After stopping by Wilderness Outfitters and getting some drop shot
tackle & tips my son and I headed to Margarita to give it a try.
Neither of us had tried the drop shot technique and were anxious
to give it try after getting pumped up by talking to a guy in the tackle shop. We were not disappointed. We each caught a fish
within a half hour & my son caught another one a little while later.
The wind was howling, so we moved out of Jackass Cove searching
for some calmer spots otherwise I'm sure we would have bagged some
more. Went towards the back of the lake to a crappie spot we like. While my son fished for crappie, I got a explosive strike on topwater
but lost it. While I was positioning the boat I suggested to Thane
(my son) to go ahead and throw out my Rico and splash, he caught
a feisty/jumping 3.5 pounder. This fish got hooked deep in throat & I had hard time getting the hook out. All three hooks on the rear treble
were buried in. I had to gently free each one while dipping the fish
in the water occasionally to keep him wet. Luckily, the hook came
out easier then I thought it would and the fish was released
in good shape. For the future, I'd like to get a tool to snip the hook
off if need be. Any suggestions?

Dave

Dave,
Glad you guys had a great time at Santa Margarita! Good job, Thane, on a fat topwater fish! Tough getting those hooks out of the back of their throats but a good pair of dikes (as in diagonal cutters) would help if you could get them that far back. Shimano makes a really nice pair of titanium coated cutters that would do the trick. It's nice to hear about people who really care about the fish. Talk to you soon.