Camping and Fishing 8/22-8/24

I am back and alive. Replete with 9 different rashes, but a ton of great memories.


First fishing while I still remember.

Zach M and I fished Thursday, covering close to 7 miles on foot in 12.5 hours. It was amazing day, overcast and then thunderstorms. Smallies upticked when it rained and went nuts. I got 103 smallmouth bass to hand- loads of dinks, but plenty of nice ones too. ( 18.25", 17.75", 17", 4-16", 8-15") 11 other fish of 7 species total on the day. Zach added 48 (19.25, 18", 17"). We both lost a couple other large fish. Mixed it up quite a bit, square billed crankbait was on fire.
18.25":

17.75" in the rain:

18":

19.25":


BT 103 SMB  ( 18.25", 17.75", 17", 4-16", 8-15") 11 other fish of 7 species total on the day
Zach 48 (19.25, 18", 17")




Waded with Mr. Doddridge Saturday, covering 3.7 miles in 7.5 hours everything was again coming up gold for me. I finished with 50 SMB (19.5", 18.75", 18.25", 17.5", 17", 4-16", 9-15") Matt nailed 19 or so. He just couldn't get his favorites going. Ran into Ben at the end of the wade.



18.25":



19.5":


BT: 50 SMB (19.5", 18.75", 18.25", 17.5", 17", 4-16", 9-15")
MD: 19

18.75":


Saturday after 10-11 beers the night before, I parked at the first available bridge and went out solo. Sun was bluebird and intense. Fishing was not great , but I managed some nice ones and lost a couple more.



18.99":


17 SMB (18.99", 18", 17", 16", 15")



The true star of the weekend was an unexpected square bill style crankbait at 1/2oz.

More 18-20" fish caught than I can ever remember amoungst the INSA CF crowd.

 

The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Streak for Stream Smallmouth Bass

Ok, these streaks and Joe Dimaggio got me thinking how to measure your own fishing progress on rivers and streams in Indiana.

Gold Streak- 20"er or better in consecutive outings. My best streak is 4 in a row, last Fall/Winter.
Silver Streak- 18"er or better in consecutive outings. My best streak here is 11 in 2013, 6 in 2011, 5 in 2011, and 4 outings in a row 3 times.
Bronze streak- 17"er or better in consecutive outings. My best streaks here are 18 (2013), 12, 10, and 9 on 4 occasions.

After Work 8/14/13

Finally got on the water at about 3:30. Low, low, just a little flow. I walked down through the woods to fish a seldom fished riffle. In 10 casts, I had 3 impact strikes resulting in two 17.5" smallmouth. The third strike was more of a drift of a pencil bait. Snarfed off the surface by a decent smallmouth. Followed back to me by a bass much larger. Naturally, I'll sacrifice a 13"er for a 19"+, so I played the fish into a double hooking. They shook and struggled until I had them almost to shore. The thin pig went airborne 3' from me and the second hook tore loose from her. DAHHH! So close to epic.

 

Wow, what a great start. I was a little concerned nothing hit when I moved the actual baits. Pools were a waste of time. Near flowing water or forget it. Preferably shade. Sensing a pig bite, I moved with authority. Until I found a dying 17" bass in the shallows. Nothing I did seemed to help, so I left him near current in the deepest water I could find.

I picked some dinks on a small, shallow diving crankbait, but again these were in aggressive feeding areas. Was not shaping up to be a numbers day.

I decided to go with a light pencil bait for less splash in spookier areas and switch to Sammy when I wanted big splash. This worked well. Soon, two more 18"ers and a 16.5" to hand on the Sammy 100. Still just a few lethargic swipes or a larger fish crushing a lure intermittently. 15.75"er destroyed the lure, another one launched in the stratosphere and was lost. Yet another charged impossibly fast at a lay down and was gone.

The sun's drop played games with Mr.Smallmouth's tracking of my walk the dog lures. It played the same trick on me. Depending whether some low angle sun fell on a pool to light it, my bait would be smashed or ignored. Causing quick assumptions as to their disposition.
Finally, I hit a choke point below a major pool. It hasn't produced many fish in the past. I let loose with a knuckleball Sammy cast 10 yards short of my target. I cringed as the lure hit the shallow water much harder than I wished. Three. Dog. Wags. BOOOM!!! Rakka-tack-tack-tack- Ker-splash! Zip-Zip-ZZZZ. *Oh, crap, only the rear hook* *Bulldog her or she's gone* Wowwle-Wowwle-splash. GOTCHA! Celebration pelvis thrust. Snap pic, release.



