School of Fish had the pleasure of treating Graeme and Matthew to a late fall trip on Shortt’s Lake where we intended to fish deep for Smallmouth and shallow for Pickerel, which is the typical approach this time of year. We started on a deeper weedline, Matthew chose to start with the Ned Rig using a Z-Man TRD, most likely because kids (and adults that act like kids) really get a kick out of referring to it as a “Terd”. Graeme started with a drop shot, and I point this out because with multiple rods on the boat I like to start with different techniques until we sort out the best option for that specific day. Matthew got the left side of the boat and made a cast down the weed edge, and patiently waited for his line to stop moving, just like I taught him. It took a while. And it took me longer than it should have to realize why. First cast and Matthew hooked and landed this dandy fall smallmouth.

Much of the rest of the morning was the drop shot’s time to shine as we brought in plenty of smallies and the occasional pickerel from deep weed lines and rocky areas. After that first big smallie the story of the day was definitely electronics. Deep water smallies is not for everybody, it can be slow fishing and it can be hard to drift around an area dangling a bait over the side without doing lots of casting. But the three of us on the boat were able to spread out on the boat, with Matthew and I watching the Garmin on the front of the boat and Graeme watching the Humminbird on the back of the boat, and all of us patiently learning the drop shot and dropping baits on fish as we marked them.

Now a quick note on fish handling, mostly because this isn’t the first time we’ve posted a picture of a happy angler using Fish Grips on a pickerel. When you catch a fish with School of Fish we will handle the netting of the fish, removing the hooks, and providing the best instruction and motivation possible for each angler to hold their own fish for a great photo. Smallmouth bass are relatively easy to handle and generally nobody minds the sandpaper teeth and lipping a bass. Pickerel on the other hand are toothy, slimy, and much more difficult to manage, especially for less experienced anglers. For pickerel (and bass if required) we keep a set of lip grippers in the boat for easy handling of fish and taking photos as required. When used incorrectly lip grippers can cause damage to the fish, we try to use them only when required, and in the safest way possible. We accept that not everyone wants to wrestle a pickerel with their bare hands, but we still want to show off our catch. We’ll work with each client to best manage all priorities for each fish.

I give Graeme and Matthew full credit on this day for coming prepared for a cold day. I warned Graeme and I would warn all anglers at this time of year; dress in layers, and dress warmer than you think you need. With everyone warm and comfortable, we were able to just enjoy learning new techniques, learning how to read the information provided by the fishfinders, and making way more jokes about terds than I should probably admit to.

In the end, we all caught fish, we enjoyed a few chilly runs across the lake, and we had a lot of laughs. Even a bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work, but a good day of fishing is even better, and that’s what we had.