5 days at the lake...

[WatterBoy]

We had an awesome time at the lake with my wife's side of our family from last Wednesday afternoon through this morning, so I thought I would share the fishing highlights. 150+ fish (not counting all the sunnies), all of which were released except for 17 walleye, a handful of crappies, and about a dozen good-sized sunfish.

Thursday morning
My 8-year old nephew had been out bassin' with me several times in our boat, but had only caught one small LM before his "magical" day on Thursday. It started out when he caught 3 LM during our morning outing, all using a 5" wacky-rigged senko. The 2lb 3oz LM he caught first was his new PB. He proceeded to crush that with a 3lb 5oz LM about an hour later. Here is a shot of the 3-5 and then both of them below that. He also caught 4 Rock Bass and 2 smaller LM during the Thursday evening outing.






Friday morning
After sleeping in a bit on Friday morning, another nephew and I headed out on what turned out to be a 3-hour trip. I nailed a 3lb 4oz Smallie on a Jig & Pig about 90 minutes in, and right as we were quitting to head in for lunch, my nephew hauled in a very skinny 18-inch LM that only weighed 2lb 15oz. (An 18" LM on this lake would normally be pushing 4 pounds.)



Friday evening
We only made it out for about 90 minutes on Friday evening, but the bass were really crushing the Jig & Pig, so it was an awesome outing for me! I have a 3lb 6oz LM and a matching 3lb 6oz Smallie in the picture below, and my nephew is holding a 2lb 13oz LM of mine in addition to his that weighed in at 2lb 8oz. Unfortunately, I also lost a Smallie that looked to be in the 3.5-4.0 pound range as it was half in the net and made one last leap and came unbuttoned. A few casts later a nice-looking LM jumped about 20 feet from the boat and sent my jig clanging off the side of my boat. I did land a 2lb 11oz Smallie after that as a consolation for my losses.



Saturday morning
My sister-in-law asked if I would take her out fishing in my boat on Saturday morning because, to that point, she had been skunked while fishing from their boat. She was ecstatic to catch the 2lb 12oz LM pictured below, along with another smaller LM! She had something that seemed to be even bigger hooked for a pretty good amount of time, but it spit her out before we got to see it. Another nephew went with us that morning and he is holding his best catch of the morning, a 2lb 10oz LM. I caught a nice 3lb 6oz, 17.0" LM on a Zoomie almost immediately after we started, then didn't catch another one until just before we quit 2.5 hours later, but it was also a nice one, a 3lb 2oz, 17.75" Smallie that fell prey to a Jig & Pig.



Saturday evening
My mother-in-law was out after walleye on Saturday night when she landed the biggest fish of the entire trip. This hefty 17.25 LM weighed in at 3lb 11oz.



Next trip
After just getting back this afternoon, I'll be making the 4.5 hour drive up there again this Friday after work, only this time I'll be going solo for the first 4+ days (I hope to do a LOT of fishing ). This time my side of our family will all be joining us, so when my wife and all the rest of them arrive on Wed/Thu for the rest of the week, there will be 24 of us there. It should be a great time!