As I pulled into the driveway last night after a hard day at work, my wife
was waiting for me at the door. This is very unusual, and wild thoughts were
flying through my mind as watched the kids run down the street to the
neighbors house. As I got closer, she held out the phone saying it was Joe.
Well, now I was REALLY excited. Either I was getting fired from Secret
Weapon Lures for not having the new buzzbait page up and running by now, or
he wanted to go fishing! Turns out... I'm not getting fired yet. Whew...

We planned on meeting at the ramp around 7:30pm, giving me enough time to
change clothes and grab a bite to eat. But by the time I'd changed and had
the boat hooked up and ready, it was time to leave. A quick stop off at Jack
In The Box filled the dinner niche. I ate on the way to the lake.

Joe had brought along the new buzzbaits and I was finally able to pry a
selection from him. "We'll be fishing these tonight Charles. I'm sorry to
say that you probably won't get too many catfish to take a buzzbait though."
Joe said, something to that effect. "Well, I still have a powerworm tied on
Joe. I aint much for fishing buzzbaits in the dark ya know." I said. "Plus,
I just picked up a bunch of Senko's! I'm starting to like these things."

"You just put those rods away and let the old man show you how it's done.
Smallmouth LOVE buzzbaits after dark!" said Joe, as I wondered why he's
never mentioned this fact to me before.

"Well, while it's still light out I'll just tie on the chartreuse and white.
You can play around with the black all you want, but after dark I'm fishing
slow." I stated.

Anyway, to continue... I put about three fish in the boat switching between
the buzzbait and Senko's. I was kidding with Joe about this, but he to me,
"Just keep laughing Big-Boy."

The sky had become dark, and my bites were slowing down. Joe started getting
fish to boil on his buzzbait, but couldn't get anything to hook. "Wait til
you feel the fish Joe..." I reminded him I was thinking he was too anxious
to hook up a fish with a new bait that he was forgetting to feel them.
(Joe's alot smarter than that)

I guess he took my advice, because within the time of abotu 30 minutes, he
had landed three or four fish, catching up to my count. They were typical
Percy Priest fish... nothing to write home about. The next time that I saw
Joe swing his rod though, was different. "Get the net Charles... this is a
good one." he said. "Yeah right." was my reply, but when I heard the water
thrashing about 8 feet away from the boat... I got a little more concerned.

Jerry brings me a new net every year to the MTC, since I'm so hard on them,
so you'd think I'd have one handy. Nope... it's in the rod locker, so I tell
joe to hang on and I'll get it out. Finally, the net is out, the fish is
close, and I dip in and get the fish. Nice smallmouth! Joe lifts it out of
the net admiring its' beauty as I grab my camera and start a photo shoot.
Finally, we throw her on the scales as Joe guesses about three and a half.
The scales finally stop the flickering and reads an even 4.0lbs. He releases
her back into the water and we watch her swim away, hoping to meet up with
her again in the future. I tie on a black buzzbait of my own, finally, and
start catchign fish again. Not large smallies... but I was surely dreaming
about them.

Pictures posted on abfp...

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