More Smallies

Another good day on the White River yesterday.  Dawg and I were in my Hobie tandem, and Rich took his otter again.  This time, we launched at the ramp in Noblesville, and drifted down to a park at 126th Street and River Road. Took about 4 hours.

On previous trips, Dawg was having "equipment" problems, so he purchased a new closed face spinning reel.  That seemed to help his line tangle trouble, but it didn't stop him from casting his Hula Popper into the trees.

I used my trusty Pop-R, and got off to a good start.

Dawg and I even dared to double up.  (Double Dawg Dare?) 

The river was really clear yesterday.  And it's full of downed trees and submerged rocks and debris.  Ideal for smallmouth bass.  We would drag our surface poppers across the top of logs that were just under the surface, and sometimes a smallmouth would come up and attack the lure.  Pretty exciting.

Near the end of our leg yesterday, we came to a brush pile that looked fishy, and stopped to cast to it.  As soon as my Pop-R hit the water, there was a big splash, and I had the biggest fish of the day hooked.  Unfortunately, Dawg was fishing for squirrels (had his Hula Popper stuck 20' up in a tree) and couldn't help maneuver the kayak. The fished jumped high right in front of us, and I could see him above Dawg's head.  It was a big one.  Then he swam under a log.  I knew if I pulled too hard, the line would break. (I use 6 lb line on a small ultra-light pole.)  Sometimes, if you give the fish some slack, it might swim out from under the log on it's own--and that's what happened.  The first time.  Now the fish is swimming back and forth in front of the kayak (I'm sitting in back) and the whole time, Dawg is feeding his pole over and under my line while his line is in a tree.  Then the fish heads back into the brush pile.  This time, he wraps my line around a log, and breaks it off.  Game Over. But another good day on the water with my pals.