made a post to the blog. It's not like I haven't been fishing or anything like that...quite the contrary. It's just that I'm fishing so much and catching such great fish that I don't have the time to brag about it. ;) Once the Winter hits, I'll have plenty of time to relive the fish stories...and most likely in retrospect they'll be much more entertaining and the scale of grandeur will be amplified. As is with any fish story...
With that said, I had an outing Wednesday night that exemplifies "blogworthy" to the fullest degree. Mikey showed up to hit the honey hole and brought Bruce with him, whom I haven't seen in damn near 10 years. I tell ya what, I've reconnected with so many old friends in the past year through fishing and Facebook. Pretty damn cool if you ask me...
So we step up to the Darby and I told Bruce that we'd make a few casts into the pool and catch a couple of Smallmouths before we go back to the Honeyhole.
On my first cast I set the hook and it was a MONSTER. My drag was set pretty dang tight but it was still SCREAMING. While the fish is hooked I'm jumping up and down on the bank yelling about the size of the fish I have hooked up. All of the sudden the Smalley BURSTS up out of the water and tries to throw the hook! Mikey, Bruce and I all can't believe our eyes! It's an absolute pig! I land the fish after a long and loud fight and it's THE BIGGEST SMALLMOUTH I'VE EVER CAUGHT!
18 inches 4.5 WHOPPING POUNDS! After 3lbs my scale only goes by the 1/2, and it was closer to 5 than it was 4
We all caught a few more smalleys from the hot spot before it dried out and we decided to move to the Honeyhole. It was sloooooooow out there. I only caught 4 largemouth with the biggest about 2.5lbs. We went back to the Darby as the sun set. We had already made the cardinal sin...leaving fish to find fish. Back at the Darby Mikey and Bruce both hooked up at the same time on a double and i had a smalley get off to nix the triple. The smalley bite is HOT SON!
We moved downstream to some nice looking pools and on the first cast I had another giant BLOW UP the senko! I set the hook and this fish was PIIIIIIISSED! She started running RIGHT AT ME! Mikey had asked me a few days before if I've ever had a smallmouth charge at me, and i about freaked out when this thing darted right at my leg. Once i corralled this beast I swung him into the weeds and went nuts
Unfortunately, this fish had the hook deep in his throat. We had to cut the line and release the fish with the hook still stuck in his gullet. That's how aggressive these fish are feeding right now. Every single one of the 10+ fish we caught were all fatter than I've ever seen them. With the changing weather they're gorging themselves...and I'm more than happy to give them something to chew on
