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.
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.
Seems like you had a great trip with some like minded guys. I'm curious about the size of the stream/river as shown in the first photo. Looks like what we would call a small river in TN as opposed to a stream/creek. Also, is there any particular color you've found especially effective in that square-billed crankbait? Thanks, JQ
ReplyDeleteYeah, medium sized Indiana river with very low water. Not much rain in 3 months, John. You'd typically not be able to cast across the river, but a lot of the places where you'd catch a fish nice enough to picture would be at the choke points in shade or near wood, just down from a riffle.
ReplyDeleteThey were eating shad. We saw huge balls of them at times to 7" long. Imagine that, shad colored baits worked! ;)
Typical flow would be in the 500CFS range. Much lower now.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDelete