JBP and I decided to stay closer to home as the days are growing short so we headed to South Side Oneonta and fished in the Susquehanna to see what we could dig up. We didn't plan particularly well so I didn't have much in the way of spinning gear with me other than a micro rod and a few Kast Masters. Not to be deterred, I tied on some salmon flies and some weight and went to work. To be honest, I'm not sure what I was thinking there, but I did land an 8" chub and a few small mouths with a large stone fly pattern and some split shot.
At some point, I came to my senses, grabbed my fly rod, switched to a sink tip line, and went back at it. That was definitely the ticket for me. I landed a few more small mouths, an 18" walleye (my first ever!), and an 16 inch brown who lept and cartwheeled in spectacular fashion after she attacked my Black Bear Green Butt.
While the brown was a lot of fun, the prize of the night came when I was working 6" smallie into the shallows to net and release. The fish was about a rod's length away when a massive walleye came up from the depths and swallowed my fish whole. I fought with the monster for a good 5 minutes in what seemed to be a tug-of-war over the poor bass. It didn't fight particularly hard but just acted like dead weight. I'd get him somewhat close and then he'd lazily swim away and pull my drag out. Finally, I guess he decided the bass wasn't worth it and coughed it up.
The funny part is that my buddy saw me hollering and fighting with my rod doubled over and came running over to arrive about when the walleye coughed up the bass. All he saw was me pull in a little 6" small mouth bass after all of that carrying on. I don't think I'm ever going to live that one down.
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