TR Rhinelander, Wisconsin

What a fantastic way to start a Northwoods vacation ! Smallie
fishing with Steve Huber of the bass newsgroup on a glorious
spring day in Wisconsin.

The lake looked to be about 125 acres or so, scenic and crystal
clear. I tied on a black deer hair popper and cast to a nice
size smallie. She ignored repeated offerings so off with the
floating line and switch to a sink tip. I tried to get a bunny
diver deep enough to work but it took three pieces of split shot
to make that happen. A casting nightmare. But here's a tip if
you have to go that route, use several little pieces of lead
instead of one big piece and separate them by 3-4" along the
length of the leader. It's still a pain to cast but better.

I finally got the fly where I wanted it but the smallie wasn't
interested. Steve tossed in a
stick bait just to see what would happen and she nailed it.
A good sized fish, probably the biggest of the day, but I grabbed
for my camera too early and jinxed the whole thing. She came off
and we never got her in the boat. Some lessons have to be relearned
every year I guess.

I eventually did get a fish to take a bunny diver dropped into
the middle of the bed so having slayed the skunk I decided enough
with the chuck and duck already, it's time to fly fish. I'm just
glad I didn't hurt anybody trying to heave all that lead. ;-)

The next two hours were pure gold. Steve even arranged a guest
appearance by a loon who followed us around for awhile. ;-) Great
company, great fishing, a beautiful spring day in the Northwoods,
man it just don't get any better. And the beer afterwards tasted
pretty darn good too. I posted a couple of pics in abpf.

--
Ken Fortenberry