Last Day of Work 7/27/07

Boss showed up to pick up the last bits and pieces from my office Thursday. Place closed today at 12. Since there was nothing for me to do I went fishing. Hard to believe, I know.


Hit the water at 6:30 this morning. Fished a stretch Prowler and I did Spring 2006. Mainly tossed a Sammy all day. Didn't much matter fast or slow they hit it either way. I mostly worked it fast. Water was pretty stained from recent rainfall but still visibility increased to 2 feet throughout the day.

This rocky stream is really hot right now. Just the sheer biomass along the banks doubles any stream I've seen this year. There are going to be some big fish in there, correction- continue to be big fish in there.

Fished 8 hours tied my best day with 41. (6 17's, 3 16's, 12 15-15.5) Amazed at the amount of fat medium sized fish. As you can imagine, it was a lot of fun. Never did hook into anything really big, can't complain at all. Only caught 1 on a tube and 3 on Wolkabuzz, but didn't really try much.




Did something I never do- fished fast and completely ignored middle and bottom of the water column. Smallies were biting so good I pounded the backs of pools and picked up a few on the way up to each new push area.

Hookup % was pretty high for Sammy, though I did get a couple in the gills.

Pic:

2 Part Wade 7/10/07

Tried out a new stretch of an old fav. Stream was actually wider than I'd expected. Took awhile to find a put in spot. Finally found a medieval bridge and parked.

Walked down about a mile, mile and a half then started fishing. It didn't looks so good. Silty, no current, and plenty of wood. But then an odd thing happened, I stopped pouting and started fishing.

I was throwing an 1/8 OZ tube Hooked up brand Sweet potato . In 20 minutes, I caught 7 bass (15.5") and a goog on tubes, then poppers from a hole near a root wad at a bend in the stream- the bend was near a trickle of water.

Moving up, I picked up a few fish on Poppers worked slow (shade) and a couple on tubes. Nothing big, but 4 fish from 15.5-16. Caught my last fish on Splashtail 90. I managed 12 Smallmouth and a goog. Saw plenty signs of bucket peeps so it was time to move out after about 3.5 hours. Got back to the car and decided to hit another stretch while waiting for the prestorm binge.

Got to the second stretch about 4pm. There was plenty of limestone/shale flats with steps for holes the water temp was a balmy 86F! I headed this way because the gradient would produce more flow and hopefully, activity. I was going to work the backs of pools heavy with the Splashtail- hoping for a high hookup percentage out of the lure.

It's pretty much what happened. I caught another 25 Smallmouth and 1 goog. 4 smallies on Tubes. 21 on the Splashtail. The stream had almost no wood so this was the perfect surface lure. Ripping it, popping it, and pausing it led to a very high hook up percent maybe 80% or so.

This fish, like most, came off pushwater at the tail end of pools, it was a competition strike, and the fish hit the lure right before I snatched it up. 17.25"



I did get two fat 17"+ers on a tube. The first, was caught near a downed tree and rootwad, right next to some current and the eddy created had foam on it. The fifth cast or so, the fish struck. It had picked the tube up while I dead sticked it. It went 17.25" and was fat.




The last good fish was after the topwater bite died around 7:15. It was near rootwads and current with a log leaning in from the bank. When I pitched the tube in the right spot he took it. Another fat fish, this one went 17.5". You can see the spot my tube hit to the left behind my right shoulder where the log slants into the stream- a foot in front of that right up near the bank,



Storm started rolling up, I caught two more on SPT90, one had a madtom sticking out of it's gullet backwards.

When I started the long and soon to be wet walk back to the car, a guy pulled up and offered me a ride. Heck yeah! Rain started falling like cats and dogs.

He's the town family doctor. We both could swear we'd met before. When he said he kayaked I thought I might have seen him on the water or at the Expo. Thanks, Chris!

8 hours: 37 Smallmouth (17.5, 2 17.25, 8 15.5-16) 2 Googs.

Fishing with Wool all Damned weekend 7/6 and 7/7/2007

Fished with Mike on Saturday, the flow was almost stagnant and low. We both lost some big fish and the wade ended with some domestic violence heard through the trees.

We got out to a rocky stream on Sunday it was boiling hot with a little current and cool water that helped immensely.

We threw tubes, Sammy's, and cranks. No pattern other than the fishing was slow and it was very hot.

Mike caught an 18"er on a tube near a root wad and a 15.5" fish that slammed a Sammy 100.

