First Fish of 2011

[SmartWeed]

Friday was a pretty decent day here in SW Idaho and I finally got on the water. I fished the Snake River and found the water high and 43 degrees on the surface.

I ran a quarter mile up to a favorite cold water area, and in 15 minutes I had a strike. After a good fight I boated my first smallie of the year, this very nice 18.25" fish.

I fished this stretch a while, then decided to run upstream to see if any fish had moved on to shallower flats. After a couple of hours of fruitlessly exercising my arm, I ended back in my starting drift. This time I connected at the very end of the area, and landed a nice 17" fish. Both fish were caught in 8-12 feet of water on current breaks, using a drop shot rig with a 3" dark colored worm. Although it was 2-1/2 hours between fish, I felt it was a good start to the 2011 fishing year.
[signature]

[hulapopper]

good job ! was it in the snake river? very jealous !
[signature]

[cpierce]

Great beginning for the year!
[signature]

[idahoron]

Phil, I am glad you got those bass. If you would have posted a cat I would be real jealous [cool] Nice fish.
Ron
[signature]

[gstott]

Very nice. My first fish of the year was around 18" too, but it was a whitefish [blush] Beautiful smallie, I can't wait to get into them myself.
[signature]

[2dogs]

Very nice fish! i tried the ice one more time at Magic Saturday and caught a nice limit of trout then went to Salmon Dam on Sunday and caught a bunch more really nice fish
[signature]