Sight Fishing Smallies on Mille Lacs And A Muskie Follow (May 17th)

19.5" b/b Chigger Craw

4:00-8:00PM Mille Lacs off tip of Center Jetty
Conditions: Calm, 70 degrees, mostly sunny perfect for sight fishing.

I went to Reeds to pick up the shirt I got for entering a Facebook contest then headed to Eddy's.  Here are the rods I brought with me.

 I started out throwing topwater and was so distracted by doing that that I failed to notice what kind of visibility there was;  I could see out a 35 to 40 feet off the tip.  When I did notice I saw two big smallies and a 14-15" one.  They weren't interested in the Phantom.  So I tried a Slush Minnow.  One of the big smallies eyed it for a little bit, but never went for it.  Next I went to the Chigger Craw.  The little one showed some interest, but never went for it.  The same with one of the big ones.  Then they left after I had been fishing for them for about half an hour.  About 15 minutes later four 17 inch class smallies came swimming through from the SE to NW.  They didn't show any interest and were mildly spooked when a cast landed.  They left in about 2 minutes to the NW.  About a 15" largemouth came from the SE and swam into the North harbor.  I had my jerk bait suspending right in front of it.  But it looked at it for a little bit then continued into the harbor.  A 12-13" smallie came in from the NW and left in the same direction after getting spooked.

I didn't see anything for about half an hour and went up for one last look when three 17' class fish swam into sight from the NW.  I made a cast to them and they initially spooked, but  two of them quickly turned around to investigate.  I hadn't noticed that a 4th smallie came in with them.  I finally noticed him when it picked up the bait as a smallie I was watching went to try and steal it.  I set the hook and played the fish across the Jetty into the South harbor where I landed it.

17" Chigger Craw

When I got up on the Jetty there was a bigger fish a little bit off to my right (SE).  It was just on the edge of the rocks and the South harbor channel.  I made a cast about 10 feet to it's SE.  It spooked for about 2 feet then turned back toward the Chigger Craw when it got back within 10 feet, I hopped the craw and it sped right over and grabbed it.  She did some good head shakes on the surface, but I landed it.  It was full of spawn, probably just under 5lbs.  It is the one in the first picture.

There was nothing for quite a long time and I threw various topwater lures including the cool Salmo Bass Bug.  Which is basically a floating round rock with a lip and a single treble hook.  Darned if that little bug doesn't throw a wake and sound like a small buzzbait.  It didn't attract any bites or lookers.

What did attract a fish was a chart. 1/2oz Rippin Rap.  I could see something trailing it.  But that was no smallmouth.  It was a 40" ski and it nearly caught the Rap before I jerked it away.  The thing then stared me down.  I thought if your gonna do that then I'm going to get a picture of you and I went back to get my camera.  By the time I got back up on the rocks it was swimming off to the NW.   I put my sun glasses over the lens and this was the picture I got.

     Darn camera went on the Fritz.  By the time I got it working right the fish was gone.

I did take this next pic to show how close it came in.  I got a really good look at the fish.

One or two more small 12ish smallmouth's came through, but were spooked easily.  I packed up at 8PM because visibility was deteriorating and I wanted to get back to my area Lakes.

Here is the set up I got my fish on tonight.

TD-Z Type R
St. Croix Legend Xtreme 6'8" Medium XFast.  The rod is a medium light compared to the Avid, but quite a bit more sensitive.

Snatcher Fishtrap Lake (Blind) Tournament from 8/16/14

Note: Written way after the original tournament date.

I'll admit that I got a bit depressed after my finishes so far this year.   I needed an attitude adjustment to get up for this tournament.  My boater in this one, Guy Henkensiefken, asked me while we were out on the water why I wasn't doing my tournament recap blogs.  That is the reason why I have dragged my feet in writing them so long.

