Armed with brand-new Mitchell 300 Pro rod and reel combos, my two sons accompanied me to the village dock at Washago, Ontario. That's where Amanda Webb, the lead female character in my Angus Wolfe series, lives. We wanted to try out the new equipment before heading to my family's old stomping grounds at Honey Harbour next week. Sure enough, elder son Spencer laid into a nice smallmouth on his second cast. The fish struck his yellow Gulp soft bait (on a quarter-ounce jighead) the moment it hit the water. Anyone who has caught a smallmouth, pound-for-pound the best freshwater fighting fish in the world, knows what happens next: the creature gets downright annoyed. He went to the bottom in the weeds, then jumped, then headed straight under the dock pilings. That's where he is in the picture above, with younger son Duncan poised with the net. A few seconds later, the crafty smallmouth sawed Spencer's line off, on something sharp.