PICTURE
CHAPTER 2
I
first shared my lifelong affair with fishing in the 2014 edition of Northwest Sportman’s Real Women TH of Northwest Fishing. Since then, that little bump in my belly Annual pictured in that edition was born and has turned into quite the fisherman himself. OF Rusten caught a 4-pound largemouth in one of our ranch ponds in Oklahoma when we visited my family last spring. He casted, caught and landed that fish on the ol’ trusty Zebco 33. We’ve since returned home to Idaho, where we live near the confluence of the Snake and Salmon Rivers, which is the setting for this next fishing story. It took me a while, but I eventually realized landing a very small fish is often much harder than landing a fatty. By that I mean the skill needed to keep a tiny fish on a hook that’s made for a fish three times its size – now that’s skill, or maybe just luck. I was pretty proud of one short smallmouth I landed while participating in a fishing tournament this past August on the Snake River in Hells Canyon. I missing winning for smallest fish caught by a whole half an inch. The smallest fish caught was 4.5 inches.
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THE BACK STORY: I was participating with a group of ladies in the “Haul In Bass” tournament, sponsored by Hammer Down River Excursions. The goal was to catch as many bass as possible in an eight-hour window, with the counting stopped promptly at 5 p.m. Our day didn’t start so great, as one of our fishergals became ill and wasn’t able to participate. The major problem with losing
Summer Dunn shows off a tiny bass she caught last summer during a fun tournament on the Snake River. It just missed winning her a prize for smallest fish – but helped push her angling team to a fourth place finish with their 440 Hells Canyon smallies. (SUMMER DUNN)
nwsportsmanmag.com | DECEMBER 2021
Northwest Sportsman 47
