The weather had cleared throughout the night, but I believe we were still in the tail end of the front at 7:00 a.m. As the sun rose, the sky took on a brilliant blue (Blue Bird Sky). What a relief after yesterday's snow storm! The temperature was 29 degrees at the ramp.
I was surprised that northwest of us only got a snow dusting. But I believe they were sitting right on the edge while we in Willow Street, Pa. were in the heart of the storm.
A westerly breeze greeted us at the ramp in the morning and it picked up as the morning progressed. It's direction changed as noon approached and shifted to the north, blowing downriver on us the rest of the fishing trip.
The air temp only rose to 34 degrees throughout the day. By the time we came off the water at 3:20 p.m., there were even some clouds passing by.
The day started out very slow as we fished some nice clear to green stained water. The only fish we caught in the first two hours was a small Fall Fish on an open hooked tube. We weren't discouraged though because we knew that the 38 degree water would warm somewhat as the day progressed.
We hit three spots before this nice 18+ walleye took a soft plastic. The area was along rocky bank with the sun beating on it. Great late Fall spot!
I know that Petey likes to eat walleye and he now had tonight's supper in the livewell. Since his wife was working until 9:00 p.m. That walleye was all his... LOL! But wait, we weren't done with the walleyes just yet.
As the day passed by, we were able to catch two more larger walleye. These two "marble eyes" beauties measured over 19" each. I now knew that Petey would be eating like a king and he deserved it for being out on a day like today! It was a day when we only saw two other boats braving the cold in a three mile stretch of river.
The two walleye were meaty and Petey showed the size of the one 19 inch walleye by placing the head of the other 19"er into it's mouth. Impressive size!
Okay... We were on the water now for over three hours and we had two Fall Fish and three legal walleye in the boat. But where the heck were all the smallmouth!?
The day was warming to a chilly 30's and the water temp was pretty much holding steady at 38 degrees.
We eventually were able to coaxed a nice chunky 14" smallie to take hold of a soft plastic tube... Finally, a smallmouth bite!
Things were looking up, for sure. We hit to more smallies before this "pigbeast" took ahold of my tube... A 20" citation bass. Yes!
This is what we came for (another view).
We ended the day with six smallmouth, three legal walleye, and two fall fish.
I only regret one thing today. After the first 20" smallie came into the boat, we made another drift over the same area and I hooked into another monster bass. As I set the hook, my reel backed off and I got loose line. "Drats!" With the speed of a sloth I was able to grab the rod and line in my right and and keep pressure on the fish as I reeled in the slack. The fish ran out in front of the boat (Me being 17' away) in a split second. Once I got the reel back under control, I went to turn the fishes head to take back control and the unthinkable happened, the tube popped out of it's mouth... Oh, well! These things happen and I'll just have to claim a "Janet Jackson Super Bowl XXXVIII... Equipment Malfunction!" :-)
dadTB
