Keeping an eye on the Bear

[Jig-fisher]

The Bear has been really good to me this year and today I got to fish for a little over an hour. I tried a location that I thought should hold some big fish, but had not tried since last year. There is a deep hole that pushes up against the far bank, but the water is running so high and fast that it is hard to get a bait to hold so far across the river. It would be perfect if I had a boat. But bank fishing was the only option today. I set up a ways above the hole hoping to maybe draw some fish out of the deep to my sucker chunks. Had 3 bites. 1st was a huge surprise, a 24" walleye. Kept that "eye" for a future dinner. Then a respectable 24" cat. Then a heavy pull of a bite, set the hook, great pull on the other end. Then it got hung on something on the bottom. I played the waiting game, let some line out, reeled back in, gave some small jerks and reeled some more. Waited some more, keeping tension on the line. It took out drag a couple of times then suddenly swam out of the jam. I couldn't believe my luck that it swam out. It took drag a couple more times before coming to the net. I was hoping for a bump fish for the contest, but just not there. It went over 30" though and was a tough battle. Very fun, especially in the heavy current.
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