Went out today for some smallmouth fishing. My Father and I went and fished a lake that we have a tournament on April 25th. It was very tough fishing because we had a steady 20-25mph wind with gust over 30mph. We couldn't get out of the wind so we had to use the anchor, which limited the amount of water we could fish. All most fell out of the dang boat a couple of times. I caught only one bass today on a tube that they usually nail there this time of year. I ended up catching them on a fluorescent orange floating jerk bait and my dad caught his on a suspending husky jerk bait. They were in 8-10 foot of water and they were hungry. We had like five to six bass chasing the baits back to the boat and then when you hooked one the others would try and take the bait from him. We caught 29 of them and all of them were over two pounds except one. The two largest weighed in at 3lbs 09oz and the other was 3lbs 05oz, which made us very happy considering the conditions. There were 4-5 foot waves on the lake. You can't see them in the picture because we anchored just behind a point that blocked the wind a little.

Fat bellies!!

Think these are the same two just with a flash

Great day of fishing !!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, those are some nice smallies. Good job and good luck on your tournament.

WOW!

                                  

Way to go guys, I cant wait till I hook my first smallie!

Nice fish! Can,t what to get off this over time deal at work. worked on my boat my last day off , :)can,t what to fish the st. croix.

Nice fish! Can,t what to get off this over time deal at work. worked on my boat my last day off , :)can,t what to fish the st. croix.

Thanks, I have lots of overtime too, so I get out any chance that I can. These fish were caught up to Grand Falls Flowage. That's in your neck of the woods.

Awesome fish guys,

                               I thought some of the scenery looked familiar... If those fish stay put, you should do very well....Congrats on a great day out, and good luck on the 25th. 

Great job out there folks! Congrats! Have you ever tried a controlled drift with a drift sock instead of anchoring? I'll be using one for the first time this season myself. I figure, with that and the electric, I should be a bit more effective in working various structures in bad wind conditions like you had to face.

Love the grandfalls flowage that were i got into using top water years a go. You know because of all the plup wood and old boom logs in the river. Also i have also been looking at those drift socks that crestliner talk about. I was thinking the 18 inch sock for my 14 ft. boat would be the right size. Do you ever us one?

We use drift socks quite a bit in strong windy conditions.  Combined with the trolling motor it can make for manageable fishing in strong winds.

I've thought about getting one, and probably will someday. I wonder how many logs it would get snagged on though?

They ride just under the water surface.  Mine have a float on the line so that it can be unhooked from the boat in a hurry if needed and recovered.  They work really well this time of year if your fishing a flat or cove that you can set up a drift in while casting jerkbaits or cranks.