Paddled around for a while with no luck, fishing gold shiner and red headed Super Shad Raps. Eventually, though, after an hour the gold had a take - and a nice fight from a half decent fish.
Hooks out and he gave me a smile:
3lb 9oz, and back in he went.
Then, nothing for another hour and a half. Getting fed up with the raps getting fouled with weed (after trying some other lures here and there) I stuck on a couple of Shakespeare Big S plugs - one blue mackerel and one redhead.
A minute went by and then:
A beauty, great fight too, 5lb 3oz. Really solid and chunky looking fish. It took the lure in one gulp and I had to do some fiddling to get it out - it was a back of the throat job, swallowed. A couple of minutes of twisting and pushing (including going in through the gill rakers for the rear hook, which I hate doing for fear of damgae) and I sorted it out, and esox went back in none the worse for wear.
As you can see it was now getting dark and I was heading in. Strung the lures out again and a few minutes later I got another hit, which I didn't photograph due to the light levels having dropped considerably. I didn't get the scales out either as I hadn't used the net to boat him but estimate a 2.5lb'er.
Then, back to my launch point with no further takes. My new Mukluk Chota Light's didn't let in any water, but next time I'll put on thicker socks as they weren't really very warm. My Mustad Bib and Brace kept me warm and dry, my fleece and jacket made me overly hot and I'm chomping at the bit for the next session - cold weather wasn't an issue.
Cracking afternoon, thanks pike!
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