17lb limit on a cool summer's night

I just got back from a camping trip with my boys (14 & 15). We found a pretty good fishing spot on a point which is obviously prime shore access for this time of year. We each got a fish on Thursday night, and again on Friday night, and my youngest son caught three on Saturday night. I caught my first walleye ever, and both kids got new PBs (2.7lb and 3.5lbs). On Saturday I did not land anything myself but I did not stay out long as I fell on a rock pretty hard on Friday.

So by this time I had figured out the pattern, they like moving baits but soft plastics, jigs (the rocks are perfect to drag a football head jig along the bottom) and top waters too and I had figured out where these bass bite on the point is in relation to how high the sun is in the sky (as it sets, they move more towards the end of the point), plus it was a cooler day. I decided to keep it simple and bring a spinnerbait and a crankbait. I had spent most of the day at the museum and had to cleanup the campsite as well so I got out there a little later than I would have liked, but I caught two on the spinnerbait, but then lost it. So I threw a Megabass crankbait and initially I was not getting anything, but finally something big hit it, which ended up being a monsterous 4.5lb smallie. At this point I was catching fish every cast and my youngest son was as well who did not have his pliers so I had to help him get his fish off, as well as these young kids next to me. My next 4 casts produced a 3lb smallie, 3.5lb smallie, 3lb largemouth and a 2.75lb smallie (my oldest son had caught the very same fish which is his new PB on Friday night as it had recognizable scarring on its jawline). The next cast after that I hooked into a smallie that from the looks I would not have guessed was any larger than 3lbs but it put up one hell of a fight, kept going up and down and finally set itself free. I had reeled a little too aggressively to keep the line tight, and my next cast, the line got stuck in the spool, broke and the crankbait flew off and a fish ate it when it hit the water.

I mentioned earlier there were some kids next to me who also did not have pliers and were not very good at getting their hooks removed so I had to help them. They had arrived as I started catching them, so they came to the same site of the point as a result and were keeping pace catching smallies as well. This one girl who couldn't have been any older than 10 years old was initially catching them on a senko on a EWG hook, but she lost the senko and did not have any backups and was catching them by just running nothing but the hook through the water.

I have never experienced anything like this in my life, and if I did not lose that crankbait and spinnerbait I feel like I could have caught 30 fish that night. I also could have packed it up and left after that 4.5lb smallmouth and I would have been happy. I believe I doubled my bass count for the season this trip, it's been a horrible year for me.

The bad news is that one of my rods broke (fortunately it's warrantied and St. Croix's customer service is excellent, but I will not have a dedicated topwater rod for about 3 weeks) and I fell on the rocks and hit my ribs so I hard I literally bounced (I'm still quite sore but luckily nothing is broken), and I lost that Megabass crankbait.