10/8/06 Float

Got out for a 4-5 mile float today. The water was up and murky with visibility at 6". Current was busting along at 600 + normal 200-300.
With the water up, I assumed there wouldn't be fish in the current (this proved to be true) So I looked for slow water areas next to or downstream from a current break.

Started out slow when I hit an area that had frothing water coming into the river from a drain pipe on the slow side of the river. I had a buzzbait on and picked up a 13 smallie near some wood. That was an attention getter. Often times, one fish gives away the location of others, and this was no exception. I love using buzzes as a search bait. I've learned a lot this year from their use. The fish was caught banging a Wolkabuzz off wood.

I often see shad in their hundreds near such as areas, so I decided to fish downstream of it, and though I saw no shad in the murky water their were fish hitting the surface every few minutes. I switched to a zoom fluke jr (albino) and let it drift. Then my line jumped. I set the hook - yes! I fought a pig for the next minute. When I landed it, the fish came in just shy of 19".



It was hooked solid in the lip, must have hit an artery as he bled a bit from the mouth.




Now I had caught a 19" and a 20" last time out on this exact stretch, this guy seemed a half pound heavier than either of those.

Tossed the fluke back out there and a couple more 14"ers. I switched to a popper and caught a nice 15"er right in front of some canoers. Then a 13"LMB and 14.5" SMB on the fluke again.

Problem was there were no more spots like this the rest of the float. I had grabbed 7 fish out of one spot in 45 minutes. The rest was a struggle. Nothing on cranks, nothing on tubes. I caught two more nice 14"ers one on a Wolkabuzz, another on a popper.

To my amazement the bridge appeared in just under 5 hours. I was home by 530pm. Quite happy with 9 bass - no dinks.

Great day to get out. Almost skipped fishing this week, but wife was kind enough to shuttle me. Quite a bit of traffic on the river. Passed about 6 other fishermen none of whom where having any success.

The only reason I caught those first 7 fish was from previously noting the shad piling up near the O2 on those drain pipes in the summer.

9/23/06 Float

Wool(Mike) and I got out for a yak on Saturday, got started about 9 or shortly thereafter. Flow was up a bit, and there was green stain to the water . Visibility was 2ft.

I didn't know what to expect with the rain and change in temps lately. We decided to go for it despite 80% chance of rain and 20 mph winds. Had a new kayak that needed to smell like fish.

Fish were aggressive, but hard to locate with the flow up early. Picked up some nice early fish on tubes (multiple colors). Success came when I went to 3/16oz vs 1/8oz jighead. Fish were caught near calm water areas next to current and occasionaly in the middle of nowhere chasing them down. Pop it and drop it worked well. Caught this nice 18" on a smoke tube off some riprap. I was actually targeting a small point when some small voice told me to toss over by the dumped sidewalk section. This fish fought like a maniac.



Thanks to Josh, I worked a lot of cranks today. Picked up 10 fish in the last .5 mile of the float off mid river bolders and current breaks behind wood. On a blue/silver LC crank. Fish were slamming the bait. They wanted a tight wobble over loose. One was another 18" from behind more mid river bolder action.



Then this guy happened.

Mike managed to shake it loose with some plyers. That's when you know you have a good fishing partner, takes pictures of your fish and unhooks angry reptiles! Cheers, Mike!

I ended up with 21. 3 LMB in there. Plenty of size, too. 2 18", 1 just short of 17", a 16", 2 15"s, and a mess of 14's.

Mike stuck with the buzzbait most of the day and had some good fish on it.

09/09/06 Clusterfrick X

Met up with Matt, JasonII, Gary, and JoeHoward for a Clisterfick (X?) this morning at 8. Got on the water 9ish.

The water was stained, with visbility about 18". Wading felt good in the low 80 air.

JoeHoward, Gary, and myself fished a section of stream in the midst of a clean up, which was not a problem, but for the AIRBOATS that passed a dozen times. Headache. The fishing seemed off.

Joe caught a smallie on a red crank that had lampreys attached to it.

A fish ambushed a red Lucky Craft CB 1-2 foot diver off one bank near current, jumped and peeled drag like crazy. By the time I landed it, it was my largest fish from this flow, 19".





Not long after that, I was casting downstream at the start of a chokepoint in current when my Red Lucky C CB stopped again. I thought it was a big cat at first. It turned out to be my first 20"er of the year and my new record for the stream!



My pics are not so great because the sunlight made it tough to see the lcd, Joe snapped a couple that may have turned out better.

What the hell was going on?

The rest of the day we picked up fish here and there. Slow. Gary caught a Sauger, a couple of Bluegills. Around 10 fish total which were mostly dinks. However, Gary had a fight with a mamouth something under a log that broke him off. Good news was JoeHoward started catching a few more too. Joe caught 5 or 6 on cranks throughout the day.

At the end of the day (6 hour float), I caught only 7 bass, 5 on red cranks and 2 on tubes. But I could care less. Fish wouldn't touch the buzz for either of us.

Both Gary and Joe are good guys to float and shoot shit with. By the end of the float, we were burnt. Between sun, parents yelling at their kids, and AIRBOATS VRRRRRROOOOOOMMMMM! It was great to see people cleaning up the river. Good job guys.

8/23/06 Float and Hog Smallmouth

Jjwilson and I did a float on the North American continent on Sunday from 7am to 130pm. We did about 5-6 miles, Joe is Speedy Gonzales in the yak.

