12/19 and 12/18/07 Float and Fly Action for Smallmouth Bass

After sending a few invites for Tuesday and Wednesday FnF action, it ended up being just me both days.

With 90 layers of clothing, some FnF, and a lucky feeling I set out, hoping to find a spot I could park my car without getting stuck.

I hit a spot JB and I had done a few weeks ago, fish were very hard to find with the higher current. The slackest bank was the hardest to work be cause it was steep with bramble everywhere. After 2 hours of nothing I waded down the slow side and was rewarded with 2/3 fish 12-14". Still fish.

FnF has been pretty consistent everytime out. I was just remarking to a friend that I hadn't gotten anything big yet on FnF, my largest this year was only 17" on FnF.

I hit a different pool Wednesday hoping for a better selection of hawgs.

It was painful slogging a mile through the snow and woods until I got to my destination. A large flat wide pool with a slight right current veer.

At first I took the slow side froom the back, but my dirt was kicking up and carrying right to the target. I got out and headed up to the riffle and fished down the slack side. This seemed to work better as I could hold the float in postion without slack and there was no silt to kick up.

I had a Purple/black 1.25" 1/16th hair jig tied on. Finally, the bobber dunked and I landed a 10" SMB. A couple casts later a larger fish took the bobber under fought like crazy in the current I was standing in, jumped then came to hand. It went 15" and was fat.

I worked down the current seem on the slack side. I knew the hole was getting deeper the further away from the riffle I got. The float again dunked this time it was big and tore up and all over the place. I was shocked by the furiocity of the fight. Actually had trouble getting it to hand because I was standing in current and the float wouldn't let me get him close enough to land. A nice hefty 18" :-)



Caught another dink.

Then it happened, I had tossed even further along the current seem into the slack. The float dunked and immmediately there was a hell of a 'kick' I muscled the fish up near surface and all hell broke loose, this fish was bigger and pissed I interrupted his slumber. Standing right there in that seem made it hell of fun to bring in. It looked like it could go 20" but I couldn't get it close enough to land. So kept the pressure on and carefully dragged the bass to shore where I grabbed him up! My heart was pounding a mile a minute and legs were wobbling.







Added another 15", then it got alot colder. Most of the day the sun was warm, but when it turned, either the spot was spooked or the fish turned off.

Tuned my new homemade Chatters, and went home.

6 SMB in 3.5 hours (but really all were caught in a 1hour period) (19.25, 18, 2 15)

Brenden