Fished Beaver this morning till about 10am and had the whole lake to myself. I C&R'd around a dozen largemouth bass, one 5 pounder ( a somewhat skinny 23 incher), one 2+ pounder, a couple just over a pound, and the rest dinks. Pretty good early bite, with all fish caught around lily pads. The wind kicked up about 9, making it hard to detect bites...so I drifted the worm and picked up a couple more small ones - then left.
The big bass had an old broken-off hook in its upper lip (probably why she looked a little skinny - must not have been eating too well lately). I almost felt guilty catching her. I left the hook in because it looked like it was healing well with scar tissue all around - and why mess up a good thing for the fish. It did make me wonder who had their heart broken when this one got away.....