Report dump 6/26 KY, 6/27, and 6/29

6/26/2010

Elkhorn Creek, KY. Fantastic looking river. Think we got started around 6:30. Didn't see any silt until the end of the 9ish mile float. Place had a different smell... kind of like baking rock or a mine shaft...

Early on we got some dinks, then it was very scattered. Cookie cutter 8" fish and maybe 4 between us 12-14". We ended with only 24 bass and 3 googs. Most of mine were on baby chatterbait, Spook Jr, or grub. Terry got his on Wolkabuzz, with many slaps not connecting. I did manage to snag a softshell turtle walking a Zara Spook Jr . Terry distracted its head while I tried to pluck out the hooks in its leg. Hard to do when the head is snapping and lunging. Floating didn't help.

I can see how each pool could hold gobs of bass. Problem may have been extremely warm water temps. It was warm like bath water. Man, it was ridiculously hot.


Will try again sometime.  edit cut and paste error

6/27/2010- Back in Indiana

Tried one of the quick dropping creeks this afternoon. Thought I'd see some stain maybe 1' visibility based on gauges. Totally surprised when I spied clear water down to about 3'.

Man was it hot. Kept dunking my hat and shirt to stay cool. I was sweating so much I could not wear sunglasses and my rod was slipping out of my hand. Luckily this stream is covered in a terrific canopy of trees. It kept me and the smallmouth cooler. Creek was running 5-10F cooler than the Elkhorn yesterday.

I knew it would probably be good, when the first cast brought in a scrappy 13" on a 4.5" grub. A few casts later, I had something big pull off the R2C . Grubs were the ticket early on, but the plentiful, thick sunfish, and ultradink smallmouth got in on the action, pulling the tails off about 10 grubs in the first hour and a half. Nice 14", another on a tube and I had it working.

Hit a large pool threw on mid depth R2C. A few casts in it got sucked up by a hard fighting 17.75" Smallie that was either eating well, or still had eggs on board. Batteries on the camera were unfortunately depleted. Beautiful fish swam off to bite another day. Had another likesize bass follow a 12"er back to me then spook off. For a couple of hours, ripping the Vwake R2C and pausing it drew a bunch of bass.

Tested the buzzbait, it got bit in shallow water near riffles. Couldn't get anything to come out of more than 2' to hit it. Landed a 15" and few others intermittently. Started tossing 5" fluke and that got bit too. Several nice fish and lost the horse of the day ( I think) pulled drag like crazy and disappeared. Lost another one 16-17". Nailed a 15".

Last 7-8 SMB fell to LC WK waking the bait across the surface after 5 pm. I lost a lot of smallies today could have been closer to 40-45. Couldn't grip the rod well with all the sweat pouring. The current was just right for the bass to tear up.

Now it was getting late and this one is an ankle buster extraordinaire. I walked back to the middle bridge, hoping the road would lead back to my bridge. It didn't. Cut across a huge cornfield and headed for trees. Then my road appeared! Just as the storm came in and poured, I opened the door to the car and got in! Need a bike. Need a bike.

30 SMB (17.75 3-15) 5 Googs, Creek Chub, Green Sunfish (nice one on a buzzbait) in 6-6.5 hours

6/29/2010-

So last night I was wrestling with the dog and got a paw in the eye. Seemed ok until I woke up in the AM and couldn't see to drive to work. Turns out they were painting the office anyway. MC wanted to play fishmonger; we had agreed to head out around 4-5 PM. Well, no reason to sit at home and wait. Flushed they eye about 80 times and left early for the creek!

Got to the USGS gage at 2:15PM and waded down, clarity was again about 3'. Got the wake crank going on dinks early. Waded down to kill time waiting for MC to show at 5:30. On the way back up, I threw weighted 5" fluke. This resulted in a 17":

Nearly stepped on a 17-18" smallmouth in aggressive feeding position in the side pocket that spooked off. Remembered his holding position in the squarish, shallow pool- The type that seemed to repeat itself, capped off by endless fields of water willows. Would come into play later...

More wakecrank. As time for Mike to show appeared, I nailed this duo at some pushwater.

Dinks and 12"er here and there. Finally, something big hit the wake crank. Stop and go retrieve along with actually waking the bait got it bit.

This bass was short of 17", actually was so surprised when it exploded, my hat fell off.

By the time I went to get MC, I was well on the way to a great day.

