Great night.

Best night I have ever had for bass fishing.

I decided to head to Horne Lake with my pontoon boat after dinner. The bass haven't been as easy to pick of from the shore as I like, so I thought to do a little work. Also, I was very curious to have a look at the lakes topography with the fish finder.

Horne is very much different than the only other lake I graphed, Porridge. That had a maximum depth of 15' Parts of Horne I measured at 40'+. As opposed to Porridges slight slope, Horne goes more like 6' not far from the shore, to 10 -15' about 20 yards out, then a deep drop.

I discovered what I wanted to know. The bass, and perch, were in 9 -12' of water. Lots of them, and big ones. I haven't used a finder much. 2 outing with it I think. I was shocked as shit when I managed to turn those big blobs on the screen into big fish in my hand.

I took one fish on my handmade popper that was successful the other night. It was a decent enough fish, but nowhere near the 2 - 3 lbers I was averaging on the fly. A yellow Clouser in size 8 to be exact. I got into a good half dozen of these. It was a lot of fun. There were also smaller fish whose sole purpose it seemed was to intercept the fly before I could get it to the hawgs. The largest fish weighed in at 4lb.

Two camera related boo-boos. One, I forgot the memory card, so not a lot of photos got taken. Compounding that, the largest fish swamped my camera but good. I am hoping for a miracle 'cuz it ain't healthy.

.........my largest smallmouth to date at 4lbs.

I know some folks are going to hate this shot. For a number of reasons. Can't say I blame you. One reason........the forced perspective bullshit. It is bullshit. I wanted to get a regular shot, and a forced perspective, to show the difference side by side. Unfortunately, the camera operator is not familiar with my DSLR this was the only shot that came out. It is a kill shot. Now, I know I have stated on this blog, that having moved to a locale that can afford my harvest, harvest I will. Much different approach for me than the last 3 decades of unerring catch and release. Out of all the fish caught, only this one came home. Usually, I will avoid such photo's. Even if a fish is going to get culled, I will generally take the pic in a manner that wouldn't advertise the fact. It is what it is however. Besides...........this fish killed my camera...........so f#*k him.

If I can salvage any pics from my point and shoot, I will add them. It is currently in a bag of rice, hopefully removing the moisture.