Esten.

It was overly hot yesterday afternoon, so I decided to cool of in the lake, and dragged the pontoon up to Esten Lake. Not my best idea. For fishing that is. Worked great for cooling off.

In the few hours I was out, I had to work hard for the few fish I caught. I try to avoid that these days. I searched the lake from top to bottom looking for fish. I eventually did land some bass, though this was probably due to the later hour than my changing of flies and techniques.


I suppose I can take some solace in that one of the bass was a decent fish that fought well above his wait class. I had hooked him deep, on a clouser, so I initially didn't have any look at him. Most bass come to the surface for me fairly quick, regardless of size, seemingly willing to duke it out on top on their terms. This fish went deep, tried runs, and circling the boat. For a while I was wondering what it was I had hooked. It was a bass, just one with his own ideas on how to combat a fisherman.