Hitting the Locals...Looking for a Little Warm-Water Action

I really had the itch to get out and chase some Ozark smallies this past weekend , it may still be a touch early but I've just had smallmouth on the brain lately when I think about fishing. I had the boat and gear loaded a few days out from the weekend and was watching river levels closely. It looked like it might all come together, until the wife had a last minute situation arise which required her to be out of town for three days. Once again my fishing plans were foiled!!
I puttered around the house on Saturday (the wife would say that I was "moping" because I didn't get to go fishing!) until I'd had enough , I was going fishing somewhere come hell or high water. The boat was loaded on the truck already and most of the gear I would need was stacked in the front seat so it didn't take much work to be ready. Joe hopped in the backseat and we were soon headed out to one of the local city lakes that I had some decent luck bass fishing on last year.

We found an access without any company that I could launch my boat from and then spent the next hour walking the shoreline looking for a few fish.

I tried double decievers , wiggle minnows , clousers , wooly buggers...you name it , I probably tied one on and threw it that evening. To my dismay I just couldn't get any action. I put the boat on the water for the last hour or so and fished a couple areas that couldn't be reached from shore but it didn't make any difference. I ended up leaving the lake that night smelling like a road-kill skunk.


The next day I seriously thought about making the hour drive out to a local reservoir that has a decent smallmouth population and trying my luck with the boat. After checking the weather forecast and seeing the 25-30 mph winds that were forecast for the area I decided against it though. Once again we loaded in the truck and headed out to a smaller , hopefully wind-protected lake that I have caught bass on before. This lake is a state fishing lake and as a general rule fishes pretty good due to annual stocking practices. We arrived at the lake around 9:30 , just as the morning chill was giving way to warm rays of sunshine. Once again Joe and I walked several shorelines , throwing everything in the flybox at them , and once again we caught zilch...nada...nothing!

By this time it was getting close to lunch so we made the decision to head back to the truck. I'd picked up some lunch material the evening before at a local BBQ joint so we kicked back in the sun and had a nice lunch break.


Joe decided to take a little afternoon nap once we were finished with lunch so I unloaded the boat and continued to fish a few areas that couldn't be reached from shore.


Again , I tried several different flies with the same results as before. Not only did I end up not catching anything , I can't even say that I had a strike in the two outings I made.

I finally decided that I'd taken all of the abuse I could stand so we loaded up and the three of us headed back home...Joe , myself and the skunk we had recently acquired.