A short synopsis before the details.
1. Stroke
2. Retirement
3. Move to the swamp
4. Family
5. I can't catch smallmouth
I had my life planned out. It took a turn. My retirement years were supposed to be spent in the swamps of North Carolina. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with dementia and I will not leave the Western part of the state until.... I don't know at this point. Family is most important.
There's a lake up this way(western part of North Carolina)with Smallmouth. I have tried to catch said Brown fish with limited success. I have read many things here, talked to a good number of people, and fished where they are; I caught a fine mess of largemouth everytime. lol
This year I simply decided to fish. I quit caring about species. Late February through mid March I caught a few largemouth and no smallmouth. I couldn't go again until mid April. It was crazy windy but my wife and I had rented a lake front cabin so out we go. I threw a crankbait a good chunk of the 4 hours we were out. I fished in protected pockets the best I could. The wind blew my tin rig around a bit and I fished what I could with a crankbait.
We hit a small bite window and caught three smallmouth in an hour. They were not lake Menderchunk type behemoths but I was durn happy.
The next morning my goal was to get my wife on some fish. We spent a few hours on the main channel with nothing. I backed off a bit and had her throwing(as best as she could) at the end of laydowns in towards the channel. One nice smallmouth, one nice largemouth. She's hooked so to speak.
We now go at night. We just fish. The ratio has been 10-1 smallmouth. No special baits or techniques. Maybe a bit deeper(not much though) and fish a little slower. I thought the joy would be finally catching some Brown fish. It is, a little. But listening to Tresa hollar"got one" or seeing her smile.... A funny thing happened...
