Looks like things will be down into the 20's and teens at night. With low rivers, the eddies where winter smallies dwell would be freezing over soon.
I took Wendy for an easy one. Didn't even get the waders on. Holes are both 75-100 yards from the car
4 bass to 13" in 6 casts right off the bat. We moved up to a larger pool, Float sunk. I set the hook too hard and saw a large fish coming in upside down, hook popped out. Set hook way too hard and lost a couple more. Then caught 3 with soft rod lift.
Went back to hole one. The dog was loving the snowy weather. Contemplated chasing a couple of deer. When I got back to the hole, the first drift dunked a, 13"er. Then the next resulted in this 17"+ smallmouth that has multiple black melanosis patches.
Caught a couple like that today. Then a dink. Then nothing. We walked back up to the second hole. Dunk, fish pulled free! Dunk. Bigger one, fighting it, hook popped out! Looked 15-17" range. I did land a dink. Good day for sure. Lots of action, if a bit dissapointed in losing the bigger bass. Need to gear up correct and get the hook to hand near 100%.
Funny how if I left and came back smallies would be back eating in the hole. All strikes once again came on a dead drift. There was a sweet spot in both eddies that seemed packed with bass. No straggler locations despite trying for quite while.
What was the cause:
1) after a 2-3 fish fighting the rest spooked.
2) The fly jiggling too much spooked the bass.
3) Our profile got noticed?
4) Fish swimming the circuit-but only bit in the 'sweet' spot
11 SMB in 17 float dunks (which is a poor % for FnF). (17") in 3.5 hours
Wish I would have switched back to mono as air temps were 31-28F
BT,
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of weather have you received? Looked like some good rain/melt and warmer air temps.
K
Really low water freezes fast. So we had one sunny day at 43 F followed by one rainy day at 41F. These two days followed nearly a week of 18-25F with lows in the low teens. Needless to say I declared the winter season a wash.
ReplyDeleteI thought about heading out today, but it got cold again 22F with a few inches of snow. Not sure what my rivers and creeks would have looked like. I think still ice on the eddies.
if it had been two days of sun I would have gone. IMHO rain doesn't melt as much ice as you'd think at 40F. Sun, however can melt quite a bit at lower temps.
So I stayed home. Poop!