Mendo still slow-but the Miyak curse is broken!

Trolled for a few hours this AM with Mike N. aka Miyak looking for stripers.  Stripers were still MIA...nada...dead.  Mike did however land his first yak fish ever, his dry spell is over.  While hitting the bottom a nice smallmouth chomped his minnow.

Congrats Mike!

 Way to go Mike.

Right on Mike.  Great pict.  The weather looks nice too.

I've never caught a small mouth.  It was cool to see one at Mendo.

Stuart

I've never caught a small mouth

IMO: they fight harder than large mouths and almost like a striper.....I hear they are better eating as well.....we'll need to catch one and hand it over to chef Chuck and let him do his magic  

OK.  I'll try the small mouth.
LM was C&R only with my dad, so I assume they weren't the best tablefare.

Stuart

Pound for pound they are the hardest fighting fresh water fish.    I know Chuck could make almost any fish taste great but there are not many big ones around, and they don't taste that great little muddy Largemouth taste much better. If you have ever caught a 2-4lb smallmouth on ultra light gear you know what I'm saying.

If you have ever caught a 2-4lb smallmouth on ultra light gear you know what I'm saying

Amen to that Mike! Unfortunately, the nearest smallmouth lake for me is lake Del valle in livermoore - about 45 minutes away. I use a baby shad rapala that was discontinued   ...it was small but had some weight to it for easy casting with 4# mono. I managed to buy 3 of 'em and lost one a snag. I have 2 more left and I ONLY use it in desperate times  

I think I have the same lure in Silver with a Black back also have only 2 left. You should have swam to that snag to free it up, "Great lure". I only use them now as a last resort they always seem to catch fish. I used to use them for Smallies and Steelhead but to many snags now I only use them in lakes for trout where there are few snags. Lost one last year at Lake Sonoma fish hit and buried my pole so fast I wast running out of line tightened down and he broke 12 lb test.

You guys need a lure retreiver.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=search&id=0002084010285a&navCount=2&podId=0002084&parentId=cat410004&navAction=push&catalogCode=IF&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat410004&hasJS=true

I'm sure uncle Chuck can make one with a weighted carabiner for under a couple bucks.

Stu

Yeah! its funny I feel as bad about losing that lure as I do about losing the fish, and I know that fish was a 10lb plus landlocked Steelhead.

those little 2" rapalas are still available I think. I have one with a lot of holes in it due to these little barracuda I got trolling off a malibu II in florida a year and half ago.  At least the black and silver ones. don't know about the baby shad pattern.

I took the front hook off, replaced with split shot to keep the action, and put a 1/0 circle hook on the back, sometimes with a pinfish tail too. less snags that way. not that it matters in the flats, you can just paddle back, reach down and unhook it if it gets stuck on the bottom,  

Btw, I have a 2" sinking rainbow trout colored rapala and the little mangrove snapper destroyed it for 20 minutes. it has a back like sandpaper now,  and I broke the lip on it.

That lure retriever has more treble hooks on it.........seems like it would just make more problems.  I am clearly missing something.  But, the idea of a heavy ring to snap over the line sounds good......

This is what I'm talking about.

Thanks guys! It was a kick catching that small mouth.  I guess mooch and gang will have to get revenge on the Stripers.  And thanks Sean for going out with me I enjoyed it.

Mike