Camped and fished Riffe Lake for the first time on the northeast end. Brought up my 12' jon boat to see what kind of damage I could do on the landlocked coho and trout. First time out my son and I hit the big water since it was like glass and did some trolling. I had on the pop gear with a red wedding ring tipped with a grub. Son started with a Mepps, but I didn't like the action it gave so I through on a "Blue Fox" spinner and set him a bit deeper. 5 minutes after we put that in the water his small kid pole bent straight down and his eyes blew out of his head...at first I thought snag, but soon saw the pole bouncing telling me other wise. He started reeling and I saw the fish immediately jump behind us. Knew right away it was no salmon/trout species, but a bass! He brought it all the way to the boat and I netted this monster. I've never caught a Smallmouth this big and he did it while trolling for salmon. Great fish and memory for our trip. I ended up losing a nice 14-18" salmon on that troll and ended up catching a bunch of small ones the next day that I released. Can't wait to go back and try some more techniques on catching fish on Riffe Lake!

---