Centerfold

Our Saturday morning largemouth attempt failed.  As feared, Friday's cold front and cold rain dropped the temperature on our favorite largemouth lake from 50 to 42 degrees.  After two hours of fishing in air temperature around 25 degrees without a bite on the flats or drops, Marilyn and I headed for a hot lunch and then onto the Allegheny River.

Water temp had dropped 5 degrees from my last trip; we quickly checked staging areas with  jerkbaits to be sure, but the smallies had not moved up.  So it was back to the wintering spots...which paid off with some incredibly nice smallies, including a 20.5 inch, 4.6 pound beauty. 

However the fish were finicky.  Draggin'-n-shakin' tubes on the bottom was the only way we could draw strikes.  Although we rotated through different brands and different colors, only one color produced all the fish -- Yum's Green Pumpkin/Copper Flake dosed with garlic scent.