Good day chasing smallies

[bluebasser86]

Drew and I headed to Melvern today for the last time this year before the cold snap next week. Water temps stayed pretty steady from 49-50 degrees. It was a grind all day but the quality of fish was making up for it. My first fish of the morning was a solid 3.37lb 18.5" smallmouth on a Ned Rig.

About an hour and a few fish later I got my second keeper of the day, 18" and 3.35 pounds, also on a Ned Rig.

Drew got in on the action with a chunky smallmouth on a jigging spoon.

Then I got a 17 3/4 incher also on a jigging spoon.

and Drew followed up with the biggest spot he's ever caught, also on the spoon.

We had a pretty long lull with only a few fish here and there. We decided to hit the outlet at the dam one more time before we left since we'd caught several of our fish off of it. Drew hooked up quickly on the spoon. The fish was fighting really odd. I thought he'd tailhooked a carp until the line came up quickly and a super stocky smallmouth went airborne. It was a pretty serious tussle before I got the net under one of the thickest smallmouth I've ever seen. She was 18.5" and 4.04 pounds!

You can really tell how thick she was in this picture even though it's kind of dark.