Took my daughter and the kayaks to Pine late morning to enjoy the weather and see if I could find a Smallie. Got on the water sometime between 10:30 and 11. I haven't gone out specifically to target SMB for a few years, so was looking forward to maybe hooking one. I like the way they fight. There was a bit of a breeze when we arrived at the park so decided to troll some gear up the lake in search of calmer water and to maybe hook a Rainbow on the way. I gave my daughter a nickel/chartreuse spoon and I put on a Rapala. The cottonwood was bad and was laying all over the lake with more coming down like snow. We made it all the way to the west end of the lake without so much as a bump on our gear. We pulled up and switched gear. I gave my daughter a TM setup to use and I tied on a stick bait rigged weedless. We tried moving in around the docks, but were not getting any hits. My daughter gave up on fishing, so I moved down the shore looking for a bite. I cast right up under some bushes and was immediately rewarded with a take. Turned out to be a decent sized Large Mouth. Got it safely released despite the wind blowing me up under a dock while doing so. The wind was getting obnoxious and I was having a problem staying off the docks, so tied on a heavier offering and moved out to deeper water, but the wind just kept blowing me around. We moved to the opposite side of the lake to get out of the wind. I'd only made a few casts when the wind changed direction and began blowing me into the shore on that side. We headed back towards the launch and found a sheltered area in shallower water. I had swapped back to the stick bait and picked up a dink SMB, but the wind had found me and began pushing me along the shore faster than I wanted. Decided to call it quits about 12:30.

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