38.5 water temsp. Ice off 5 days prior. Fish still in slow mo. After 3 hours of fishing and 4 fish in the boat, a pattern started to emerge. Over the next 4 hours I was able to get the total up to 15. When fishing for giant Smallies, numbers don't always tell the story. On this day however, the best 8 went over 42lbs. Big fish was a 6.45lb mule. 6 others over 5lbs. These are Smallies that I dreamed about for years! One of the keys on cold water days like this is to fish slow, but fish slow in the right spots. If you are not on fish, the day will slip away really fast with poor results. I like to hit key spots, work a few slow casts, then determine if it has fish or to keep moving. Once you find a depth and type of structure, it's pretty easy to jump other spots that are identical and keep catching fish.
