Hannah lands a HUGE smallmouth on Keuka Lake

Hannah lands 20" bass with 2 lb test on Keuka Lake

Same cute girl 10 years earlier at Aunt Kay's pond

Yesterday was a real highlight of my summer.  Hannah and our two dogs spent the day on Keuka Lake.  We started the day by watching Charlie and Penn State play UCF in Ireland at 8:30 AM.  We watched it on Shu's dock.  Penn State won with a game winning field goal with no time left.  Great shot of Charlie on ESPN2.

After that we grabbed minnows from Bubba's Bait and went up the lake into a  15mph headwind.  I anchored us in a cove out of the wind right on over a 20-80' drop off .

Hannah landed an absolutely beautiful smallmouth bass.  Probably took us 10 minutes to land.  She had an ultralight pole with 2 pound test so she had quite a fight on her hands!

I am a big proponent of using ultralight rods for almost every form of freshwater fishing.  As long as the knots are tied well and the drag is set properly there should be no reason for the line to break.  Kids absolutely love it!  Makes them feel like they are fighting a monster every time they hook a fish.

The exception to this would be if I was musky, salmon or big pike fishing as that requires heavier tackle.  Most of the fish we catch are on $20 rod/reel and $3 line.  :-)

Later in the day she landed a lake trout in 180' of water.  I was psyched as she was using an antique pole I had rigged up with a 50 year old Penn reel.  We also caught a beautiful pickerel.  I think these fish are the prettiest of the Esox americanus, family.