This was the 2nd year in a row I drew Guy for the "Blind" tournament and this is the third time I've fished with him (Rabbit Lake '10, Cullen Chain '13).  After last years tournament he gave me an assignment of coming up with 20 things to talk about in the boat.  I came up with 1, Christian Ponder lol.

Conditions: Very similar to Pelican Lake but not as cool in the morning and a little cloudier and more humid, breaking into sun.  Very little wind.

Highlights from the Day:  

We had a kind of late boat draw, I don't remember if Guy got to go to his starting spot or not.  We started in a spot with two other boats close by.  In the calm conditions I started out throwing the chrome sexy shad KVD Sexy Dawg.  I'm pretty sure I put the first fish in the boat, a 14 incher.  I think I had one other fish not get it.  Guy got a couple of descent fish.  It started clouding up and looked like it might storm for a while.  We moved spots and I got one just over 15" on a black Sexy Dawg.  That was it for my topwater fish.  I don't know why they weren't going as conditions seemed perfect.  I did miss a couple on frogs in the pads later in the day.  I got a 12.25, 3x 13.75", and 14.25" and one hammer handle on a breen Chigger Craw on various weedlines.  My lunker, a 2/12, was my last fish of the day caught out of some pads on a green pumpkin Strike King Hack Attack Jig with Chigger Craw tailer.  I think Guy got a nice one out of the same patch of pads earlier in the day.

Results: My 6 went for 9/13 putting me in 11th Place out of 20 anglers.  This was my highest finish of the year.  Guy's bag of 14/13 put him in 5th place.  The tournament winner was Tim Benson with 17/6.  Chuck Steinbauer got Lunker with a 4/3.

My Thoughts: Man did it get hot out with no wind.  At least the beat down Guy gave me wasn't as bad as last year.

Guy's Parting Thought (Paraphrased):  "The days in this club when I could come in with 14 or 15lbs and expect to contend for the win are over, you've really got to catch them now."  A comment that proved less than prophetic because at the last tournament of the year on Whitefish the winning weight was bellow average at only 12/11.    

Snatcher Pelican Lake Tourny from 8/2/14

Waiting to Blast Off

Note:  This being written more than half a year later so the details may be a bit sketchy.

Conditions: Cool in the morning (54 degrees) getting to 82 degrees, very little wind, and hazy sunshine for most of the day.

I think my sleep schedule was messed up for this tournament.  I either woke up super early or didn't get any sleep at all.  I ended up arriving at the ramp in Jones Bay at least an hour before sunrise.  I was the first one there, but not by as much as I thought I would be.  My boater for this one was Roger Ubl who has many years of experience on Pelican Lake.  Unfortunately I was unable to get out to pre-fish with him.  He told me he wasn't getting a lot of bites, but the one's he were getting were nice one's.

The Day:  I brought my Ipod to wear during the run, set to my Tournament Playlist I had been listing to all morning.  As the picture shows it was a beautiful morning.  We blasted off at around 6:50am.  The run North listening to tunes as the guys raced up the lake was one of my highlights of the year.  We went to a hump or maybe humps quite a ways off the SE of Gooseberry Island.

On the way North I saw fish breaking on top and conditions were perfect for topwater, so I started by throwing a Strike King KVD Sexy Dawg in chrome sexy shad.  Sure enough within my first 10 casts I had a quality fish come up and blast it.  Unfortunately, after being hooked briefly it jumped way out of the water and flipped me off.  I'd say it was at least 18 inches.  A few casts later I hooked and caught a 14.75" largie.  Unfortunately that was it for my topwater bites for the day despite the fact we were around fish busting on the surface for most of the morning and for the last hour of the day as well.  I think Roger got a couple on some kind of plastic and I got a 16.5" on a Blue Bruiser Lake Fork Craw Tube.  Roger was really disappointed with the size of the fish we got here.

