Top Secret Wade

Went for a wade with Riff-Raff today. Water was low and stained with visibility 2feet. Warning: Left camera at home !

I quickly caught a 14"er on a popper. After being warned to stay in the creeks and not on the banks by a resident we were told where to catch 5lbsers . Proceeded to catch a chunk 16.75"er from that very spot on a popper! Then a dinker on Wolka buzz and Riff caught a dinker on a tube.

We worked our way to a bend and large pool where I told Riff I had caught an 18"er the only other time I fished this stretch. Pointed to a large downed tree at the head of the pool as the spot the fish was caught. From 40 yard out I landed the perfect cast, after one pop a fish destroyed the popper. I had to keep the fish up in the water column to prevent diving under the trees. It jumped nicely then dove down deep as I struggled to keep up with it's downstream acrobatics. It felt like it got hung up on something then jumped straight in the air from the depths, one more jump and a strong run and I had him to hand, right about at 18" .

Riff caught two off the opposing bank downed rootwad- one about 15".

I moved upstream and got hung up after a couple of casts and went in to get my lure. The hole was much deeper than it appeared. I became afraid I had spooked a good hole and moved on.

Riff came in behind hitting the pool I thought I had pooched and caught 3 fish one at 17"+ and another at 17" on a small chatterbait.

While he was wrangling his third fish I hooked into a solid 16"er who swiped and missed my popper but came after and nailed it deep. Caught a fish on a tube and the two more on WBz.

As we chatted, I started catching fish like crazy- like 4 in a row on WB including a 17.25" That Riff saw follow my buzz across the stream then destroy it just feet in front of us. Then I caught 3 more on a tube topped off by a nice bruiser that went 17"+. We hit a pool that produced fish for each of us then I had a very large smallie slurp a tube under a tree enough for both of us to see the length of this fish was the largest yet. My line caught a stick and pulled the tube free ! Gahhh!

Crazy stuff was happening.

We hit a hole where I caught 3 in a row on the popper that went 14", 15.5, 14, and then at the fourth cast a fish destroyed the popper when I went to put pressure on the fish my line snapped. The fish continued to jump- we could hear the popper's rattle weights shake every time it jumped. Riff said it looked 17"+. Then he caught a fish on a tube that went about 18". Lo and behold there came my popper floating downstream, complete with snap and about 2 feet of line! I had just been moaning losing a 10$ lure in a fish's mouth and possibly killing it. Sweet!

The hole was fished out so we moved up a Riff caught 2 about 12-13, then a nice 17"er all on tubes. I landed a nice 14"er on popper.

From there, the sun went into the clouds and the fishing died. We fished hard some areas that should have held fish, but maybe they were well fed?

We caught some more fish, 3 about 15-15.5" on tube and chatterbaits.

27 bass for me 2 were LMB (18, 17.25", 17.25",16.75, 16, 2 15.5, 15)

Riff had 18-20 (18", 17"+, 17", 17", 2 15.5, 15)

Lots of fun and well met.

Left camera at my computer from downloading previous photos for report.

We finished up about 8:30pm, I sent him to another spot as I went home. So he'll have a chance of catching up post game.