Arrived on the water Wednesday to see brown stain to the water tint and fast flow. Most of the streams I have seen since the last big rain have unfortunately had a 'nutrient' stain to them. Not as clear as they should be. The sun was very powerful, which lent me to believe bass may have gone to ground. You could see all the bottom structure with the powerful sun but the water was stained.
This creek has been higher than most and sad to report, I don't think the spawn went as well here. I saw 1 whole black fingerling. Black fry swimming around independently have been a very common sight recently.
First few slaps were impact slaps in shade. Direct sunlight, no fish. Had to be deep in rough water or in shade. I eventually learned the pattern to plop my crankbait just past the shaded spots(let them know food was there), then crank one handle turn, pause, continue. A lot of the hits came then, or bouncing deep slowly.
Fishing was slow with slow action, despite picking up some dinks and a 15"er deep in some current. When I saw some shaded riprap at a bend in a deep, large pool, I lined up to cast right up the riprap parallel and slowly creeping forward to get my crankbait deeper. DInk, then a couple casts later, I must have finally gotten the bait deep enough. BOK! THROB,THROB, THROB,ZZZ, ZZZZ. Produced the first 18.5" smallmouth bass from Davey Jones's Locker. Cool. If big fish were active, I could handle that.
Had to move quick on this wade. I was meeting Bret at 3:45 at the takeout. There was a riffle were the gradient really dropped off and into two channels. I had a wakebait on for shallower water. A shade patch in a wide flat on the left, the first cast landed in the shade and action started, one swipe, two swipe, fish on. It was a dink who had clearly stolen from a larger master. On the next cast, I plopped just past the shade, waked one turn, paused, then ripped it away. The water errupted everywhere around the wakebait and I saw gill plates everywhere. Big, really long. Got the fish in and snapped up some pics, putting him back in the water between each. Big girl swam under a root wad.
From then on out I was hitting smallies in current on a 4' diving crankbait. Got to 15, then there was Bret and the bridge. We went and got my car and put my bike in it. Dropped the car at the takeout returned to the put in. We took a walk through the woods, caught some googs and a couple dink smallmouth each. We were about halfway through the wade when I realized my keys were not in my backpack. I had never put them back in!
Let me also say the current was murderous. It was like walking with a 10 lbs sandbag on each foot. The woods were fully grown thick, the water just high enough that there was rarely a sandbar. I caught a 15" deep off a rootwad, but the fishing was really bad. There should have been actiona dn there wasn't so we got out of Dodge.
When we got to my car the car was locked. So keys in the drink or woods somewhere. Bret drove me home and my wife brought me back to pick it up. Now how much is a newe FOB going to cost? 2011:9
Arrived on the water Wednesday to see brown stain to the water tint and fast flow. Most of the streams I have seen since the last big rain have unfortunately had a 'nutrient' stain to them. Not as clear as they should be. The sun was very powerful, which lent me to believe bass may have gone to ground. You could see all the bottom structure with the powerful sun but the water was stained.
ReplyDeleteThis creek has been higher than most and sad to report, I don't think the spawn went as well here. I saw 1 whole black fingerling. Black fry swimming around independently have been a very common sight recently.
First few slaps were impact slaps in shade. Direct sunlight, no fish. Had to be deep in rough water or in shade. I eventually learned the pattern to plop my crankbait just past the shaded spots(let them know food was there), then crank one handle turn, pause, continue. A lot of the hits came then, or bouncing deep slowly.
Fishing was slow with slow action, despite picking up some dinks and a 15"er deep in some current. When I saw some shaded riprap at a bend in a deep, large pool, I lined up to cast right up the riprap parallel and slowly creeping forward to get my crankbait deeper. DInk, then a couple casts later, I must have finally gotten the bait deep enough. BOK! THROB,THROB, THROB,ZZZ, ZZZZ. Produced the first 18.5" smallmouth bass from Davey Jones's Locker. Cool. If big fish were active, I could handle that.
Had to move quick on this wade. I was meeting Bret at 3:45 at the takeout. There was a riffle were the gradient really dropped off and into two channels. I had a wakebait on for shallower water. A shade patch in a wide flat on the left, the first cast landed in the shade and action started, one swipe, two swipe, fish on. It was a dink who had clearly stolen from a larger master. On the next cast, I plopped just past the shade, waked one turn, paused, then ripped it away. The water errupted everywhere around the wakebait and I saw gill plates everywhere. Big, really long. Got the fish in and snapped up some pics, putting him back in the water between each. Big girl swam under a root wad.
From then on out I was hitting smallies in current on a 4' diving crankbait. Got to 15, then there was Bret and the bridge.
We went and got my car and put my bike in it. Dropped the car at the takeout returned to the put in. We took a walk through the woods, caught some googs and a couple dink smallmouth each. We were about halfway through the wade when I realized my keys were not in my backpack. I had never put them back in!
Let me also say the current was murderous. It was like walking with a 10 lbs sandbag on each foot. The woods were fully grown thick, the water just high enough that there was rarely a sandbar. I caught a 15" deep off a rootwad, but the fishing was really bad. There should have been actiona dn there wasn't so we got out of Dodge.
When we got to my car the car was locked. So keys in the drink or woods somewhere. Bret drove me home and my wife brought me back to pick it up. Now how much is a newe FOB going to cost? 2011:9