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Event Article:
Pros and Press on Pardee Lake |
Rain or Shine the
Smallies come out for the Pros on Pardee Lake
(continued)
I grabbed the net and waited for the flash, “what do you
think?” I asked. “It’s a smallie for sure, but it’s a big one.” Dean calmly
explained when we saw the flash…at which point we both let out expletives. The
fish was huge, definitely the biggest smallmouth I had ever seen. “Don’t jump,
please don’t jump,” Dean murmured as he guided the fish in. Thoughts of Dean
tossing me into the freezing lake flashed as I thought, I better not miss this
one. A second later I finally had her in the net. She turned out to be just over
9lbs, and was the biggest smallmouth Dean had ever caught and just under a pound
beneath the state record!
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Dean holds
up his smallmouth hawg, his personal best! |
Just
the sight of that hawg had me pumped, and I just had to get
a fish. “Hook me up with one of those jigs,” I said. “Sure, let’s drift over
that hump again,” Dean said as he handed me a Rodstrainer which I trimmed and
added a Yamamoto twin tail grub trailer to.
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Bust out the
rain gear....the rain starts to show itself two hours in |
No less than five
minutes after that I got hit, and I knew it was a quality smallie as well,
though not as big as the one Dean had just boated. My fish went straight up like
most smallies do and shot out of the water. “We have a jumper!”
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Zander
catches a nice smallie on a jig |
When we boated the fish it
was a quality bronzeback, and weighed in at just over four lbs, and while it was
my largest smallmouth to date it looked like bait compared to Dean’s mammoth
hawg.
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Mid day Dean
heads back in to compare notes and fish with the other pros |
Meanwhile Cal was mixing it up with Bub while swapping swimbait fish stories.
They went through the entire arsenal, shakey heads, jigs, deep diving cranks,
jerkbaits, creature baits, and of course swimbaits. The bass were not hitting
for them, but the trout were.
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Pro B.A.S.S.
angler Greg Guiterrez heads towards the marina |
Bub was
catching trout on jerkbaits, and these were some decent trout. Pardee is
actually loaded with everything from Kokanee to trophy size rainbows. In an
effort to get away from the trout Bub switched over to jigs and consequently
landed a 2lb largemouth.
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That's what
we call a gathering |
After
that there was a quiet period in which Bub and Cal went from point to point.
“These spots look so good, there has to be fish here.” To which Cal replied
“there would be if there were spots in here,” and Bub shot back “Oh man, if
there were spots in here we would be murdering them.”
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Kent keeps
things organized as we prepare for the second half |
Next
Section: Cal and Bub look for bigger fish