After about an hour to hour and a half we left and went off the western tip of Gooseberry Is.  Dang breaking fish that were either out of range or wouldn't hit what I was throwing.  Roger managed a few on the worm he was throwing.  I managed to get a small hammer handle on small Bomber Fat-Free Shad and a 17.25" bass on a breen Chigger Craw.  We went to a weedline off the SW side of Gooseberry and I got another 17.25" on the Chigger Craw.  That was it for my fish for the day.

We ended up going and fishing some cabbage beds, going back to our starting spot, and some deep weedlines.  I tried every rod in the boat including a Carolina Rig, which is something I rarely throw.  I had some bites from sunfish but that was it.  Roger managed to get a respectable limit by the end of the day.

Results:  My 4 fish weighed 10lbs 1oz, which put me in 21st Place out of 26 anglers.  My lunker went 3lbs even.   Rogers 6 weighed just under 14lbs, which only put him in 15th Place; I guess the  quality fish were snapping this day.  The winner was Chuck Steinbauer with 19/1 and his son Nate got "Lunker" at 4/10.

My Thoughts:   Getting that first bass in the boat would have been nice.  I was really wiped out by the end of this one, but I didn't really let it effect my fishing.  I felt like I fished strong for most of the day.  I just don't think we ever found a good school of fish.  The weights were way up from the tournament we had back in 2009 when I took 4th Place with 14lbs even.  If I had it to do over again I wouldn't have thrown a Carolina Rig and a lot less topwater.  Fishing with Roger and hearing his stories is always enjoyable.  

Aug 17th Bass Snatchers Blind Tournament at The Cullen Chain

With our last tournament of the year being tomorrow I figured I better get this done.

We met at a parking lot in Brainerd at around 6:15AM on August 17th and found out we would be fishing the Cullen Chain.  I was alright with that as I like the lakes and my boater Guy won the last tournament there.  The weather promised to be warm, mostly sunny and breezy out of the SW.  We launched out of the middle lakes access around quarter to 8AM.  We were first boat out.  Guy didn't want to run the risk of getting caught in the Culvert going to the Upper Lake so we went to a sunken island on the middle lake.  There was a guy fishing topwater there already.  We came in to the SW of him and about 3 of our boats also came in on this spot.  I had what I'm pretty sure was a pike hit at my Stanley Phantom and other than that we got nothing.

We moved to a point off of some reeds and guy got two good quality fish right away.  I got a pike on a black/blue Chigger Craw.  Not wanting to retie I switched to a craw tube.  I got a 12.5" bass on that as well as a rock bass.  I think Guy landed a couple more small keepers.   We then went to another point off of some reeds.  I had tied on another Chigger Craw by then and was quickly rewarded with my best fish of the day a 15.5" largie.

We then fished some reeds and some slop.  Guy got a nice dogfish.  Guy made the call to head to the Lower Lake.  We had to get out and push but made it.  We started on a weedline spot just out from the channel and I was immediately rewarded with a 14" bass.  We then moved around a bunch of places not getting anything.  The wind had come up pretty good by now and there was a reed bed getting nailed by the wind.  Guy caught a a keeper than two quality fish the first 15 minutes we were in the reeds.  One of the fish was the 4/3 Lunker of the tournament.  I broke off my Texas Rigged craw tube with 3/4oz Tungsten Sinker twice getting caught on the reeds, so I switch to a Strike King Hack Attack jig. We stayed in the reeds and I managed to get one that was just short of 14" and two 14.5" bass out of them on the Jig.  I got my limit and I was happy.  I didn't fish the rest of the day very well only getting a rock bass out of some pads missing a few other hits.  Guy put together a pretty good pattern in the middle lake hitting pad and reed edges with the wind blowing in on them and picked up a few culls.  We quit about 15 minutes early.

Results:  My 6 fish went for 8/12 and put me in 20th place.  Guy managed to win the thing  by over 3lbs with 18lbs 2ozs

My thoughts:  My head just wasn't in this one, especially after I caught my limit.  I did enjoy watching Guy put on a show.  This tournament sealed my fate of not going anywhere in the club point standings this year. Oh well.