19.5" Jeez, I love catching the largest fish at the end of the day. Pumped. Just an 1" and a jump away from 6-18"+ fish on the day.

I spent insane calories getting back to the car. It was worth it.

5 hours 29 SMB (19.5", 2-18", 2-17.5", 16.5", 15.75")

 

 

Streaking 18"ers And Joe Dimaggio

Joe Dimaggio's 56 game hitting streak seems like an almost unbreakable record today. It required consistency, patience, luck.

 

I think a similair record in Indiana river smallmouth fishing would be landing an 18"er in 10 consecutive outings. Looking back in my notes I have the following streaks: 6 consecutive outings at least one 18" smallmouth bass in 2011. 5 Consecutive outings at least one 18". Four times, I've done 4 outings in a row with at least one 18"er. Numerous three game hitting streaks. Even had a 4 outing 20"er streak last year.

 

I know some of these probably ended because I was unaware of the streak and fished a low probablity creek or river. Maybe I gave up too soon. But it would be very hard to aim to hit this streak going after an 18"each time. I would just get bored. I don't like to fish the same stretches of any river very often. Feel like this is bad form. After all, I want to know it was my fishing skill and not a lucky spot.

 

So against me accomplishing the 10 outing 18"er streak is my own spreading the love around. The weather is also a key factor, as well as the spawn.

 

I like the idea of trying to one day hit this in Indiana. Here's to Dimaggio and the 10 outing 18"er streak. May you start one soon.

A Mid August Weekend Fishing for Smallmouth Bass in Indiana 8/11 and 8/12

A comparison of contrasts, one stream cool, clear, no shade cover, the other, stained from algae, lower flow and more shade. Stream one had fish in the riffles when I found them. I had to go a long way to get away from the people that are everywhere on this stream. When I did, I caught 20+ bass in 50 yards of riffle. Using a sparkly new Duo Pencil 85. Catching the sunlight, the bass went nuts for it even coming out of 4' of fast water to chase it. BUT. Nothing bigger than 14-15". In the corner of one large pool with a large hill on a bend lay a solitary laydown shaded by an overhanging tree branch. I pitched a senko in there and immediately rewarded by a nice thick 17" smallmouth. The fish was followed in by up to 8 others.

Not long after the parade of kayaks and canoists started. I hate this. Day ruined I waded back leapfrogging the girls a bunch of times and beating them back to the takeout. Found another bridge for a downstream wade, which turned into a walk through death valley. The heat and intensity of the sun just roasted me. Went home kind of early with 35 SMB.

 

Next day, I was burnt and didn't fish until 2:30pm. Couldn't find a bite until I started throwing a senko again. Then quickly lost the only two worms I had with me. I walked up on a 15" bass in 4" of water in a riffle and new what had to be done. Long casts with light lures. At least until the sun lessened. I threw a Sammy 65 and quickly had four bass including a fiesty 15"er.

 

Spying from a high bank above, I noticed several other larger fish in that oxygenated water. Of course they spooked, but I had discovered the pattern.

 

Started throwing the Duo 85 again, with great success, another 15", 14", and a bunch of other decent size smallmouth came to hand when the toilet flushed and produced a nice fight from this 18"er below.

Another 15.75" bass and a couple violent shakeoffs from the shallow water. I was throwing along a larger dirt bank, when the largest smash came on a Sammy 100. Fish was quickly in the air, 18"+ before I could react. Lure flying out of his mouth. Drat. Hate to lose those opportunities.

From there on out, it was decent fish smashing the lure, with a number of fiesty flop offs between dead water and wood I couldn't fish thoroughly in the time I had before dark. Of one log in particular I had a number of nice fish swat the Duo, but only landed one. Just couldn't get them to go for a tube or fluke. Ended with 29, on what should have been closer to 35, if I had found a second short range finesse lure. Oh well, a fun little run and gun.

