Strange day 4/30/08

Seems like Chuck and I always fish on the same day. Got to the river by 11am. Chilly 48F water temp with vis 2.5'.

Had white clatter-B in tow. Got a 14 on the inside of the seem, then a nice fish almost hit 18" on the outside. Nearly swallowed the bait. Hungry.



Every likely spot produced, and I had 11 Smallies 2 hours in, most in the 12-14" range with the one nice fish. Here's a pic of a smallie I took a picture of because it appeared a purple brown, by the time I snapped him, he had already started to change.



The sun came out and the fishing stopped, or rather the aggression towards the chatter stopped. Water was clear and fish were scattering ahead of me. I finally threw on Sammytime just to check. After a few casts, I got some playfull slaps at the lure. Then I got a smallie and couple of greenies. I only got bit on long casts. Fish were ultra spooky. Experience tells me when the water is that clear and low Sammy is the lure to throw. Despite Sammy making things interesting, the chatter still wasn't getting bit.

I passed a hole with at least 100 carp of all sizes in it, they were jumping and frolicking. Maybe spawn? Stunk because it's normally a good smallie hole.

Threw on a Pointer 100 for a while and had some response to that. Then sun finally went down. Bam, it started again, catching fish next to some rip-rap on tubes and sammy. Caught like 8 more fish including a 16.5 and this 18.25"er (brown chatter-B on the drop):



Kid came running up wanting to fish my hole when he saw me catch the big one. I told him he could cast but to stay back as not to spook the bass. Turned and walked back home throwing Sammy downstream as I walked back. Had the first huge blowup of the year produce a fat 16" and 4 more on the walk homewards.

Today was a tale of the two ends with not much in the middle. Kind of surprised of the size today, saw some fish near beds and left them.

26 Bass- 24 SMB 2LMB (18.25, 17.99", 16.5, 16, 15) 4 Googles

Broke down as 12 on Chatter-B, 5 tube, 9 Sammy.

BT

Chatterbait Craziness 04/26/08

Mike and I got on the water about 10am. Excited by the cloudy skies and colder temps forcasted. We both caught fish at the put in point, Mike on a white spinner bait and me on White Clatter B. We duplicated and got our first double of the day just a short ways upstream.

I got a 15" on Clatter in heavy current and it was followed by about 4 other bass. One of which basically sat 4 feet from me and watched me dehook his bro'. The whole day I saw this happen again and again. We'd catch a fish and have up to 6 other fish following. Didn't seem like they were trying to steal the bait like often happens in summer months. Just schooling up. We couldn't get any of the others to bite during the fight or after. Odd.

It was an all White Clatter B day for me. I caught all my fish on the bait. Cranks weren't bit, tubes I barely tried because the Clatter produced. Mike dropped the spinnerbait and started throwing a Firetiger Clatter-B. It was windy and we needed the 3/8 oz bait to get distance with the clear water and loud gravel spooking fish. We were able to make long accurate casts in the wind when cranks and spinnerbaits got thrown off target.

We saw signs of some fish waiting on beds and steered cleer. Most of our bass were caught near fast current and later tight to cover as the sun came out.

Early in the day fish were shallow in and near current but as the front came in and sun peaked we had to work very close to cover. Many smallies were caught dropping off of wood or dragging over rocks in current

Mike busted out to an 11-10 lead as I was playing in the snags. He even busted out some flukes and caught a couple. We weren't really throwing for dinks with our big baits today. We both missed plenty o' tail pullers. The walk wore us both down a bit and I caught up.

We saw a couple of big bass,one as we walked up in a riffle. Couple good ones managed to get off.

Between the two of us we caught 40 bass- maybe 4 less than 12" with most 13"+ We had at least 2 doubles.

On the walk back we threw WBZ for a few minutes, Mike caught a dink on WBZ. First topwater of the year.


BT 25 24 SMB 1 KY (17.5,17, 16.75, 2 16.5, 16.25", 16, 3 15")
MC 15 SMB ( 16 4-5 15-16")

Here's the biggest fattest fish of the day that was caught in full current. Belly full of eggs.