Aug 3rd Bass Snatchers Rabbit Lakes Tournament

Weather: The day went back and forth between partly and mostly cloudy.  Wind was light in the morning building to about 10 MPH out of  the NW in the afternoon. Temps went up quickly from a cool morning into the low 70's.

The Day:  We started right around 7AM thanks to my boater Art showing up a bit late.  We got our starting spot, a reed point with boulders on the West lake, despite going out 9th.  The point didn't give us anything but about 15 minutes in as we headed back to the East I got 14.5" on a yellow Zoom Horny Toad out of the reeds.  I was awfully glad to have it, because I came into the tournament awfully pessimistic.  About 10 minutes later I caught one that was to small on the Horny Toad.  Eventually we pulled off of the reeds and slop and I got another dink that didn't measure on a black/blue Berkley Powerbait Crazy Legs Chigger Craw texas rigged with a 3/16oz tungsten weight.  Nothing else happened out there so we moved.

We went to the mouth of a slop bay and worked our way in.  In the pads I got a 15" fish on a Yellow Spro Frog.  I think that was the only fish we had hit in the slop.As we came out of the bay I think that is were Art got his first fish of the day.  Next we headed to a hump that Guy and I fished in my last tournament on Rabbit Lake.  Art just got done telling me "this didn't seem to be the deal" when I hooked into a quality 16.5" bass on the Chigger Craw.  Next at my suggestion we went to a weedline off of some docks that Guy showed me at the previous tournament. I cast into a clump of cabbage weeds that were on the edge of a weed point with the Chigger Craw.  I thought I was caught on some weeds but then my pole kept bending, so I set the hook.  It immediately jumped showing me it was a bass and it was a good one.  When I got it in I estimated it at 19.25".  I had to estimate it because Art ruler was only 17.5" in length.  Art guessed it was close to 5lbs and I said it was a 4 for sure.  It turned out to be 4lbs 4ozs and won me the Lunker/ Big Bass "wood".  Needless to say I was feeling much more positive about the day at this point.

As we worked our way East I spotted a stick in the cabbage on a reed edge and pulled a 15.25" off of it on the Chigger Craw.  Art got a fish off of some  pads with the wind blowing into them.  I missed a good bite in the reeds with wind blowing into them on a craw tube near our starting spot.  We ended up going to the far West end of the lake.  Art lost a good fish right away on a frog, then he caught a dink that was too small.  We worked around the bay.  I did have one hit in the slop, but it may have been a pike.  As we came to the mouth of the bay Art got one in the pads on a frog.  As we worked our way East I got my limit fish, a 14", on a Hack Attack Jig with a Chigger Craw trailer out of a pad edge that had wind blowing on it.  We got back to Guy's docks and I pulled a 13 incher that didn't help me off of a boat lift on the Hack Jig.  On the next dock I culled out the 14" with a 15" with the Hack Jig.  That was my last bite of the day.  We fished some more slop and Art missed some hits.

Results:  The guys really sacked them in this one.  My 14lbs 6ozs bag was only good enough for 13th Place.  Chuck Steinbauer won his 3rd tournament of the year and second in a row with 18/05.

Thoughts:  Huge thank you to Guy Henkensiefken for showing me the area/ spot where the big bass came out of.

We didn't fish in the East Lake at all.

Turns out Guy is my boater for the next tournament, which is a "blind" tournament where we won't find out what lake it's at until that morning.

