Was having a slow week on Pennsylvania's Lake Wallenpaupack until yesterday.
We beached our pontoon boat on what's known as "Party Island". On weekends, this location can be over crowded but on this Friday it was OK. My 5'6" St. Croix Triumph (TRS56ULF4) already had my cheapie Okuma Stratus CS-10 reel on it and I was too lazy to switch to my nice Stradic, so I just went with it. Put on my wet wading boots and worked my way out a shallow rocky point. Started with a 1/16 oz jig head and small curly tail grubs. Got hits but no hookups, so I switched to my not so secret weapon, a 1/32 oz Berkley Atomic Tube, and started to catch sunfish and perch. The Atomic Tubes work particularly well under a float in wavy water but the Trout Magnet float that I had put in my pocket was missing. Must have washed away as I waded. As fortune would have it, a bush growing off this point had some line and a small bobber stuck in it that I retrieved. Put the bobber on and immediately caught a nice big rock bass. A couple casts later, the float goes down, I set the hook and the fun begins. Felt right away it was a big fish but when it came shooting out of the water I knew it was game on! My reel was spooled with braid and a 4# flouro leader, the hook was small with a crimped barb and I had no net. Patiently fought the smallie which leaped a number of times and after several attempts was finally able to lip it. There I was, far out in the water, wearing only swim shorts, holding a rod and the biggest smallmouth I'd ever caught. That wouldn't do. Had to bring it back to the boat to be documented. So I gripped its lip firmly and dragged it through the water back to shore, where my wife took the obligatory picture.
Turned out to be 19". Unfortunately it jumped off the scale hook as I tried to weigh it. Also caught a 16 incher that day as well. I'll be smiling for days.