1597 smallmouth bass, just 3 fish on NYE will hit the 1600 mark for 2011. 57 smallmouth 18"+, 204 smallmouth 16"+, 24 19"+.
26 19"+ would break my personal big fish in a year record.
Same stretch, different hole produced:
Water was a slow rise, I got steadily rained on, the 19" came from right behind that line dangling from the tree, then not long until the 17"er went airborne. Hell of a fight from that 19". I got a crankbait off that line later.
Got 8 in slightly less than 3 hours.
26 19"+ would break my personal big fish in a year record.
Same stretch, different hole produced:
Water was a slow rise, I got steadily rained on, the 19" came from right behind that line dangling from the tree, then not long until the 17"er went airborne. Hell of a fight from that 19". I got a crankbait off that line later.
Got 8 in slightly less than 3 hours.
This is impressive stuff. I hadn't realized smallies would feed so much in the winter. This could save me a lot of drive time, since I'm 45 seconds from my smallmouth stream, but three hours from steelhead!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, can you point me to a post that describes your "float and fly" technique? From some of your posts, I think I've gathered the basic idea, but I'm not sure.
TJ- Yes, they feed all Winter- Mighty rewarding, more than warm months for sure.
ReplyDeleteThe key to me, is understanding how cold blooded smallies in cold water will behave, that is no easy journey. Trial and error. You can of course look at the float and fly tag in the side bar to bring up winter fishing exploits as well as fishing articles tag.
Here's one article below:
http://smallmouthinyoursoup.blogspot.com/2009/12/winter-smallmouth-fishing-float-and-fly.html
Thanks - that was useful. My water is a tad high and off color right now, but will be ready in about 24-48 hours, and I'll give this a try.
ReplyDelete