July 21st Bass Snatcher Rush Lake (Ottertail) Tournament Report

I guess you could say after the last two tournaments I got depressed.  I didn't get around to writing this report until 2 weeks later after the guys gave me crap for it at the Rabbit Lakes tourny yesterday..  There is really not a whole lot to tell.  In the morning my boater Adam predicted it would take 20lbs to win.  We sped off to his starting spot, an off shore weedline.  Adam got 1 bass there on a craw tube I think.  On the second spot he got one on a jig.  We tried a bunch of different places for the next 5 hours only getting a couple of pike. Finally on the starting spot Adam connected with another bass.  I think we left and came back and Adam got 2 more bass.  We left and came back to finish the day on the spot.  With 5 minutes left before we had to go in  I was just about to say it didn't look good for me getting the skunk today, when I had a hit on my Crazy Leg Chigger Craw.  It was a 3.75lb bass, so I didn't get skunked.

Results:
My fish kept me out of last place but that was it.  I was 2nd to last place for the 2nd tournament in a row.  This time I finished in 26th Place.  Chuck Steinbauer won it with 20lbs even.  This was Chuck's 2nd victory of the season.  Big Bass was 5lbs even.

Thoughts:
I wish I had packed a 2nd Texas Rig Rod.  I finally got the fish after going down to a 3/16th oz weight and the Chigger Craw.  Would it have made a difference, who knows.

This tournament pretty much wrecks my season in terms of my end of the year standings.  I'm going to need 3 strong finishes to have any shot at  making the Top 10.

I Hardly Knew Ye

Good thing I got this photo of that Stanley Phantom in a jumpin bullhead, because this was one of two it hooked.  The second one dived into the rocks and broke my line.  Total freak occurrence.  I don't know maybe a pike tried to take it out of the bass' mouth.  All I know is I had a pretty good bass on, it dove hard into the rocks and then my line broke while it was pulling hard.  I thought maybe the Speed Clip came off, but my line was broken.  The bass never tried to throw the lure, maybe it got eaten by a big pike, who knows.

I also got a small toothy bullhead on the purple/yellow Phantom.  I got this silver bullhead on a Chigger Craw.

10.5"

 I also got an 8.5" jumper on the Chigger Craw.

I missed two hits at the Culvert and didn't get anything at Jenny's..

 I fished from 5:50AM to 8:20AM

My 1st Broken Rod Post

I didn't realize I only published this at the Fishing Log Blog, not here at mother ship blog.

I wrote this on 6-26-13

Kind of had a feeling this might happen thanks to my cat climbing were it shouldn't have been. He shut the Explorers rear window on it and 2 others. I'm hoping the heavy rod makes it through the season at least. The good thing is they were all St. Croix Avid's, so I can replace them with a new rod at more than 50% off what a new one costs. I'll have this rods replacement before my next tournament.

17.5"

I had caught this jumpin' bullhead, my best of the morning, and 10 others on it between this morning and my last two outings before the rod cracked and broke in two. 

 It was a good morning of fishing.  I hit the GOMH, the PRO Culvert, and the inlet getting fish at each and missing a bunch as well. I arrived at the GOMH at 5:50AM.  I started off getting them on topwater on a Lucky Craft Kelly J (12.5"), a Frenzy Popper (2x14", 15") and the Stanley Phantom (2x13", 3x14", 15", 16" and two little toothy bullheads).  Then I got them on the Fluke until the rod broke (2x14", 17.5",11.75" and a small toothy bullhead).  I got 1 (14") and yet another small toothy on a Chigger Craw.  I left to go to the culvert around 9AM.

There I missed my first several hits on a Horny Toad before finally getting a 13", I also got 1 (14") on a Chigger Craw and 1 (14") on a Subwart in the culvert.

I then headed to the Inlet and missed two good fish on the Grass Pig before connecting with a 15.5".  That was my last fish of the morning.  I quit at 11AM.

Best 6 Fish
17.5", 16", 15.5", 15", 15" and 14.25"
20 bass Total and 4 Pike

Broke The Heavy

Well looks like I'm replacing all 3 rods.  I broke the 7' Heavy St. Croix rod fighting a little northern that got down in the weeds.  The rod cracked and broke in two.

Here is the window the cat tried to climb out on resulting on the widow shutting on the 3 rods.

