I'm giving this trip a 5 due to good company (my wife) and a decent number of fish for the weather conditions, but I could give it a 1 due to equipment problems. LOL

My wife came along and we were on the water at about 6:15 am. First fish hit a top water bait at 6:25, fished over a main lake weed bed, but it was just a dink small mouth. Fished for about a half hour when the rain started. I have to give it to the wife, she hung in there for about 20 minutes before she asked me to run her and her book back to the truck to wait it out. After dropping her off, I ran across the lake to one of my favorite spots. On my first cast, with the rain pounding the surface, I got blown up by a 4 pound large mouth. Great action from a great fighting fish. There was a bass tourney going on, and for some reason, I always manage to catch decent bass while pike fishing when those tourneys are happening. I imagine that would stop if I entered one. LOL I picked up another nice largie later in the day as well.
A few minutes after that bass, I had a decent pike show interest in the top water but it wouldn't bite. I picked up the frog rod and got it to eat, landing a nice fat 30"er. The rain let up about an hour later and I retrieved the wife. The sun came out and made for a great day on the water. Throughout the day I managed to release 8 pike, large mouth and a dink smallie.

The equipment issues came in the form of a broken fishing rod ( pretty new rod to) early in the day, that managed to break off 6" from the tip by simply making a cast. Then late in the day, my transducer on the trolling motor managed to come loose and get in the trolling motor. I stopped as soon as I heard the grinding noise. I managed to only break the mount, and not cut the cord.
Fish were all in about 8-9 feet of water on weed edges. Most were caught on a white spinnerbait, but also hit frogs, spoons and a whopper plopper top water bait.
Yesterday as he passed by me, I got a smile and a nod from the kindly sheriff deputy that gave me a break and advised me of the "Real" speed limit on the river ( Thank you again sir). I believe he just might have remembered me from the week before. In all the years I have been fishing that system, I have only encountered the sheriff boat, 3 or 4 times. Now I have seen him 2 weeks in a row. I guess they might be taking a closer look at things in lieu of last weeks tragic accident on Cda lake.

FYI. If you have been reading my posts lately, you may have noticed the UV rated shirts and buff head and face protection in the photos. I have the shirts in two different brands and different colors. Both brands do a great job of keeping me cool in the hot weather and keeping the sun off my skin. The buff head protection easily pulls up over my face and ears, and doesn't over heat me like I thought it might. These products sure beat having the skin cancer come back and getting gooey sun screen all over my hands and having to apply it several times a day.

Be safe out there!

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