Chocolate milk and big smallies

It was slow at work. Did I want to leave early? Sure. I was already set to meet Dandrews and Deltaoscar later. It wouldnt hurt to start three hours early would it? The river was down alot from yesterday. Still muddy as heck but very fishable. I started out with a big grub and caught two channel cats in a deep pocket below a fast chute. But no smallies. I switched to a medium running shad crankbait and caught a smallie about ten inches long right away. Then nothing for a while but I had a good feeling about the crank and left it on. Wham! a pretty smallie about 16 inches. Thing were looking good in the mud. Then it was slow for a while. I began to experiment with other lures and caught another small bass in about an hour but that was it. I tied the medium runner back on. A few casts later it bounced hard off a rockpile and a bass ate it instantly. It cane towards me and I couldn't tell how big it was till it rocketed skyward. It was a dandy! But I was waist deep in fast water and in no position to land it. I began to inch towards the bank as it shot around the pool. I was sure I had no chance of landing it. But I got on solid ground eventually and landed it with no more drama. It pulled the tape to 19 1/4. The rest of my trip was pretty slow with just a couple fish landed but I didnt mind a bit. Dandrews showed up and did what he does, landing a shovelhead and hooking a broken line with a fish attached. Deltaoscar showed up across the stream and put on a clinic for a while landing several bass in no time. As Dan and I worked his way to leave he landed another. It was a bit too far away to tell how big it was but he was taking a long time with it and we figured it was a good one. But when we got over there we found out why. He was hooked. And hooked bad, right in the tough part of a finger and not just a little. We ended up taking the hook off the plug and he headed for the truck and some good cutters. I thought I was hooked bad a few weeks ago but Delta's was a bad as I've ever seen. He ended up having to push it thru and cut it off, a lots of guys would have hit the emergency room over that one. All in all quite the eventfull trip.