A couple of months ago during a kayak fishing tournament, I lost what would have been the largest river smallmouth bass of my life. That was single handedly one of the worst fishing experiences of my life. Nothing that day seemed to click, and it seemed like all the odds were stacked up against my fishing partner and I. However sometimes in life you have the opportunity to redeem yourself from previous failures. This was the case a couple of weeks ago when Adam and I decided to take that same float. The weather that day was perfect, clear skies with a little cloud cover; water was semi-clear with a little bit of stain, and no wind. As soon as we hit the water that morning, we immediately started catching good sized smallmouth. I was thinking to myself the whole time, why couldn’t we be fishing a tournament today? Then I pitched a swim-bait way out in front of me and as soon as it hit the water it was immediately attacked. I had a great smallmouth on the end of my line; it fought hard and was an absolute thrill. This ended up being my largest river smallmouth to date. I know 2 or 3 lbs isn’t anything to brag about to some people, but to me it was a real treat.