4/21/08 Spring Smallmouth wade

Went out to Russtyland again and hit the same stretch I caught my personal best 21.5" Creek SMB last Fall.

Kept throwing the bandit 200 in orange craw. When I lost it, I went to a team diawa peanut deep diver in spring craw pattern with some gammies thrown on. First two fish were on crank around 15" each, then 3 more on a tube next to a laydown, largest 16". Moved up and caught another 15.5 in a featureless inside bend. Hit another small bend and caught another 14"er and then 3 more around 12". Two more 12"ers on tubes in the next small pool. Nabbed a couple dinks at the next pool tube and crank each.

Bass didn't want Clatter BT in white or brown today, but I did get some hits from small fish on the firetiger job.

Stream was kind of neat because it had different channels funneling water in different areas creating seems for fish to lay in. Found one fish in inches of water in the middle of a riffle. Got another 15 on a tube off a giant midriver boulder. The creek had plenty of rock as current breaks. Finally made it to the pool where I had gotten the 21.5 last year, caught a 14 and a 12 on a tube but no pigs. I was at 21 SMB and two large slab Googs when I made a 25 yard cast that seemed to connect fast with a large fish. Didn't take long, fish hit the FT Clatter B on the drop, fought like crazy in the push water and got beached at about 18". Bridge was just around the corner so I walked up the road and back to my car. Good enough.



Nice to have another numbers day, the smaller fish are now active! Many fish were caught near current today on the featureless slower inside bends.

22 SMB (18, 16, 4 15-15.5) 2 RB in 6 hours

04/19/08 Frog Porn Wade

Got out to Russ and Co territory today with Mike C. Rain threatened but never really happened. Got on the water by 930am.

After talking Santa into allowing us to fish his creek, we threw Clatter-BT's and tube a little, We each had a fish at the first deep bend, then there was a lot of empty water, until I got a prego 16.5" on brown Clatter-BT. We caught a couple more small fish as day wore on the fishing was tough. Don't know if the water got better, or we found fish, but they turned on.



Mike started throwing a teeny-tiny silver crankbait. He caught a 16.5" off a log, then a cast later this 17.5". About halfway through the 3.8 mile wade, Mike caught a 18" Golden Redhorse on the tiny crank (Hooked in the mouth)

I caught one on chatter then Mike another. I was convinced and started to throw a Bandit 200 in Spring Craw. Fishing got much better for me. I ended the day catching about a dozen bass on that crank from there on out, including 2 16-16.5"ers. Bank pitching helped me clean up a bit- I walked the high steep banks. I'd target cover or areas where I couldn't see bottom well, then flip that crank and pull her through.

Meanwhile the sound of frogs calling was everywhere. We nearly stepped on these horny amphibians doing the nasty froggy-style. There were dozens of them.






I got a 17"er on chatter later. Mike and I saw an absolute pig that nearly swam up to us. No dice.

Here's one of the 16.5"ers that was ripe with eggs:



BT 21 (1LMB) (17, 2 16.5, 16, 2 15) 1 Goog
MIke 7 (17.5, 16.5, 1 15) + 18" Golden redhorse sucker

Ahem.

Sounds pretty radical. "Anthrax in Your Soup" just came to me this AM. I wonder if stream fishing reports and nerdy sci fi hobby stuff will live up to that title?

We'll see.

Going fishing this AM with MC Hammer. Got to call him Hammer these days because he landed a couple of pigs last time out.

Last time we went we ran into the Snapper above. Must have been about 40 lbs.

Just sitting there like he got his turtle dick stuck in a hole. Hell, if I was like 40-50 years old, I might just do the same.

04/16/08

Jim F and I got out for a wade. Fishing started out good with fish chasing Craw brown Clatter B. Jim got some on Cranks in the middle. Last half of the day was SLOW. Fish wanted everything moving. Tubes did not get a sniff for the second straight day.