The water was clear and we scattered a lot of holes. It made it very difficult to fish behind someone the entire day. Fishing was slow until after 10am. When I started getting them on tubes, but occasionaly a buzz, and jerk.

Joe caught this monster on a crank at the back of a deep hole. Nice. I must be a big fish reverse black cat for him. He caught another pig last time out on 8/5/06.



I'll vouch for him this fish was a bonified 20"er all stretched out. Something was odd about this whopper, but I couldn't place it. Look at the tail on that thing!

I ended up with 15, Joe just a handful, but he had the hawg. Couple of nice 15"'s all I could manage, on a rough day. I'll get the hawg next time Wilson!

Oh, my car was gone when we got back to the put in. Took us an hour to track it down and get it back. -90$ for me. I'll post the bridge location so it doesn't happen to you. Wonderful feeling really, try it some weekend!

8/19/06 Float- The Buzzman Cometh

Wool (Mike) and I got out for an all day yak on Saturday on a new stretch. The water was clear, with visibility to 6 feet if the sun was shining. This made fishing difficult. Fish were spooking easily.

In the first 10 minutes, I had a fat 16 and 15, from in front of a riffle with some hefty boulders for cover. Both fell to a Wolkabuzz 1/8oz.

A hunchbacked 16"er:


Throughout the day, good fish were holding in choke points where the stream narrowed. Or just off the main current on the deep side of the stream. As the day went on, shade was key. It seemed we had a lot of reaction strikes. I picked up 2 fish and Mike 1 when the lure hit the water. I played around with a jerk bait with visible fish to see they weren't going for easy meals. The tube bite was light all day and pretty non existant. I probably caught as many as I lost on tubes, which was a handful. Nothing big.

Here's a fish just short of 17" that hit a Wolka buzz as soon as it hit the water. This one also had a pronounced hump.



To prevent spooking fish we got out and waded around several riffles and runs. Several fish were caught this way.

Both Mike and I agreed this was the best stretch of stream we had seen in Indiana. There were many rocky riffles to negotiate, with the heat we got pretty sore and exhausted.

Kept up with the buzz when this monster hit! Caught on Wolkabuzz went just shy of 19".




I ended up with 18 bass, 16 smallies and two runt LMB which will be food for the smallies on this stream. I had some size a 18.75, 17",16", 4 15". Mike had 12 including a sweet 16"er, which was the largest fish we had caught on a tube.

Once again Buzzbaits saved the day, last year I would have had half as many with no size. At times last year I struggled when fish weren't taking a tube. Terrific part of growing as a fisherman, gaining confidence in a new bait. Excellent fisherman who are kind with advice for loudmouth newbies deserve some thanks.

Mike and I worked hard to get these numbers, long day on the water with scant provisions + lots of dragging = aches and pain.

All the fish had awesome coloration and were well fed.

Smallmouth Bass Kayak Fishing 8/6/06

On 8/6 I got on some water with Willie (Pat). New section for both of us. Conditions the same as the previous day.

Started out well as I caught a nice 17"er on a Lucky Craft American Shad Crank. Popped it before I started the retrieve, and the fish nailed it almost instantly. What a fight. The smallie jumped full force into my kayak "Wham". Unfortunately, it was foul hooked in the tissue surrounding the right eye. In the course of the fight the trebles had traveled!



Pat and I were both picking up fish on WolkaBuzz and a tube here and there. When wading I heard a yell from upstream. Since I was the camera man, I had to abandon a sweet hole. A run upstream where I saw Pat wading towards what I thought was a snag. It wasn't a snag.



The carp was at least 2 feet long and had peeled drag behind a log where Pat had gone to retrieve it. He thought he had a 7lbs smallie.

The rest of the day we picked up fish here and there on tubes, buzzes, cranks, and spinnerbaits. It turned into a backbreaker, as the last half of the flow was bedrock with shallow water that ment a lot of dragging in the heat.

We were picking up a lot of 12"-14"ers maybe a 15" here or there, but no size besides the carp and 17.

We both were probably in the mid to upper 20's in numbers, but it was unsatisfying after all the work for 1 good fish.

I guess I'm getting spoiled. 8.5 hours and 50+ fish isn't good enough.

8/5/06 Smallmouth Bass Kayak Float

8/5-8/6/06


Got to a flow with Jwilson on 8/5. New stretch for us both, on the water by 7am off by 130pm. Water clarity was 2-3 feet.

Joe hasn't been out much this year and was a little down on his smallie catching confidence. Nonsense! We nailed em.

I got around 28 smallies. Biggest 17" no size after that, maybe a couple of 15 and some 14's. Lots of 11-13"ers. Here's a 17 I caught on Smoke Purple tube. You can see Joe fishing upstream in the pic. He had just got a 15"er in that spot I said to myself I need to cast a tube there, but I had a buzz on. So I passed it up!




Joe caught about the same number as me, we'd both go on runs but it was fairly consistent throughout the day depending on quality of habitat. We used Buzzbaits and tubes, I think I caught 4 on cranks too.

The highlight of the day was the fat 19"er Joe caught on a buzzbait. I have been talking Buzzes up for him, and to his credit, he stuck to it, even when he couldn't get hookups early.



As you can see by the pic, beautiful smallie! I love hearing people's comments when they have a hog on!