It was around noon, when I was walking a Sammy past a stream that came out of the cliff down slightly upstream into a large deep pool. When the bait got almost within reach of me a large bass took it in without much splash. Short fight and I was taking pics. She measured 19.25".
After that the fishing was slow, as I thouroughly fished the deeper pools with deep cranks and chatters dragged along the bottom. Perhaps this was a mistake. Later on, I found a lot of fish a couple pools up.
Nothing was working well, though the buzz and Sammy both got hits, less than half struck home with stained water being some factor. Kept catching fish in the shallow stuff- most of these were small- topping out at about 12".
T-Storm was making threats but rolled right on by. Arrived at another huge pool and walked parallel to the steep bank that nobody wades, picking up fish out of the water willows as I stumbled and clamoured over slippery bank and mopssy log alike. I decided to throw the Lucky Craft Splashtail 90 on and was off to the races the fish wanted it in the wider slower water. The first larger fish was right on the shaded bank mouthing the bait very quickly after splashdown! It exploded into the air impossibly high. 18"
I spotted clouds upon clouds of black fry!!! These were small enough to have been born after the flooding. We had historic flooding here in Indiana and it is awesome to see the fish had presence of mind to hold back on the spawn! Great sign for future generations. Also saw a couple of Smallies guarding nests in the 14-15" range to go with all the longear on beds:
Not long after, a 17 again on the LC SPT 90 it was clear in the slower water they were loving the noise the lure put out a Vrrroooop, fwwwwiiiip, swuzzzz, swaaaaappp, when dived or pulled up, or just a slow bubbly choppy noise on straight retrieve:
At this point, I was Rainman with the prop bait. I got another 18" off a laydown, most the bigger fish (except one) just mouthed the topwaters without exploding on it. They did look a little worn from spawn+floods.
At the top of another huge pool there was a side pool with water willows everywhere, I caught something like 12 fish from it. Then walked up through water willow island enough to see it was packed with baitfish....Hmmmmm....
As I moved up a little girl yelled to me from her back porch to "be careful so snappers don't get my toes". I told her, they already did. I think it blew her mind.
A couple guys in a canoe came rolling up, we chatted for a couple and I heard them catch a turtle downstream as I threw the perfect cast at a bend in the water willows. A fish hurtled through the air at the bait, then quickly again was in the air jumping powerfully and large....
When I landed it the canoers had been watching...cool. Measure...19.5" and a pig . reaching for my camera the spirited fish was not quite done and flapped out of my grip escaping without a pic! Drats.
I moved to a spot where I'd caught a nice fish early last year, caught this 17"er right on the water willows again!
44 Bass in 11 hours: 43 smallmouth bass (19.5",19.25", 2 18, 2 17, 2 15) 1 largemouth bass on chatterbait (15")
Maybe about 2 miles of total wade, beautiful sunset as you can see from the last pic. I trotted home back along private property rather than walk the long winding roads back to the car, the last 15 minutes in total darkness except the small hat light MC gave me. Few times I had to remind myself I was a hard ass. Seeing shadows and imaginary ghouls...
On the LC SPT 90. Excellent bait. I've heard it is discontinued by LC, this would be a shame. I've done my best to get the word out. Buy them.
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