One reason Dave M. has been a favorite client for so many years is his tendency to be easily misled. We cancelled a trip about a month ago due to high water.  Told him the bite wouldn’t be hot again until the pool dropped to 627. Called him a few days ago to tell him the River would be at 627 by today. Unfortunately Dave said he had meetings and appointments. I told him ll/2 would be the last best day to catch a nice SMB of 2018. He called back a day later and said he would take the day if it was still open. We left the dock at 10:30. Told him if we could put 20 fish in the boat over the next 6 hours it would be a good day. At 2:06 into the trip we caught the 20th fish and quite counting. Then the fishing actually got better!

I’m on the water about 200 days annually, so having the ‘best day of the year’ is a long shot. But today was by far the best day of the year. Dave averaged one bass, walleye or pike every six minutes for 5 hours.  Then he & I were both plum tuckered out and decided to call it a day. All fihs came on the Rat-L-Trap or Trap MR-6 in <8 fow. Huh?

Just about everybody out there today was vertical jigging in 14-20 fow, cuz that’s what usually works this time of year. But the water temp is still 47 degrees. The baitfish are shallow, so the predators are too!

 

I’m sure the fish know tough weather is coming, TOMORROW. Rare enough to catch SMB in 47 degree water, but about 1/3 of the bass we caught were LMB.  Now that’s really weird. Also caught a half dozen pike and a few quality walleyes. One more thing I like abouit fishing with Dave is that he is a SPORTSMAN.  kept just for walleyes and one 32″ pike, releasing everything else.

 

Thee weather was perfect. No wind. Sunny sky.  Sweatshirt weather. Thumbs are scraped raw from bass lips. Hands sliced by walleye gills. Not complaining. Not one bit. Caught enough quality bass to cash a check in any tourney here on the River. They were all released so you can catch ’em in the future. They won’t be there tomorrow, but will be ready to bring lotsa smiles next year. Today was the last best day of 2018. Time for a couple slices of Pork’s pizza and a beer. I’m whupped.