The smallmouth bass fishing I’ve enjoyed over the last two weeks from Minnesota to New Hampshire has been so good I’m getting too used to it. Today I had to do something different so I wouldn’t be miffed for the rest of my life. So to start the day my brother in law Don and I along with Granny and my nephew Eli went out to the deep water off Rattlesnake Island and sank streamers for landlocked salmon.
Landlocks on Lake Winnipesaukee are down 30 plus feet now hiding from summer surface water temps. I knew it was a long shot but figured because it was cool at 5 AM that just maybe we’d get lucky. But after a solid hour without a strike we gave it up.
Today’s real highlight was packing up the canoes and kayaks tonight and going to nearby Mirror Lake. The only issue however was wind. Even though we waited until 5 PM, it was windy as heck on this tiny lake and very difficult to control a canoe for fly fishing. At least in my boat, Granny and I had beer. We spent some of our time tucking into coves sipping from our old style Yeti Colsters.
Despite the wind, we fished the best we could. Granny hasn’t had much opportunity to fish because I’m always with the kids. So I fought the wind and kept her in position best I could. She landed a few fish including several of these colorful little redbreast sunfish.
Granny also hooked into a few nice bass. She landed a smallie and jumped a couple largemouths. One of the largemouths she lost jumped four times and I’m bummed she lost it because it was a true lunker.
There were a couple special fish tonight. Number one in my book was this king-sized bluegill. Due to the long winters and short season for growing, we don’t have a ton of big bluegills in the Lakes Region of NH. But this one sipped my popper and delighted me with his dinner plate size.
And though I purposely avoided the smallies today, lo and behold I bumped into one beauty anyhow. The most surprising part about this one is that he came from a bed of lily pads. I would have bet money I hooked into a largemouth. It was another great day up here in New Hampshire and I reckon there will be a few more to come!
Nice bluegill I live by eagle island state park Idaho and I fish there a lot and there are bass carp and a lot of big bluegill we catch eleven inch fish with regulatory.
Brendan, I’ve not made it to Boise in the summer but when I do I’ll be sure to give that place a try. I LOVE the big bluegills! Thanks for reading the blog