I actually took this picture while fighting a smallmouth bass. I had already caught 5 along the rip rap of Pend d'Oreille Bay and had this one on when the sun did what you see here. I couldn't resist. Holding the rod between my knees, I let the bass do whatever while I took my digital out of my shirt pocket and put it on this scene, wide angle, vertical.

That's exactly what I was looking at on a perfect end-of-June morning this 2007, two hours before work just outside the city limits of Downtown Sandpoint.

It was a perfect bass morning for fishing tube worms which you do by casting near structure. You let the tube worm settle. (It's a weighted jig with a soft body that looks and acts like a crayfish when handled correctly.)

You wait a moment, then move it slightly on the bottom. That's usually where you'll get the strike. But some follow or see your lure as you begin to bring it up over the heavy lay of rocks that were put there by the Army Corp of Engineers to prevent further erosion to this long shoreline. The engineers didn't know the smallmouth bass would move into these waters and so unwittingly, they created prime bass water for certain times of the year, particularly May and June.

What a way to start the day!

###Dwayne K. Parsons