05-11-2016, 09:00 AM
<br /> We started out heading downriver to a slough we frequent. On the way had the first idiot of the day cut across us in his smaller boat. Little did we realize this was just a glimpse of a worsening situation on the lake. Once we arrived, we started unsuccessfully with topwater with only one blowup, before I started tossing a multi-colored Senko and quickly caught 5 small fish. As we moved around, we found a spot where we caught 7 fish in under 30 minutes, with Dusty finally getting our first keeper on a jig. Right after that, I hooked a smallmouth on a beaver bait and after a battle, got it in the boat. It looked like a football, but only one problem...I measured it three times...17.75, 18.00, 17.75. I then decided to let her go. We then continued to catch smaller fish, moving slowly through the slough. Finally we moved to an area normally good for us at night. After a few minutes I was getting ready to move when I felt a bit and set the hook. She came straight and the boat, and in doing so, reduced the time to set the hook and the time to get the net ready. As she came up, jumped, and rolled at the boat, Dusty tried to net her. She came unhooked and hit the top side of the net and she fell back into the water. We were devastated. I estimated her in the 5 pound range, and this following losing one similar a few weeks ago no more than 10 yards away that jumped and came loose as well. We continued up the slough and with anglers bearing down on both sides of us we caught 4 more fish before I pitched to the corner of the dock and boated our biggest fish. Now the smallmouth and the one that got away were starting to hurt even worse. We caught one more in the slough before moving to the area that had surrendered a 3.5 two weeks earlier. I caught three short fish, and Dusty one short one, before he set the hook and felt some weight. I could immediately see the death roll of the catfish as he got the five pounder to the boat. We continued working through, catching several more small fish. We finally decided to head back towards the ramp. We entered a slough close to Harrison Bay and started fishing when the trim started going up, and we could not get it down. We finally got it to go down and decided it was time to head home. <br /> We had a good time, boating 30 total fish, but could not get the big ones when we needed them. Even if we had, we would have been well short of Leonard and Carl. Caught all fish on Senko, Jig, and Beaver bait. most in 2-8 feet of water.