First trip was a success

My first smallmouth trip was with Steve and Bob from West Virginia.  These guys have been with me for over 8 years.  There are usually three of them but Mike couldn't make it this year.  I dont know why, but it seems every time these guys come up I get blown off the water at least one day.  This year was no exception, they fished two days, the first day was spectacular.  Very little to no wind.
  There was still ice flowing into the river from the lake so I had to take a safe route behind the break walls through the Buffalo harbor.  We found some smallmouth shallow and crushed them on jerk baits.  Both guys never really got into a good jerk bait bite before so they really had a blast.  To top it off, the fish were all very big.  We managed a few over 5 and one over 6.  I picked up Bobs rod and caught the six when Bob decided to eat in the middle of a great bite.  Those WV boys are way to mellow.
  Day two was the opposite, very strong SW winds.  The jerk bait bite was not happening so we dragged tubes and jigged blade baits.  We needed both drift socks out to slow us down.  What was amazing about this day was the walleye bite.  They were on fire.  We hooked over 15 walleye on one drift with the biggest being 11 lbs.  Its not uncommon to catch the odd walleye this time of year, but I have never seen it like this in my 20 years of guiding.  I suppose the cold water has them stacked up still.  They haven't even spawned yet.  We retreated behind the breakwalls around 1230 as the winds were getting too strong.  If we would have stayed we would have hooked over 50 walleye I bet.  We poked around in some back waters picking up largemouth and a bowfin which Steve caught on a rattle trap!  .  Enjoy the pics.