new personal best!! for me anyways

[karol]

 caught my best smallie saturday with my wife and son and daughter-in law- in the boat!! she went 18" and almost 3 lbs. i know it's not a st. clair fish but someday, it is on my bucket list. caught her at dewart lake

[Lightningboy]

Awesome!

Now go get one that's bigger...

Smallies have a soft spot in my heart.  I love their attitude.  You fight them, get 'em by the boat, and they give you the "finger" and go for another run.

You wanna drill some 3+ smallies on the mile roads, just let me know.  Doesn't take much to twist my arm. 

Congrats, you just caught a lifetime obsession.

[karol]

this is more fun than muskie fishing, not as tiring and more chance to catch one. also not near as expensive either. anybody looking for muskie stuff? let me know. i live 20 minutes east of the wawasee area.

[djkimmel]

Good job karol!

[Lightningboy]

Why ditch your muskie stuff?  Sounds like a good alternative to bass fishing.  Can't do the same thing every day, right?  Besides, there has to be seasonal time periods where muskie fishing is hot; wouldn't want to waste a great bite.  I'm not really a walleye guy, but I'm out trolling in Alpena each spring when the walleye bite is hot for about 2 weeks.  I'm happy to invite them to dinner.   

Sorry if this might bore some, but can I tell you about a 3+ that changed my life?

I was about 16, and living in Alpena.  My buddy Mike and I were fishing on the Thunder bay river, for anything that would bite.  We were in an 11 foot rowboat, with a 1923 three horse Johnson on the back.  (cool as h#ll motor)

We had gone fishing from Mike's house upriver, to the 4 mile darn area, and were on the way home.  Now the 3 horse had a built in gas tank that held about 2 gallons of gas.  Both of us growing up in blue collar factory families, a gallon of gas was some money, so we regularly ran out of gas.  Each time we ran that motor out of gas, we could squeeze out another mile or two of river out of the motor if we leaned to the port to get a puddle of gas under the pickup tube.

So we're on the way home from a little excursion upriver, and we run out of gas.  As we drift toward the shore, my buddy Mike & I are leaning the boat to port, while he tries to pull start the motor.  The old Johnson had a pull rope with a knot at the end, that you had to slip into a slot each time you pulled it.  I kept my head down to not get whipped each time he pulled on the motor.

While we were drifting toward the swampy shore trying to start the motor, I decided to throw a few casts with one of my favorite lures at the time, a black/white daredeville. 

On the second cast, I felt a fish hit, and set the hook.  Now I was used to catching hammer handle pike, but this was something differen't.  By this time we had drifted into the weeds on the edge of the river; when the fish came near the boatside  Mike had to take two swipes at the fish to net him, and ended up with a clump of weeds in the net with the line leading into it.

We dug through the weeds in the net, and there lied a 3+ smallie.  I still remember how red the rim of it's eyes looked, and the adoration of my Mom and Aunt when I brought home a big fish.  The had both grown up during the Great Depression; food on the table was still a big thing to them. 

That fish stuck in my mind forever.  It wasn't that big really, but it changed my life forever.  From that point on, bass were it.  They became an addiction I just can't quit.

Especially smallies; no other fish on the planet has as much attitude when hooked.

Now go catch a bigger one; there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...

[bigmojet]

Good story.

[Skulley]

One trip to LSC and you will probably get a new personal best in you first 10 casts.



BD.                   

[djkimmel]

Personal bests are a relative thing. They're all good.

[karol]

Hey Big Dog, i'll have to see that to believe it-hint hint. how long to get up there from the nappanee area?i'm a hoosier so we don't do miles just time

[Skulley]

Personal bests are a relative thing. They're all good.

Yes they are all good. But the reality is, LSC has big fish and if your personal best is a 3lber, you will have a better chance there to get one bigger. You want to increase your chances. Places like LSC and Erie give you that opportunity and in fishing opportunity is everything.


BD.