the last few days in fishing...

It was supposed to be a hunting trip with a bit of fishing. I don't know at what temperature hunting quits being fun but I do know the upper 80's is definitely way past that point. So it ended up being a little bit of scouting and stand placement with a whole lot of fishing. In the past week I've had a bad streak of smallmouth coming off, losing three big fish. I don't think I'd lost three big fish all year and it was in my head a bit. This fish hammered my curly shad and I set the hook several times before she hurtled skyward. It was obvious on the jump she wasn't just a Fish Ohio but probably would have qualified under the older harder rules. I have to admit after the first jump I stuck the rod tip underwater every time she even hinted at jumping. I usually never do that loving to watch them jump but I wanted this fish badly. After a few blistering runs she actually came to hand without any drama.
The biggest hybrid hammered a topwater right after daylight peeling line off in a long run that felt like it would never end. In the first scenery photo after the fish pics you can see where a clear stream runs into a big muddy river. The difference between the clear water and the muddy water was just about the biggest I've ever seen. Every fishing spot gets a name. And this spot will always be The Meeting of Waters, named after the spot where the Rio Negro meets the Amazon in Brazil. Right where the clear water plows into the muddy water and makes a hard right turn downstream was where I caught every hybrid and the occasional nice white bass on topwaters and curly shads. After making the hard right turn the clear water ran downstream without mixing with the muddy water for at least a quarter mile. Unfortunately I couldn't find a safe place to wade across and fish more of it tho I occasionally could see fish blowing up knocking shiners into the air. It ended up being a pretty lousy hunting trip but a pretty great fishing trip...