Finally made it out, looking to put a hurt on some smallies this afternoon. Well, hopes were higher then results. Started off at a public beach park on the eastside of the lake (check hotspots when available) and was tossing a 5inch black/silver tube on a football head jig in around 10-15 feet of water. Real rocky bottom...8th cast, darn it a snag, let line back right away to prevent burying the hook in the rocks, UH-OH it's not a snag, it's a fish pulling back. Had that smallie on for about 10-15 seconds including a little surface action. I'd guess a decent 3.5 lber or so. Not a bad fish, killed to lose the first smallie of the year. Working more water and about 15 minutes later I hook into something else. No messing around this time, BIG hookset and this one stuck. This one felt bigger, but after 20 seconds, dead weight. A huge Squawfish. I'm talking huge. Definitely 22 inches, perhaps 24"...What a bummer...That thing inhaled that tube, and it's not the first time I've caught a decent squaw bumping plastics on the bottom at that spot....

Time to move. I was fishing off the shore and needed to relocate. As I was crossing 520 I noticed a 23-25 Whaler Conquest perhaps? Fishing for the cutts just north of 520....Was that anyone from the site?

Finally got to the second spot, started using a Jointed Shad rap, blue shad color and had another rod strung up with a 1/4oz football head jig with double tail 5" Yamamoto Grub. Can't remember the color it was called. Dark brown with purple sparkles...Anyways, started covering shoreline, alternating setups and retrieval speeds. Had 2 hits and nothing stuck. Finally something smacked my Rapala in about 6 feet of water, and it was a dink. Sent it back on the way and continued working. Nothing. Maybe one more hit. Slow fishing. Unusual for that spot, usually it can be real productive in the late evening. Not tonight...Cold and windy...Where's the warmer weather?

Will be looking to get out a lot over the next few weeks, would love company. PM me if anyone wants in on it. We'll be stuck on shore, but with gas at $4.50, we are going to be thankful we aren't fueling a boat....

On a side note, at my first location there was a mommy duck and about 6-7 little guys following her. They weren't mallards, some sort of different duck. Soon enough 2 eagles started swooping down on them and trying to pick off one of the little ones....Luckily for them they would dive down as soon as the eagles got close. This was within about 100 feet of me. What a cool sight! Unreal, I got a bit of video of it too. Not much, but you can get a general feel of what was happening...