Smallmouth Bass Indiana Pig-O-Rama 8/3/13

 I was sick last weekend, so no fishing. Chomping at the bit all week. Figured for a long wade/bike shuttle, so I got up early and set out. Bike hidden, trudging upstream just before 8am. At the first riffle up from the bridge, I had a couple grabs on a spinnerbait near fast plunging current. Looked like a hell of a swirl with wood and roots breaking the current. I dropped a tube down in and was promptly rewarded with that tell tale "Thunk" that meant nice fish. Zigged and zagged, but it wasn't until it came near shore that I noticed it was a beast. Measure her to 19".



Just a warning, the quality of these pics are poor.  I left the ISO setting on my camera set for darkness, so they're a little grainy. Also, there was rarely anything to set a camera on: one bank high and filled with brush, the other nearly always sloping gravel.

That was it for a while, lots of good habitat had filled in and there was an absence of fish. I did pick up a bunch of small dinks here and there, but mostly emptiness. Rain was promised and it stayed overcast until say 3PM. This was good as the big fish would probably be out and eating with the clear water.

I threw a LC Wander 75 on. A shimmying, sinking pencil bait that you can work like a fluke/senko. Almost immediately a success with a 16.5" fish exploding on it then a few others. The bait would be perfect subsurface search bait for the open flats, as long as I kept it away from wood. Should be easy enough with local knowledge and clear water. As the day went on and sun came out it became a patient tube slog. Lots of 6-8" dinks and very few 12-14" bass. But oh, those pigs! A tube into a certain famous rootwad picked a very familiar 18.5"er.



After the sun came out, it was the shade where the piggies lay in, or near wood, of course. Here's another 18.75" again on a tube. This fish came off an 's' curve with mamouth woodpile. He was sitting down there in the shade at the end of it waiting for a feeding, I snuck up on his side and climbed woodpile staying out of the sun. He couldn't see me because of his own cover. Had he been in the sunlight I wouldn't have gotten that close.



After this fish, I got on better water, or things heated up. Hard to say which on long death wades, just have to stay focused because the river can fool you. Slightly bigger dinks in the 8-11" range, a couple 15"'s, some buzzbait fish, 15" LMB, bass, bass, bass. Lolled up to a lay down and picked a strong 17" and several others on a tube, before I had a bigger fish pull off the tube. Suddenly I was up in the 40's from what had been a slow day number wise, a bite was expected on every cast.




I decided to try a Sammy 100 after 6PM as shade had fallen on a large pool and I didn't want to get close and spook any hungry pigs. This turned out a terrific choice. I worked the bait far slower than normal in the slower wide pools. The first cast, "BOOM". Enormous destruction orginated from 35 yards away. Connects. What a fight. When this fish came to hand it was my 4th 18"+ smallmouth on the day at 18" exactly.



More action all the way up, I'm in the #50's now as everything is hitting the Sammy. The ability to go long was never better demonstrated on one fateful long pool, with an odd buried tree at the front of its length crossing the river perpendicular and poking out for about 12'. First cast resulted in a missed swipe. I was wide right of the center of the tree where I felt a walk over might result in a decent bass. Next cast was 40 yards and perfect. I walked Sammy ever so slowly over the middle of that submerged tree. The water erupted everywhere. Oooh. Then WOW. The bass made it 2' into the air and was impossibly thick for this flow. I was stunned by its airborne girth, immediately felt for pressure and stiff hooks. Sure enough, well hooked. I tried to keep it down, but the fish went up again. I shook my head with excitement. W.T.F.  Like fighting a carp, the fish was everywhere. When I finally got her to the beach the Sammy popped out. I quickly slammed my foot down behind the behemoth to prevent escape. When I picked her up she was a sack of potatoes. Heavy. 21" on the rod, probably by weight the heaviest I've landed. She still wasn't done, when I was trying to photo her, Shaking her head 4-5 time to try and pry loose.





Picked a couple more dinks and couple of 15"'s until I ran into a trio of guys fishing worms. Only one more bass after that, but it was getting late. Headed to the bike and back to the car by 10PM.

63 Bass- 1 15" LMB 62 SMB ( 21", 19", 18.75", 18.5", 18", 17", 16.5", 4-15")
12.5 hours