It was blazing hot on Banks Lake last Wednesday when my daughter Whitney and I fished the big lake. My new portable mister saved us, though, keeping us cool in the heat of the day. The walleye fishing was far from hot. Whitney is usually my good luck charm for walleye. We not only catch them when she is on the boat, but she catches big ones. Not so on Wednesday. We gave it a good try, and then took a swim break and switched to fishing for smallmouth bass. It was very good. I even caught ten in a small inlet while Whitney was swimming. It didn’t start off great. I was trying some topwater stuff and my new go-to lure, the Wicked Lure bass rig, but wasn’t getting bit. For some reason I put on a six-inch Zoom watermelon lizard and it was game on. I caught big numbers of them. Whitney thought I caught 80 I was reeling them so fast. Her casting was terrific, but she still is tentative setting the hook and knowing a subtle take. She still landed the biggest smallmouth to date for our trips to Banks, so it was great day. We had a blast.