Unfortunately I caught the cat instead of the window. I was really hoping the Heavy St. Croix would make it.  I'm glad I found out now, so I can have the rod back by my next tournament.

Fishing sucked. I didn't get anything at the culvert, and the "new new juice" had two guys fishing it.  They were keeping some jumpin bullheads and letting some go. They were also getting some orange bullheads.  I got 2 jumpers on the SW side and that toothy that I broke the rod on.  I fished from 10AM to 11:45AM.

TWOnight's

18"'s Good Side

18's Bad Side

 Monday June 17th:
This was by far the better of both night's, although neither one were bad.  I just crushed them this evening.  I fished from 5:30PM to 8:30PM the whole time on the "new juice."  It started out sunny with a bit of a wind coming out of the NE.  I got three 14" jumpin bullheads on my first few casts on the white Stanley Phantom.  I didn't get anymore hits on that, so started throwing a green pumpkin Grass Pig which I crushed 'em on.  After I had been there half an hour the wind really cranked up out of the same direction, so much so that  I had to adjust the breaks on the reels.  The fish just kept biting and I got 15 total before the fish finally quit biting for me around 7:30PM or so when the clouds moved in.    From that point on  I got one good 15.25" on the Huckleberry and a dink 9.5" on the Phantom.  A guy fishing in the channel with leeches caught a bunch of small fish when the clouds moved in.  These fish were much smaller on average than the one's I had been catching, so I don't think the school moved.  

It started getting pretty cool and the fish stopped biting so I left at 8:30PM

My best six were 18", 15.75", 15.25" and 3x 15"'s  and it was total of 20 jumpin bullheads.  I gave a few of my smaller one's to a guy with a cute girlfriend who went swimming to retrieve a stuck bait.  That was when it was still sunny out.

Tonight:
I got there an hour later this evening at around 6:30PM.  The wind was still out of the NE but much lighter. It was mostly sunny.  Once again right out of the gate I got them on the Stanley Phantom, but this time on the bone color.  I had to work for them a bit but  I got 5  before I finally switched up to a breen Chigger Craw.  I got 3 bullheads on that.  Then the action cut off, once again around 7:30pm just like last night.  But tonight there was no difference in cloud cover.  Eventually I gave up around 9:15pm and headed East of the GOMH
where I landed my last fish of the night, a chunky 16" on the "Big Sexy" Mad Maxx Frog.  Here are the two 16"'s I got.

Chigger Craw 16"

Big Sexy 16"

 My six best tonight were 16", 16", 15.25",15", 14", and 14" with 9 caught total.  All but the one were caught around the "new juice"

Morning GOMH Trip

I got out early enough to catch the sunrise this morning.

I started things off with a jumpin bullhead on the Phantom on the North side.  Then I got a 14.25" on the Frenzy Popper from "the juice".  I then switched to the bridge on the South side.  A guy was already there fishing the SE when I arrived this morning.  He was fishing with leeches an had gotten a few jumpin'bullhead. I got a 13.75" right away on the Chigger Craw.  Then about 20 minutes later I got this 16.75".

What is with the 16.75" fish this past week.  That was all I got on the South side.

I went back to the North side and got a 13..5" jumpin bullhead and a 20" and 24.5" toothy bullhead there.

I did go down and fish to the East, had one fish boil on Mad Maxx, but not get it.  I left around 8:30AM.

Couple of Trips

Today I fished at the Grumpy Old Man Hole, the river culvert, and the inlet from 5:30AM to 9:00AM and at the GOMH from 9:00PM to 9:45PM.

In the morning things started slow with me getting nothing on the North side.  I switched to the South side and did get a couple of bites on the clack/blue Pure Poison that didn't hook up.  The tail of the Grass Pig Jr. got bit off. I switched to a black/blue Chigger Craw and got my first jumpin bullhead while swimming it.  I got one more doing that and missed a couple.  I switched to the Pure Poison and put a Chigger Craw on it and got 2 that way.  I was going back to the car to change Chigger Craw colors because the one I was using only had one claw left.  I decided to fish off the bridge and immediately smacked 3 fish in a row doing that including my biggest of the morning.

