Back on Long Lake after what seemed like an eternity. Launched out of the Nine Mile Falls area and was pretty worried water levels would be low as I drove past the area above the dam and it looked extremely shallow. Water temps by the dam were around 59F so I decided to make a few casts to see if the fish would respond but after a few minutes decided to head down past the resort and was greeted with 69F water so tossed a senko on a dock and boated a 1.5lb smallie. Started working transition points and outside weedlines, found a nice number of fish on a point leading back into a bedding flat. Headed further up toward Willow Bay and started working deep transition zones on the shady side of the river with a drop-shot. Pulled 7 fish from one area in 30 minutes. It was about 50 feet long and had a steep drop off from a shelf in about 15 feet of water. No smashing hits on the drop-shot, just heavy resistance when lifting the rod. Had to cut off several hooks as the only part I could see when looking into their mouths was the eye of the hook sticking out, inhaling the bait but not hitting hard until after the hookset. Best fish went about 3lbs and had several others in the 2lb range. Ended up boating 14 total from 2pm till around 7pm when I got off the water. Gotta love Long Lake with its many types of structure.
-Todd

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