The fluke bite died off as the sun drifted behind the trees, but the WC bite went crazy! MC started catching fish after fish waking. I noticed a peculiar box shape to the pool and threw the WC over into some shade in what I would consider a 'side pocket' . Saw my wake quickly answered by another wake! Nice fight and a 17.25" SMB to hand.

MC and I hit a pool where we must have caught 10-15 bass. Up towards the front on a shallow root wad, a big fish smashed my bait and ran straight downstream at me heading for the cover of my pant legs :o . I panicked (thoughts of revengeful fish with face of trebles jump into my legs :shock: ) and tried to fight him in deeper water rather than beach. When I put pressure on the fish, he jumped at my feet and came free. Mike said looked like an 18". Boo me.

What the hell is this? Half human/half fish?

We found a bedrock pool that ended in a smashed cliff of bedrock underwater. Wading the pool, I spotted a possible 19-20" smallie, that I wasn't sure was in there. man exploring is cool.

Started getting dark and we were still catching fish with many slaps. Literally had to put the baits away.

53 SMB (17.25,17,16.75") 5 Googs in about 7 hours.
MC had bunches in the 3 hours he fished.

An episode with a lunatic at the takeout put a dimmer on things a bit.

Smallmouth-liscious

Dear Smallies, over the years I have grown so very fond of you and your rivers, as one who thinks from afarwith great consideration and affection; I thought I'd send you this letter. It professes my affection for your abundant 'qualities' .

The way you leap from the water when hooked shows great spirit and a vigor for life.

You eat whatever I give you, but sometimes you want what you want like a true independent woman.

I love the way your belly bulges in the spring.

You don't get jealous when I go out with your friends.

Your curves are beautiful and streamlined. Smallie, your fins are so...useful.

You, my dear Smallies, make the prettiest splashes, which by the way are so much louder than your big mouthed cousin, Whateverhismouth. When you walk on the water, my heart is beats a-flutter.

Your ample lips, I long to hold them in my hand (carefully supported under the belly by my other hand, of course.)

You breathe under water and I breathe air. I'm not saying there won't be some difficult times. People will talk. I am ready for that. I won't let other aquatic dwelling flora and fauna sabotage US.

Smallie, the way you change color when we meet, I know you must feel, I hope, just like I feel, that we really could make a special life together... somewhere, anywhere, I don't really care where. I just want to BE with you. I'll live under a rootwad for you, girl.

Finally, I must admit :

Smallie. Girl. I love you.

The waters may be high and brown, but I can't quit you now.

Call me. Please.

BT

6/13/2010 smallmouth bass wade

Nate and I waded one of my favorite far off stretches of creek in one of the few places we had any kind of water clarity Sunday. It had taken a slight turn for the worse and visibility started at 12-14" brown stain. We got fishing by about 12:30.


Smallmouth were not liking the oppressive heat and sun. Water was like warm bath water...

Not much pattern early on. We were walking through water without bites, that should have produced. A scattered dink here or there.

No topwater activity, barely a sniff on tube jigs, not much on grubs, spinnerbaits etc...

I tried a chart shad Spro 2" crank in 7-9' diver model, this produced some smallies for me throughout the day. Mostly dinks for me with one 12"er popping off only to immediately have an 8" take its place in full view.

Nate tried Sammy 100 and a tube mostly. He got a fish here and there on tube, but not much doing on Sammy.

Nate warmed up a rootwad for me while last night's greek came full cycle. As Nate went upstream I landed the crank a foot from the rootwad and dived the bait 'thunk'. Ooh, there's one. Hey, wait this one isn't small for once...Oh, it is a PIG. 18.5" smallie made me think things had changed, and the oppressive sun had gone down a bit.

Not too long later, I got a 14"er and thought the bigger bass were finally coming out to play. NO. Such. Luck.

Fishing remained unpredictable. Sure- fire spots held nothing, until we hit a stream inlet and suddenly they had a thing for Sammy, after Nate got done playing a dink. His Sammy got 'Ker-splashed'. The fight was on. A big bend in the rod, then a fish under a laydown. Things were in doubt...

I offered to come and help, but Nate just scooped the fish up like a textbook. I've seen a couple of extra hefty smallmouth from this spot before. This was one exquisite bass!

Thunder was heard in the distance. They were done. Got caught a half mile short of shelter when it rained cats and dogs. 6-6.5 hours on the water.



