The smallmouth bite at Long is finally starting to heat up. Fished both Sunday and Monday, and got to watch as my fishing partners boated 6 smallies over a pound, with the largest coming in at 2lbs. 6oz. We also boated our first Long Lake pike, a little 18 inch runt. Monday also began with a sour note, at least for me, as we were greeting at the launch by a dock fisherman and his wife that had just reeled in a huge largemouth. I offered up my scale and she came in at 4lbs. 12oz. Caught on a worm and marshmallow from the shore. I cursed them silently as I loaded my tackle bag full of expensive lures onto the boat.

At any rate, the lake is absolutely carpeted with squawfish. If you want to take your kids fishing just to catch fish, I recommend Long, as the squaw eat literally everything you can put at the end of a pole.

---