We had or ourselves a shootout, albeit without many fish. Which Mike won 9-8. Most fish were caught on a variety of lure since nothing was working consistently. Mike may have beat me in size and numbers, but I had more bowel movements by the creek- hollow victory but take what you can get.

My biggest was a 16.25"er (Sammy)

We both bought new Pflueger Supreme reels. They are extremely light- hold a lot of line on the oversized spools. The Magnesium seems to transmit vibrations astonishingly well. I could feel the rocks and strikes in my reel like never before. I also lost several big fish this weekend fuddeling with drag or not putting enough pressure on fish because the reel felt different.

Mike also got his first custom rod from John Bunner.

Fish in the Rootwads Beckoned Forth

Riff-Raff and I got out for a wade. We decided to do an entirely new stretch.

Riff caught two on Chatterbait and I caught two googs for like the first four hours. We hit a log jam where I had a big fish pick up my tube and run with it, but alas, it came free in the root wad. Then I fell into a 4 foot deep pool of algae. Nice! We walked and walked. Until midday the stream seemed empty. Very few strikes.

I caught a fish on a Jimmy, then another on a tube. It seemed like the bite picked up when the sun got in the sky.

Riff caught a 15"SMB and a dink LMB and I caught a 15" LMB on a Jimmy, 14" LMB and a 13"smallie on a tube. I snuck up on a hole and lost a 17-18" fish who smashed a Jimmy when a treble caught on some brush and the lure pulled free. The I lost another fish on jump on a tube .

Wasn't shaping up to be my day. Jim had an encounter with a big fish that smashed his popper- but it got quick released too. I caught 2 more fish on Jimmy and backlashed, while I untangled it, Jim moved ahead and caught a 17"er on a popper! I was behind him and hit a spot he passed for 5 Smallies 13-15" on a popper worked slow near root wads. Fast moving or loud topwaters did not work.

We moved up a narrow stream area near more root wads, I caught 2 fish on Popper , and had a 16"ish fish throw the lure on the jump! UGH. 3-4th encounter with sizeable fish with nothing to show for it. What was strange was the fish that had hit came near rootwads often, but the water was often knee deep. Only a slow deliberate popper close to the wads drew strikes. I theorized the fish were coming out of undercut rootwads to strike the Popper. Seemed to be the pattern for the day.

We hit some sort of ancient bridge, I lost a fish on jump, then caught a 17"er on a tube while Jim was snagged up.



Jim caught one on the chatter and we split up. I caught another fish on popper then 3 more on a tube at an 's' bend with quick current and good depth.

Met up with Jim to fish a log jam, when he stayed behind to fish it more thouroughly. Moved up to the top of the pool and tossed the Jimmy to where it widened and brought it's dog walk close to more rootwad. A dink missed the Jimmy followed by four more strikes, I didn't panic and kept on walking the dog under fire. Paused the bait, then started again when a pig smashed it! When I landed the fish, it went 18.5" ! and was fat. The first strike was NOT from that fish, since riff caught a couple there after, I think the pig came in to finish it!



We fished on for a while, Jim caught a couple more on Chatters. Then we walked back to the car after debate as to direction to take. Total trip was 6.7 miles 11 hours. Beer!

I caught 18 Smallies (18.5, 17, 3 15") 2 LMB (15" 14") and 2 Googs. About 5-6 fish on tube- the rest topwater. Could have had a lot more size, but for fish playing mistakes around roots .

Jim had 10-12 bass (17" at least a couple of 15"'s

Last Wade First 6 Months 2007

Waded a rocky stream, caught fish on poppers, Sammy, fluke, tubes (intensified late), and slayed them on LC splashtail 90.

I used the ST 90 double prop instead of a buzz and the sharp double treble hooks had a very high hookup percentage.

29 smallies- 16.75", 16", 2 15" mostly a dinkfest. 20 were probably 8-12". I left because I got bored catching small fish.


I did lose a Hawgzilla that slammed a 1/4oz WB in some current from behind a boulder. I could not turn the fish and it took drag in front of a couple of boulders and my line broke. I'm sure its from walking the dog with those razor sharp sammy hooks. This has happened three times since I started using topwaters with trebles. Poor fish has a WBZ attached to its head- Hope it didn't go to deep.
I may have to go back to 20/6 PP.


Saw a huge snapper at least 30lbs. Found a leech that had been living in my wading boot. The leech had been in there since at least Thursday if not longer. It fell out of my boot, to my horror.