Surprise Citation on the SUP!

Today’s forecast showed light winds and 65 degree temperature, so I loaded up my SUP and went to one of my favorite lakes in Suffolk.  My plan was to catch perch, crappie, and some smaller bass on my ultra light rig.  It was spooled with 4lbs test line and a small live bait rig.  I pulled up to my first brush pile and pitched my live bait as close as I could to it.  Almost immediately my bobber went down.  I set the hook and after a short fight I landed a small bass.

Nice pickerel on my ultra light 

  The action continued and I caught several more bass and some pickerel on my ultra light.  I move to another spot looking for perch in a little deeper water.  On my first cast my live bait was slammed by a good fish.  It made a few good head shakes and pulled a lot of drag.  Once I played the fish closer to the SUP I saw that it was a NICE bass.  The first time I got it close to the SUP, it launched into a tail walk and I got my first good look at the hawg.  With only 4 lb test and a perch hook I lightened the drag and hoped for the best.  The fish made a long run dumping half my spool, but luckily it headed to the middle of the lake, away from the structure.  I kept fighting the fish and eventually lipped the beast onto the SUP.

  I quickly put the bass on my hawg trough and measured it at 22in, just enough for a VA trophy citation.  I was stoked that I had landed such a nice fish on my ultra light.  After a few quick pictures I released her and got back to fishing.  

Decent bass on a crankbait

Once I realized the perch bite wasn’t going to turn on I switched over to throwing swimbaits and crankbaits for bass.  The bite came in flurries, where I would catch 3 or 4 fish quickly and then have no bites for a while.

15in bass on a slow rolled swimbait

  I ended the day with over 20 bass and pickerel as well as a few perch.  Most of my bass came on swimbaits and live bait, while the pickerel liked crankbaits and jerkbaits.  All of the fish were suspended near brush piles, and laydowns in 4-8 feet of water.