Afternoon Paddling

Afternoon Walk

Lunch Paddling

I injured my back a couple days ago lifting a load of scrap metal into the truck. Carrying the kayak was painful but I couldn’t resist taking it out on this calm afternoon. Caught a nice cutbow that chased all the way to the surface, and followed it up with a couple of nice smallmouths caught deep off the bottom. The first smallie was 17” (another master angler qualifier), the second around 15”. Although smallmouth are susceptible to barotrauma, I rarely see it on this lake (whereas I do see it more often on deep walleye here). The first was fine but the second one had pop-out eyes. However, I could see on sonar that it swam back down to depth quickly. That doesn’t preclude the possibility of post-release mortality, but from what I’ve seen over the years - if a fish can swim back down quickly on their own, it’s a good sign that they’re going to be ok. The ones that can’t swim back down are typically in trouble.

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Eric Holmlund

Afternoon Paddling

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Afternoon Paddling

Afternoon Walk

Lunch Paddling

Afternoon Paddling

Afternoon Walk

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