After the third day this year of fishing St. Clair without a bite, decided to hit Spanaway this morning. Water temps. started out around 55 and reached 56 before I left at 1:30.

I had caught a few nice fish on Thursday evening in the south portion of the lake. Today, I decided to try the north part. I did with not so much a bite.

Made my way over to my favorite row of docks to look for a smallie, and maybe even a large mouth. Skipped a green pumpkin tube under the docks that would allow it. Fished a jig along the brush inbetween the docks or, at times, a jerk bait through the flats inbetween..

Finally, at 11:30 a.m., after over four hours of fishing, I caught a 4.0 pound small mouth from under a dock in 7' of water with the tube bait.

Just after that I was in more of what I would call LMB water so I went exclusive to the jig. An hour after the smb I pitched up under a boat and thought "Hmmm, I could get it in there a few inches further". So, next pitch I did just that and got my brown/green jig up in there another 8 or 10 inches. The water was about 6' deep. She hit and I made a good hook set.

She hit about 20 feet out from my boat, on the left side. When I buried the hook into her she took off out from under that docked boat and made a huge arc around the back of my boat and ended up on the right hand side of it. She then turned and made a run of 10 or 15 feet and then, pretty much, came in.

From the hook set I knew this fish was special. I could see her about 3 feet under the surface while she made her arc. I was talking out loud, lol, saying "Please don't lose this fish, please don't lose this fish, come on baby."

You may laugh at me, but I was actually kind of shaking. I have been searching for a fish like this for 4 years and it meant a lot to me. I was, truly, excited.

When I finally got her into the net, I was like so relieved. I just set her down on the deck and grabbed her out of the net. I pulled my jig out of it's mouth and threw it in the livewell.

After the pictures and weighing, I just laid her back into the water and watched her sit there for a few seconds, then she slowly just swam down, out of sight.

There were other boats out around me that had asked how I was doing up to that time. A couple seen me catch the 4 pound smb. They were not far from me but I did not care. I did not want to keep her in the livewell to go show them. I wanted her back down there away from the stress.

I know Bud fairly well, who runs the launch at Spanaway. I told him I am sorry for not bringing the fish in for him to see and he said I did the right hting by getting it back into the water asap. He said that if I bring a picture in of it that he will put it on the wall, but if I do, it will look small compared to some of the other fish in there.

Sorry for the long report, but then again, if you have read this far, you must have enjoyed it:)

If the pictures do not load they are in the forums under "Trophy Bass Pics" and "Almost Trophy Bass Pics".

And, to each his own and I do not mean to offend, but yet just explain why I will post this. I think all of our lakes have great fish in them. If a couple of extra people come to Spanaway now to fish, then so be it. The other lake that they would have fished, if they had not seen this, has good fish in it, as well. So, it is a wash. I think it is a bummer when people freely use this site to try to gain an edge on where to go or what to use but do not contribute. I guess, by nature, people are selfish and paranoid. I laugh at 'em.

Anyway, just my opinion. Good luck and tight lines!

Good luck!

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