Went down to the local MDC lakes this morning with the hope of getting a couple hours in before my wife and son woke up. Got to the lake at 7:00 and even though rain was forecast the conditions were perfect. The lake was flat and glassy and no wind. The birds were chirping and there were pretty large swirls here and there across the lake.

I started off with yellow gurgle-pop and mylar minnow dropper. I fished about a quarter way around the lake and only picked one hand size bluegill. I tried to get a little deeper by switching to a black boa yarn leach then a plastic beadhead yellow wooly bugger then I put on a chartruse cap spider to get down even deeper. Finally I was deep enough that I started picking up a little moss so I started stripping a little faster to keep the fly off of the bottom and out of the moss. I had the fly about half way back to me when my strip was met with resistance and a throb. Definitely not a bluegill or a crappie, better get this fish on the reel because I was fishing with a 8' 4wt and 5lb tippet. As soon as I got the fish on the real we started the dance of alternating taking of line. Now I'm thinking Mr Bucket Mouth or Mr Wiskers. With about thirty feet of line I spotted a silver flash confirming that I connected with a nice Large Mouth Bass and it was putting a nice nend in my rod as it hugged the bottom. After a while the fish came to the surface, did a couple tail walks and rolled over.

After dragging it onto the bank and taking a couple pictures with my cell phone I released a fish that was about 17" and 3 lbs. I didn't think there was much of a chance in a repeat so I headed home for restraunt with the family. I'll post the pictures as soon as I figure out how to download them.

Feels great to be fishing again.

Greg