The Only One Who Caught a Fish
Let's just say Nate had a pretty good weekend.
Sure, there was a family reunion going on. Relatives to catch up with, food to eat, the whole thing. But at some point that morning, Nate slipped away from the gathering, got out on the water, and did what the rest of the family couldn't.
Nate caught a fish. The only fish of the day.
The setup
It was August on Seneca Lake, just outside Lodi, New York, which is one of the Finger Lakes, deep and cold and beautiful, with smallmouth bass that know every trick in the book. Hot, humid, the kind of morning where the air already feels used up before 9 am. Boat traffic was heavy, the kind of busy water that pushes fish down and makes them finicky. By that hour, most serious anglers have already been out for a couple of hours and are starting to think about heading in.
Not ideal conditions, in other words. Not by a long shot.
But out came the Rogue 425, FireTiger, and this smallmouth decided it had seen enough to know a good meal when one swam past. That fish committed. Didn't hesitate. Just ate it.
Look at that fish
Take a good long look at the photo.
That is not a young, naive fish. That smallmouth has been around. There's a mark just behind the gill plate that tells a story of its own; this fish has been in a scrap or two and came out the other side. It's the kind of fish that's seen every blade bait, every tube jig, every plastic craw that's ever been dropped in front of it. It's the kind of fish that doesn't eat things it doesn't trust.
It ate the Rogue 425.
That's not luck. That's a lure that moves right. As i've written before, cedar has a natural action in the water that experienced fish respond to differently than plastic - something about the wobble, the way it rolls, the way it behaves when the retrieve changes. This fish knew what baitfish look like. The Rogue 425, with its black stripes and chartreuse sides, looked close enough to convince it.
9 am, heavy pressure, still produced
Here's what I love about this catch.
The conditions were stacked against it. Mid-morning in August with boat traffic everywhere is not the textbook recipe for a quality smallmouth. The fish should have been tight to structure, locked down, not interested. And yet.
This is what handmade wooden lures were built for, not just the perfect morning with the perfect conditions and no one else on the water. They were built for when things get hard and you need something in your hand that you trust completely. The Rogue 425 earned that trust here.
And for the record, being the only one at a family reunion to catch a fish is a title that lasts a long time at holiday dinners. Cherish it.
Want to be next month's catch?
If you've landed something on a Lost Art lure, I want to hear about it. Send me a photo, tell me the story, where you were, what you were throwing, what the conditions were like. The messier the better. Let me know what lure you were using, better still, have the lure in the fishes' mouth still. The best fishing stories never happen under perfect conditions.
Drop me a line at brad@lostartlures.com or tag us on Instagram and Facebook. Your catch could be right here next month.
The Rogue 425 that fooled this fish is available now at lostartlures.com. Go find your own story.
Fish hard,
Brad
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