It Isn't Always Perfect

[plumworm]

Just got back from a week long trip to the U.P. of Michigan. My ability to get through the long winters here in Wis. are my dreams about U.P. smallmouth. This year, my dreams turned into nightmares early in the week. On Monday, we went to my favorite lake ( 20-30 smallies from 2-5 lbs.a day are common) The best way to catch these fish is dragging a crawfish colored tube. Well, I caught 11 in about 2 hours and ended up leaving 5 tube jigs in fish. I know none of them survived. After the last fish, I told my buddy, I was done. I threw cranks and topwater and spinnerbaits with no more hits. For the rest of the week we fished other lakes and caught a bunch of LM but those now dead smallies are still haunting me. This is a C&R lake and no self respecting Yooper fishes for bass. We were the only boat on a 1000 acre lake along with the eagles and ospreys. Sometimes dreams suck.

[WIGuide]

It sucks that that happened, but don't get too bent out of shape about it. 5 fish is not going to make or break the population even in a catch and release lake.