Delight & Dread

Little in fishing blends delight and dread quite like a jumbo smallmouth going fully areal. I experienced that in a big way today. As soon as I set the hook, this fish came straight up, and as she flopped in mid-air, well out of the water, we actually thought her to be even bigger than she was. And of course she wasn't done. Despite my best efforts to hold her low with the rod, she jumped two more times (although neither of the others was a high as the first).

Dread, of course, was magnified by the fact that big fish haven't come easy this week. My fish was one of four smallmouths that came in the boat, and that was better than most people have been experiencing for the past couple of days. Normally, you wouldn't think twice about losing a smallie -- even a big one -- in this area during opening weekend because it would be one of dozens. However, this year's Wisconsin bass opener has been tough on virtually everyone in the Sturgeon Bay area and even south through the lower Green Bay area, where we were today. Winter was so cold that everything is behind and most fish seemingly just haven't moved up into the bays yet. One day soon it will be amazing. Hopefully tomorrow we'll see a good hint of that. We're fishing Little Sturgeon Bay.

My big jumping fish hit a Get Bit Baits Crawling Tube, fished on a 1/8 ounce head inside-style tube head.