I Caught a Delicious Bass

Here is a 21" smallmouth bass I caught on a jig and minnow one morning. I would rather catch smallies than any other fish, it's a tired cliche but pound for pound they are the best fighting freshwater fish. It's even more challenging in a canoe to land these fishes we lovingly call "sows, pigs or bruisers". I don't kill any of these big fish, strictly CPR, that is catch, photo and release. It takes a fish 10-15 years to get this big and they are the prime spawners that carry that big fish gene. We will eat smaller smallmouth if we have no walleyes on the stringer. The walleyes, aka" waldos or eyes", were few and far between, difficult to locate do to the warm water temps. They were probably hangin' on the deep reefs and without a depth finder it was a guessing game. However, the smallmouth were very cooperative and 30-50 fish per day was typical, most of them were "eater" size with a few bruisers to make it interesting. I ran out of bait on day 6 so it was a good thing Jerry and Corey came and they had a ton of minnows which they graciously supplied. I did not catch a northern pike the whole time I was there, very strange and eerie. Usually you can't help catch those aggressive toothy bastards. The B-dub can be a very fickle enigmatic mistress. More later.