“Nah, let’s not drive too far, let’s just see if the legend is true and give the small lake a chance to skunk us today. If nothing else, we can end up at Sand Bar for a Bloody Mary and the trip will be a success.”
So there you have it, we set out on our fishing date on Small Lake Wissota.
It is past the 4th of July, so the lake is its neon bluish-green color. It’s a really pretty color, but, ewe…kind of gross, just the same. The color rarely stops the boaters, tubers, jet skiers and us, the novice fishermen (fisherwomen).
A beautiful morning to head out and see if we’ll be skunked or if we’ll catch us some fish for dinner.
First hour…a nice calm breeze, just a couple other boats with fishermen cruising by us, and a snapping turtle. Didn’t catch a picture of him, but he is likely the reason no fish in this our first stopping spot.
We pulled up anchor and moved along the shore, gradually making our way to destination breakfast.
Just a few short minutes later and success, my daughter caught the first fish! A 14” smallmouth bass. A keeper, yay! Guess we’ve not been skunked after all.
Her fishing tip o’ the day…“Just toss towards shore, about 5 ½ feet down, drag your bait along the bottom and boom, it just hit the bait and I caught it.”
A couple other smallmouth bass caught, but too small to keep. So we inched along the shore toward our destination breakfast. We stopped again in the spot where I met my match for the day.
Feeling a bit skunked, no bites yet for this gal, so with a toss of the bait out toward the shoreline, about 6 feet down (overachiever attempt for a bigger fish) and I let my bait just sit there.
I started to daydream about the nice scenery…relaxed and closed my eyes to soak in the sun on the lake, and my husband shouts, “Shel, your bait just went down.”
Yikes, I jolted back to reality and started to reel in the catch.
Wow, a bit more bend to the tip (remembering back to childhood and my dad yelling, “Keep the tip up!”) of the pole than I imagined it would be.
One of my fishing companions yells, “Grab the net.”
More advice, “Just keep it in the water, and move it toward the boat. It’s a big one, just keep it in the water, and bring it toward the boat.”
After a whirlwind struggle to keep the tip up, but fish in the water, and aimed toward the boat, the monster caught in the net. (By the way, you can’t take pictures and reel in the fish at the same time! Duh!)
Success, in the net, into the boat, and there it was…a big a** smallmouth bass. The biggest smallmouth, I’d ever caught and I wasn’t skunked. I actually caught a fish on Small Lake Wissota!
“That’s a big a** bass!”
How big was it? 17 1/2”. Holy crap, that is a big a** bass!
Quick, everyone threw their baits back out to try to catch more fish. 15 minutes longer, and, no luck, there were no more fish caught…he must’ve been the only one there.
Feeling pretty proud, and thinking of a much-needed bathroom stop, or should I say, trying to thinking of a legitimate excuse to head in. Really, I hadn’t almost peed my pants when reeling in the big a** smallmouth bass.
I said to my fishing partners, “We’re pretty close to destination breakfast, and we’re not too far from the Sand Bar, should we head in and get something eat?”
What a great morning on Small Lake Wissota. The girls had outfished the guys, and we were ready for breakfast! I’ll write about that another time, ‘cuz, by the way, it was awesome! (This post is more about the big a** bass…)
After breakfast, we headed back to the boat landing, landed on the beautiful shoreline, and loaded up the boat and drove home to fillet the fish.
Come on back soon to hear the rest of this little fishing story…the awesome breakfast and…what we had for dinner…
