Hope this is a good sign...

[WatterBoy]

I arrived at our lakeside cabin after a long 5-hour drive by myself about 30 minutes before sunset. After getting things opened and quickly toting all my fishing gear from the garage to the boat, I took to casting from our dock. After 4-5 casts with no action on a 7" senko, I grabbed a different rod/reel and tied on a zara spook. As I was about ready to lift it back out of the water following my first retrieve, it was smoked by a 2lb 15oz pike. On the very next cast, the same thing happened with a 2lb 1oz Smallie. I bet they both hit the spook within 5-10 feet of where I stood on the dock! There was a swirl behind the spook on the next cast, but nothing else after that. I tried a few casts with a Pop-R in near darkness...nothing. I switched to a Black Widow poppin' frog and hooked up with something after just a couple of casts. After a brief tussle, it was just gone. Not sure what it was, but I'm guessing a LM. A couple casts later I hauled in a tiny bass that couldn't have even been 12". I made a few more casts even though the mosquitos were nasty, but there were no further signs of fish. I hope that is a sign of things to come for my upcoming 4 days of hardcore solo fishing! My alarm is set to walk the dog at 4:15 tomorrow a.m. and then hit the water.