BT 13 SMB (18.5) Goog, Northern Hogsucker

NM 5 SMB (18.5)

Indianapolis Rainfall by month

April showers bring May flowers. Yes. But it doesn't always mean you get the most rain in April. Indianapolis for example, gets hit most by the wet stuff from May to July.

Nate's Fish

Click picture to enlarge

Spooling Braided fishing lines onto Spinning Reels

Ok, so braid is more expensive line than mono, so why fill a whole spool filled with line that you will never use? Instead, throw on any old mono about halfway up the spool:

Next, tie the two lines together using a uni to uni knot:

http://www.netknots.com/html/double_uni_knot.html Uni to Uni Knot

After tying the knot, apply tape or band aide over the knot so your line doesn't snag on it during casts. Note if you decide to just spool braid on the spool the line will probably slip in place. Another option is to use tape on the spool.

Fill the braid most of the way to the edge of the spool for extra long casts. Note the pic is slightly overfilled, the reason is the braid will lose some diameter as you use it. Leave a slight lip. Be careful during this break in period to keep line tight on the spool to avoid backlashes. Bombs away!

Using this method you will only use about 75 yards of braid at a time. If the line wears out or if your line is too deep on the spool (and thus costing you bigtime casting distance), you can tie the worn end to a tree walk away until you come to the braid mono knot. Cut the braid, then retie the worn end to the mono, retape and spool on backwards. Presto! Fresh line.

Give me that bone.

Couple of Reports: Wading Indiana 6/5 and 6/7/2010: Dinks and post spawn bass.

6/5
Nate, Mike, and I met up and got on the river about 1:15pm. I had scouted several flows and come up mostly shallow bedrock. Hit another flow before the meet and got 5 in an hour 15 on grubs up to 14".


The three of us waded and threw all kinds of baits, bite got better in the afternoon. Nate threw mostly Sammy 100 and tube. Mike wake crank, tube, R2C, later buzzbait. Fish were small, but there were enough that the action and laughing at each other made it pretty entertaining. Some were ridiculously small- not much bigger than your pinky and hitting large lures. No matter what we threw 6-10" fish hit it.

I lost one in the 16-17" range at my feet on a Zara Spook Jr. Later, nabbed a skinny spawned out 17" as the largest fish on R2C.

Cutting up most of the time, though we caught maybe 10 fish 12" or better combined, it was a really good time.

BT 25 SMB (+5 more in the AM total 30) (17") 2 Rockies

NM 20 SMB 2 Rockies

MC 13 2 Rockies and a Longear sunfish.

In a little less than 8 hours.


One of those strange size class days again. Little fish were chasing baitfish everywhere throughout the day.

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6/7

Attempted to walk through the woods and then fish upstream from the end of the stretch. Proved impossible. I stopped and fished the first deep bend. First cast with a Sammy 100 "boosh"! barely wagged it twice. 17"er. Few more casts and blow ups later, I bring a 15" smallie to hand. Both spawned out. The fish were in the shade of the cliff on the left sitting at the back of the pool. Fired up to the front of the pool and got another.

Notice I was able to both put my hat on wrong and button my shirt like a drunk. :) Anyways, this is a right angle bend with upstream to your right and downstream behind me. I was pulling sammy upstream.

Long walk through the woods, arrive at next large pool. Dink on Sammy, then 16"er on a tube. More walk through woods, face back upstream, fire Sammy into and under canopy. 3 more bass to 13". Sammy 100 casts poorly on 10 lbs braid for some reason.

Another fat sow 15" on a shallow run, some more dinks on Sammy time. Got to push it and get to the best hole 2 miles down, picking up some here and there. A bunch of good size fish compete for R2C and a 16" wins. It had no tail. This stream is slow moving and has a little silt, but other wise pretty good habitat. Fish are generally fat and well fed with small tails. Looks like they have rubbed their tale fins nearly away in some cases.

Finally, get to the target hole; throw Sammy 100. Big fish hits, airborne, pulling it upstream is a bad idea...gone. Darn. Second time I have lost a good fish from this pool. Not long later a 15"er is caught on Sammy. 8:40PM. 2 miles through woods and wade. Boogie. Another bass hits a popper on splashdown, then a 13" on a tube as I pause here or there on the way back. Left lots unfished.

21 SMB (17", 2-16, 4-15") 1 Chub in 3.5 hours.

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