Fishing Fast on a Fast River 9/5/2010

Sunday Mike and I hit the river with no bridges. Really. It is ridiculous. Sammy 100 and tubes. Got out to a 21-7 lead on MC, then my tube feel deserted me.

We found several wide, long, straight, shallow silty pools that seem to be the depositories from such eroded classics:

17.5"Chunk on Sammy 100

This pool was not silty. It was so filled with fish, I counted smallmouth into the triple digits. Rough fish by the hundreds. Only managed about 5 and they would only strike Sammy 100 schooled up- which has always been a theory of mine. You could see schools of 5-10 smallies go after the bait, trying to get an angle, pulling up short, whiffing. Once such event occurred at a pushwater funnel resulting in above thick smallie. Biggest of the day.

The long, straight pools were a pain to get through and would have been better off floated, although getting out before each and every riffle gets tiring in a yak. I see this as killing your results at the trade off of time spent on rear. So wading is the best bet. We did find two bridges to park. Last half was through a couple dozen tubers and canoers. Another smallie on a stringer out there, by a guy making his own riffles changing the stream bed by hand.

There is so much gradient. Bigger fish continue to be crazy chunky, if few and far in between. They just aren't in easy stupid places like other streams. Often deep in rootwads or wisely eyeballing you along the riverbank. Most seem to end up in coolers. Would be interesting to fish an overcast day and see results.

Mike got some Gunfish action going and got respectable at 33-22.