What a great treat! I got to fish with one of my favorite fishing buddies twice in one week. That doesn't always happen in this crazy mixed-up world we live in. But when Josh asked me if I wanted to go fishing again today, I jumped at the opportunity.
We decided to meet at 6:00 am. and head to Gus's Family Restaurant in Mt. Joy, Pa. for breakfast. There's no better way to start a day of fishing than to have a good breakfast inside you. We also got to talk over the day's strategy and whatever else popped into our heads.
We made it to the ramp and on the water around 7:30 am. and headed to one of our favorite fishing holes. The fish weren't jumping in the boat right away, but Josh was able to hook into a couple of nice 17" smallies within the first hour.
Josh was definitely on track this morning and jumped out to four fish lead before I was able to get on the board.
Take a look at his fourth fish of the morning. This one made me jealous and wondering, "What the heck was going on here!?" :)
It was a beautiful 19" smallie that came to hand on a tube with an eighth oz. tube jig.
I was getting my butt kicked until this fine specimen of a smallmouth grabbed my offering.... Finally, a fish!
And what a fish it was... Another C-class 20" smallmouth for dad!
It looked like our hole was holding a few pigbeast today and we weren't quite done yet.
Josh and I both caught several 16.5" smallies throughout the day and I was able to land a third 17" for the boat.
But Josh wasn't done by a long shot. We gave our spot a rest for about an hour while we ate lunch and talked about life. When we returned...
Josh picked up his largest fish of the day... a 19.5" smallie! "Two 19" fish ain't too shabby, partner." :)
The weather was almost perfect in the morning. It was a cool 44 degrees when I left my home and 51 degrees when we left the restaurant. There was a slight 3-5 mph WNW wind blowing when we arrived at the ramp, but it gradually picked up as the day progressed. It was blowing about 10-15 mph by the time we loaded the boat on the trailer at 3:00 pm.
The air temp was 54 degrees when we launched and rose to a balmy 70 degrees by day's end. We had a bluebird sky first thing in the morning, but the cloud cover move in by mid-morning and we even had a brief drizzle around 2:00 pm.
The water temperature had dropped to 55.6 degrees from 57 degrees on Tuesday. We did get a 57 degree reading later at our last stop.
The clarity of the water was dirty to muddy on the eastern shore. The tributaries were dirty, but starting to clear. There was a distinct line between the main river and the tributaries. We found most of our fish on the seams in about 10-12' of water.
It just amazed us to see the river this high and cool in May. If you recall, we had an unusual hot spell in Pennsylvania last year during the spring which warmed the water early and had some of our larger bass spawning rather early. But as the weather settled and the hot spell left, a typical spawning pattern seemed to take over.
We saw quite a few boats out today enjoying this beautiful weather. The launch site parking lot was full when we passed it around 1:00 pm. It was nice knowing that some folks were willing to try their luck in the high water conditions.
Another big thanks goes out to Josh for allowing me to tag along once again. Despite having a lot fun, we managed a few fish, too. I had to laugh when Josh caught his first fish. He turned to me and said, "There ain't no skunk in this boat!"
"No, Josh, there certainly isn't!" He made sure of that.
Take Care and Be Safe!
Dad
