9/17

Hit the river for the first time since before our trip down south for stripers. Since then its cooled off considerably and it showed. Right off the bat I caught a pretty 16 or 17 inch smallie and then a couple small guys. I then walked up to a riffle that's been awfully good to me every fall. In super fast water I caught a crappie. It's very rare to catch a crappie in this river at all much less in super fast water. Then Bam! The rod bent double and the drag screamed. It was a huge smallie. Then it was stuck on something. I could feel the fish throbbing still on the line, then it was gone, broken off. I just stood there sick to my stomach, it was a giant. I had to fight off the urge just to pitch the rod into the river and throw a little hissy fit. I can't remember being more upset over the loss of a fish in a long time. The only thing to do was just fish. Ten minutes later the jig hung on the bottom. Snapping the rod  freed the lure which scooted forward and was just absolutely clobbered by another big smallie. Completely out of the water twice on skyhigh jumps I was sweating bullets after the loss of the giant smallie but I managed to land it. A gorgeous 19.5 incher that was the fattest fish of the year and covered in tiger stripes.