Hey guys, figured I'd tell ya'll a bit about the outing our little group had this past Saturday, May 31. My dad (Rondef), Angler N' Fuego, SK Mafia23, and I all went out to the Rap on Saturday at 7am and fished until 1. We had a decent day.

Tubes seemed to be the best bet all day. We threw Gitzit tubes and Lucky Strike Tubes all day. Andy was tossing a blue tube, my dad was tossing red w/ flakes, and I was tossing watermelon w/ flakes. All three seemed to do pretty good throughout most of the day.

We spotted a lot of bigger fish around the timber/brush piles near the shoreline really tight against it. Some around larger islands adjacent to the shore. My dad hooked the only large one of the day (over 3 lbs) but it came off after a brief 6-7 second fight... but man was it pulling like a truck. It was one of the ones we had spied close to shore.

Both Andy and I hooked into some nice fish around 11-13 inches long. My dad caught his new pb but before we could measure it it did a head shake and my dad dropped him into the water. We were estimating it was approaching the 1-3/4lb mark.

All of our decent fish were ly caught in pools 3-4 feet deep by tossing upstream and letting the bait come back down with the current. We found some decent pools where we pulled 2-3 fish out of each time. Later in the day the bite had died though and I think we should have went to another methed by adding weight and working the bottom where I believe most of the fish were positioned. We were only working a small percentage of the strike zone by using 1/8oz inserts on our tubes.

If I could have my chance to go back I may have tried working some Rapala originals and getting them down in the strike zone by working them deeper. I may have even tried a 1/4 oz senko and hopped it along the bottom.

The one fish I caught on a senko (later in the day) was the coolest smallie fight I had ever had even though it was a small fish. I casted a weightless senko along a large rock island and was working it against the current allowing it to wiggle on the top of the water. As it approached about 25 feet out from me a smallie came up to the top of the water (I watched him swim up after it) and slammed the bait pulling it down. The fight was brief and short but watching the smallie in crystal clear water come up after it was awesome.

I caught 4 on the day. 2 of them were decent fish.  One went around 9-10" and the other went 11-12". My dad caught 4 more with two being nice fish (both keepers), one around 1-3/4lbs, the other over a lb. Andy hooked into two, both of which had some amazing colorings that the pictures don't do justice of (camera phone and it was dark), his were both in the 10-13 inch zone, and unfortunately my buddy Eric couldn't hook into any and had to leave early due to other obligations.

It was a fun day though. Weathermen were off as they predicted rain and storms around 11am and we didn't see anything all morning luckily. The water temps started atr 69 and warmed up a bit in the afternoon. The air temps got into the 80s. It was beautiful and our first smallie wade of the year was one to remember. Pics attached.

One of my decent fish

My biggest on the day

Dad's new pb

Dad's other good fish

Andy's best on the day

Pretty fish of the day (Andys 2nd smallie)

Report also available for future reference on my blog later this afternoon. The link is in my profile.

Great report. Nothing beats wading streams with family and friends.

I hope to get out and wade for smallies sometime in the next week or so.

Jay, I had a blast and can hardly wait for our next smallie trip.  I just wish one of us hooked that trophy smallie that we saw near the brush, he had to be 5 lbs.

Nice work guys, I wish I was there. Next time...

Good times!  Once again thanks guys for the invite and as always it was fun.

Great looking smallies guys! Wade fishing is the best!