Last Sunday we took to the lake. This time of year the sun has started to come up a little later and it was dark as we launched. My partner for the day was a veteran Minnesota fisherman. He had fished the lake many times in the past and had spots he was going to want to hit. He told me though that we could start on my water and go from there. Pokegama is known to have some big Smallmouths in it. Top water early can be a good way to get into a few of those big brown bass so I took us to a large rock point that runs well out into the lake. Unfortunately even at 6:00 in the morning, the wind was blowing enough to take top water out of the picture. I threw a couple casts with my popper and decided to put it down and switch to my spinning gear. I had a Margarita Mutilator Robo Worm rigged on a 3/16 ounce football jig head. The football head does a better job of not getting hung in the rocks. The Robo Worm does a great job of floating up from the bottom and standing straight up.

It didn't take long and my rod was folded in half by a powerful fish. A few cranks on the reel and the fish came rocketing out of the water and danced on his tail for a few feet. He then dove under the boat and started to strip line off my reel. It took a few minutes but eventually I got him to the net and my partner was able to scoop him up.  The 3.66 smallmouth went in the live well and I got back on the trolling motor waiting for my heart rate to return to normal. We worked up and down the point drifting up onto it and then moving back out to the drop. The fish were not schooled up but about 15 minutes later I felt the tell tale thump thump of another quality smallmouth. Almost a clone of the first fish, this one was a little easier to get to the net but no easier on my heart rate.

After about 20-30 minutes without another fish we decided to move. We spent the next couple hours fishing my partners water. He caught a few largemouths and I managed a small keeper smallie from the back deck. I had a spot where I thought we could probably fill our limits with smaller fish so we headed that way. We both managed a 14" fish and that was all we could pull off the spot. My partner now had his limit and I was looking for that fifth fish.

We ran about 5 minutes up the lake to water my partner said should hold one or two big fish. The big ones weren't there so we moved up to a good looking dock to try to get me my limit fish. It took a couple casts but I finally skipped my Ring Fry all the way up under a pontoon boat and my fifth fish was soon hooked.

The remainder of the day was spent watching my partner whack fish on his jig. He was having one of those days were you cant do anything wrong. His largest Largemouth of the day came off a cast he threw out the deep side of the boat to pick out a tangle in his reel. As the fish swam off with his jig, he proceeded to hand line the fish and even had a pile of line in his teeth for a little while trying (successfully) to land the fish. His biggest fish for the day was a 4.72 Smallmouth "pig". He came with about 30 minutes to go. He had asked me if I wanted to move and I said yes. He said ok, took a couple cranks on his reel to get in and go when the fish smacked his Jig and headed for deep water. He pretty much sat on the back deck and laughed the rest of the day after culling a 1.5 pound fish with that monster.
 
We ended the day in first and third with his big smallmouth anchoring a 15.52 pound winning bag. I weighed 11.95 with the two 3.5+ pound smallies making up the majority of my catch. I was never able to get rid of that small fish I had. With the two solid finishes up there and a new rule allowing the drop of our worst tournament, I closed the season in 3rd place overall in the club. That automatically qualifies me for the State Tournament of Champions next year. I am looking forward to getting out on Pokegama again. Hopefully I can find a few of those monster small mouths next year during the tournament.