Took some colorful pics:











Jim 9 SMB (16")

BT 6 SMB (18,17,16.5)

Big Pre Spawn 21" Smallmouth Hawg! 4/9/08 Jerkbite

Hit water before sun came out of the clouds today. Started throwing a Pointer 100 in Misty Shad. Jerk, Jerk, p-a-u-s-e, Jerk, Jerk, p-a-u-s-e..thunk zzzz-zzzzzzz-zzzzzz-zzzzzz-zzzz:

Very surprised when I measured this fish to 21". WOW. Wow. Couldn't believe it.

Had a bunch of hits on the LC Pointer 100. Actually saw several fish miss it by grabbing it where the hooks weren't. Later got a 16 and a 13 on the jerk. The 13"er hit the bait after I let it sit 15 seconds on touchdown. Tried to downsize when I saw three smallies strike the bait. Picked up another dink on flashminnow 95. Wished I had a popper today as several chubs or shad got blasted on top.

3/3 on tubes including a 16"er. All were near slow water areas. Water was still up and pumping. When sun came out vis was 2.5'.

Thinking of dropping the Pointer 78 entirely, the 100 can be worked up in the water column by keeping the rod tip up. 3rd 20"+ I've caught on this bait in limited use....

BT 7 SMB (21, 2 16) 1 16" Quilback sucker (snagged) in about 3.5 hours.

B

04/07/08 Wade

Mike took the day off and we hit a river by 12-1230. Visibility was 14-15" Water was up and fast in many spots.

We threw, chatterbaits, jerkbaits, cranks, and tubes. The only thing the fish wanted was the tube, neither of us had a strike on any moving bait.

Every really good spot seemed to produce maybe one fish. Later the sun went down and they got a little active and Mike caught the last 4 bass on tubes.



Camera was foggy from me taking a trip in feeder creek.

Mike 6 SMB (16, 2 15) 1LMB
BT 5 SMB (17) 2 Rock Bass

High Water Spring 20"+ Piggy 4/6/08

Got out to hit the warming dropping creeks. Sun and 67 in the forcast for once. It has been rediculously gray and cool so far this year.

Hit the water by 11, it was higher and faster than I thought it would be. Fish would be hugging banks again or hopefully I could find some good slots. I had only fished this stretch in warmer months.

First couple hours- nothing.

Beginnning to despair, knack for finding the right spot hit me in the tube. I had pitched a tube down at my feet off some riprap that created some slack right next to the blasting main current. Thunk! I pulled the fish up and she belly walked quite a bit I was sliding down the muddy bank towards the water while trying to keep the line off the nearby wood. Turned out to be quite the fight to beach her without the runs or leaping. Measured 20.25".





A few casts later I grabbed this 17.5 on a tube off the upstreasm swirl in the eddy.



Got a 15"er on chatterbait at the next slot. Had a couple fish grab the bait today and not get hooked one was a good fish the other I saw take it in from below, never touching the hook.

Caught 2/3 Smallies on tubes from there on out. Alot of bank pitching and few places to cross to get to the slower water areas. I must have spent half my time climbing and walking as opposed to casting and working a lure today.


5 SMB (20.25, 17.5, 15)

Chatter Action 4/3/08

Got a 12"er on tube at my feet by the brush in the water( blue X) as the eddy swirled back upstream.

Produced 17"er on White Clatter-B out of the front third middle of the slot you see (yellow X).

Dropped chatter off the rootwad inches from shore (red X), popped it once and it got hit by a big fish, who came to hand and measured 19.5"





Moved up a mile and a half and found a slot on the left:


Hit this pocket behind rootstump(causing 'v'):



16.5"er thunked the chatter in the middle of the pool.



Walked all the way back and lost a fish on 1/4 oz tube in the first spot (light green X). Visibility was about a foot and water was still very high, all fish were very close to shore and came working parallel to the shore.

BT 4 SMB (19.5", 17" ,16.5")