So my mom is the one that got me out and really into fishing when I was a kid. It was her thing that she did with her dad when she was little so she would take us kids, but I was the only one that really liked it a lot. My dad never fished much so it was mostly her and I. Most years, for Mother's day, we would do breakfast, then my dad and uncle and granddad would be going out to the hay fields. When I was too small to help on the tractor out there, my mom and I would go fishing. So it turned into tradition to do Mother's day fishing trips. Since I have my own family now, those Mother's day trips tend to be on the day before. This year on Saturday was the best yet. Explored new areas, all Columbia river backwaters and such with a little boat I picked up from another member on here. Small crankbaits and night crawlers with 1/4 oz weight drug around the rip rap and other areas with big chunk rock just killed em. We were catching all day long, and man I love that smallmouth fight, I swear, pound for pound they pull harder than most other fish I have ever caught. Being the Columbia, I was hoping to stock the freezer a bit since there is no limit now on the Columbia. My wife and I absolutely love bass. But since most places I fish its just a 1 fish day due to the size/slot limits and such. And that normally only makes 1 fresh meal with nothing to stock the freezer with. We ended up keeping 13. Most of the released fish were of the same size as the kept ones, we just got to the point of being happy with what we were keeping, so everything else went back. We fished from sun up till 1, and had those keepers and tossed back 25-30 others. Who knows how many we had lost when they jumped and threw the hook and such. One of the best days bass fishing I have ever had, and a great Mother's day trip this year!
