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Those of you who know me, also know that it's not a good sign when, during a tournament, I'm out of coffee before the weigh-in.
My good friend Bob and I fished a small 9-boat tourney on Keuka Lake today. It was a great day to be on the lake, with light winds and moderate air temps. Keuka is a deep and gin-clear lake, and this time of year means big smallmouth. I fished there 3 weeks ago and we had 18.15 lbs. of smallies (2nd place) and I figured that it could only have gotten better since that time.
After a beautiful and comfortable ride down the lake, I pulled into my first spot, and within 10 minutes I felt that unmistakable "tap-tap" of a deep-water smallmouth. The fish hit right under the boat in about 35 feet. I swung the rod and set into an unwilling smallie. A short time later, a nice 4 lb'r was in the boat. Right on schedule, exactly where he/she was supposed to be. Oh baby! They're on! Wrong!
That was about the highlight of the day for us! We spent the next 6 hours, working my favorite smallmouth haunts on Keuka, but had only another 3 lb'r and two "rats" to show for the effort. My partner did have another good solid fish on, but it came unbuttoned. With an hour and a-half, we made the run back to the weedbed near the launch, to look for a green fish, just to have a limit to weigh. Bob did pop about a 2 lb'r in the closing hour, to give us our 5th fish for an 11lb 0oz. limit. Not much, but hard-earned.
At the weigh-in we found out that it was, in fact, a tough day, but someone always gets'em. Even the "Silver Fox" had a bag of green fish.
Now, in response to Meg's nice note, I'm sorry to disappoint you! The winning bag was 17+ in smallmouth, and the tournament lunker was a 5 lb. 4 oz. bronzeback. After that, there were mixed bags, like ours.
But, this time of year, Keuka Lake means smallmouth! Sure, there are always some largemouth weighed by the guys/gals that are real good at finding those pesky largemouth in cold water, or those that absolutely refuse to give the deep-water smallies a try. We didn't have a very good day today, but I've had many more good days than bad days with Keuka Lake smallmouth in November.
C'ya on the water,
Ted
My good friend Bob and I fished a small 9-boat tourney on Keuka Lake today. It was a great day to be on the lake, with light winds and moderate air temps. Keuka is a deep and gin-clear lake, and this time of year means big smallmouth. I fished there 3 weeks ago and we had 18.15 lbs. of smallies (2nd place) and I figured that it could only have gotten better since that time.
After a beautiful and comfortable ride down the lake, I pulled into my first spot, and within 10 minutes I felt that unmistakable "tap-tap" of a deep-water smallmouth. The fish hit right under the boat in about 35 feet. I swung the rod and set into an unwilling smallie. A short time later, a nice 4 lb'r was in the boat. Right on schedule, exactly where he/she was supposed to be. Oh baby! They're on! Wrong!
That was about the highlight of the day for us! We spent the next 6 hours, working my favorite smallmouth haunts on Keuka, but had only another 3 lb'r and two "rats" to show for the effort. My partner did have another good solid fish on, but it came unbuttoned. With an hour and a-half, we made the run back to the weedbed near the launch, to look for a green fish, just to have a limit to weigh. Bob did pop about a 2 lb'r in the closing hour, to give us our 5th fish for an 11lb 0oz. limit. Not much, but hard-earned.
At the weigh-in we found out that it was, in fact, a tough day, but someone always gets'em. Even the "Silver Fox" had a bag of green fish.
Now, in response to Meg's nice note, I'm sorry to disappoint you!
The winning bag was 17+ in smallmouth, and the tournament lunker was a 5 lb. 4 oz. bronzeback. After that, there were mixed bags, like ours. But, this time of year, Keuka Lake means smallmouth! Sure, there are always some largemouth weighed by the guys/gals that are real good at finding those pesky largemouth in cold water, or those that absolutely refuse to give the deep-water smallies a try. We didn't have a very good day today, but I've had many more good days than bad days with Keuka Lake smallmouth in November.
C'ya on the water,
Ted