16.75lbs

I switched to the breen color and got one more off the bridge.  I also missed one on a Frenzy Popper off to the SE.

I then went to the North side and got a jumpin bullhead off "the juice" on the Frenzy Popper and the Chigger Craw.  It was now coming up on 8AM so I headed for the river culvert.  I might have had one bite there.  Next I went to the Inlet. I got a pike before losing my jig in the weeds when I made a bad cast.  I had a quality bass on the Chigger Craw jump and get off right by shore.  It was at least 16 inches, maybe as big as 18".

The Evening Trip:

Some grumpy old men tonight

I didn't have much time so I went right to "the juice" and nailed fish on my first 4 casts with a Frenzy Popper.  My second fish was this 16.5 incher.

Willard came over an said hello and Mike B. showed up in his boat.  I got a total of 8 jumpin bullheads and one sunfish on the Frenzy Popper.  On the way home I clipped a deer with the Explorer.

Two Trips Today, One with Dad.

Dad and I got out to the GOMH from 5PM to 6:30PM.  I mostly caught jumpin bullheads at "the juice" on the chartruese firetiger Stanley Phantom.  I got eight of them doing that and one on the Chigger Craw. I also got one toothy on a watermelon red fleck Big Bite Baits Cane Thumper.  Dad got a jumper and a couple toothy's on the Grass Pig Jr.

I got out again by myself at 8:30PM. I went to Bulldog first and got 4 small bass and a pike on the Cane Thumper and a 15" bass on the Chigger Craw.  I then went to Jenny's for five minutes and got nothing.

I got to the GOMH at ten after 9PM.  I got a couple of jumpin bullheads at "the juice" and a 16" off the NE side.  I then landed these two golden bullheads on the Cane Thumper.

My back was giving me issues, so I quit at 10PM.

With Dad at the GOMH Again

12"

Today once again Dad got over to the GOMH with out me in the afternoon.  He wrecked the jumpin bullheads pretty good again;  keeping 6 he gave to some friends.  He didn't keep any big one's this time, thankfully.  Some people were getting some really nice silver bullheads and orange bullheads, so he got some  minnows for our trip. We got there around 6 PM  Dad landed the 12" silver bullhead on T.H.E. Jig and a minnow after I got his sinker situation corrected.  He got one more nice one and then it started pouring rain.  Dad had to go home and change.

While he was gone I got 2 small silver bullheads.  There was a league fishing tonight and there was this annoying boat that kept fishing around the area all evening.  When Dad got back around 7:45PM.  I headed to the North side of the bridge.  I wasn't getting much until I went to "the juice" and they were there.  See if you can guess the size of these 3 jumpin' bullheads

The first one is only 16.25", the second one is only 16.5" and the third one is 18" all caught on a black/blue 4" Powerbait Crazy Legs Chigger Craw.  I lost another good one when apparently my knot gave way after those first two.  The thing in my mouth is a Texas Rig Hitch which doesn't seem to agree with the 4/0 Gamakatsu Superline EWG and the Chigger Craw.  I really think I need to be using a 3/0 with those Chigger Craws.  That 16.5 incher is gonna be a huge fish if it is allowed to grow, was just thick as all get out.

17.5"

As it got dark I managed to pull two golden bullheads on the swamp gas Grass Pig.  We left at 10 to 10PM.

I ended with 11 jumpers, 2 goldens, and 2 silvers.

Here is what we kept.  2 jumpers, 2 silvers, and 2 golden's

Dad's got two crappies in his hand. Lousy photo, I know  I was to far back for the flash to work.  I had to take it from far back because the screen on my camera wasn't working.