Fishing Forum

Pete Jr. and I started out of Riverpark at 6:30 am. We didn't expect much with only 6K cfs of flow til noon. Well we were pleasantly surprised and I also had an unpleasant surprise. The first fish caught was a smallie or meanmouth not much bigger than the silver buddy that it hit. Then Pete caught a 19.75 in. smallie on a plastic worm on a drop-off from a flat. I just knew that this would be it and we'd get a kick out of posting that he caught an almost TARP smallie and all I got was the dwarf bass. Then we saw some fish chasing bait on top and Pete catches another keeper smallie on a spinner bait. Then we started fishing the river channel edge with deep diving crankbaits and I got my 2 keeper smallies (biggest 19.75 in.) and he got another keeper smallie. We caught 8 smallies (5 keepers), 3 spots including one that went 16.75 in., 3 drum including a 20 pounder (more about it later), one white bass and several yellow bass and redeyes. All fish released. Surface temp was 83.<br /><br />Now to the mishap. If you look at the first pic of the 20 lb. drum, you'll see it suspended in mid-air. You'll see the empty scale grips in my hand. You can guess what happened! The 20 lb. Drumking pet slipped out of the grip and fell on my thigh and the anal fin sliced through my shorts and made a 4 in. cut and bruise in my thigh. Thank heavens it didn't land a few inches North, if you know what I mean! The 2nd pic of this drum was taken after the mishap and you can see I could still . Earlier Pete had stuck his finger with a hook and gotten finned by a fish. Fishing can be a bloody sport! We had some rubbing alcohol and peroxide on board so, hopefully all will be ok.