spuds704
Well-known member
Last Tuesday I decided to run over to the Nick tail waters to see if the smallies had moved in to the gravel beds to spawn. Caught one around 4 lbs. on my third cast on a Texas rigged worm. The fish had a small white spot just behind the point where it's upper and lower jaw comes together. Turned him loose and started fishing again and not ten minutes later, I caught another fish in the same place I caught the first one. The second one didn't put up near the fight the first one did, and after landing it, I noticed the same white spot on that fish. The first hook up was in the roof of it's mouth, the second was outside it's mouth and tore a hole in it's right cheek. Friday, I was back over there and in the same place, I caught the same fish on my first cast on a drop shot, had the white spot and a sore on it's cheek. Today I took the boat and headed back over for another round, I threw jerks, cranks, flukes, and worms, and the only bites I got was on worms but they would just knock the crap out of it one time and then nothing. The wind took me down the gravel bank but when I got to the spot where I caught that smallie I just didn't have the heart to put another hole in it's head. But, there was a guy walking around the bank and on his first cast at that spot, he caught the same fish on a chatter bait. I asked the guy if it had a white spot on it's left cheek and a sore spot on it's right cheek and he wondered how I knew that, so I told him the story and he we decided that was one stubborn fish. I'm pretty sure this is a male fish that's moved up a little early because none of the guys that fish there on a regular basis has seen any big females yet. Wonder how many more times that poor thing has been caught.
