Birthday Boy Saves Hand 9/8/07

JBCook had a birthday yesterday, so naturally got a day fishing as part present. He was half-sick and recovering from wedding hangover when we rolled up on a stream to tag team it. We got on the water around 9am. Fish were hitting popper right away and then JB's fluke.

Then continued to nail super fluke all day for JB, who was in constant danger of losing his last fluke. He worked them like a champ and pulled ahead after getting behind early. We were catching plenty of nice 14-15" fish. JB caught this 18"(fluke) in the middle of a large pool.



Not a few casts later, I landed this nice 18.5"er:



Let the spot calm a minute, then got bit again. The fish was landed but flopping. I grabbed the stick bait firmly when he shook and impaled a treble deep in my right hand. After some debate JB, helped me poke the hook point through my skin and cut the barb and point off. It's amazing how strong the human skin is! Then we backed the hook right out and went on fishing.

Here's an artsy shot for the squeemish:



Jason caught this 19" (fluke)



I caught this 2"er:



We both lost sammies in trees.

We both did well for size and numbers, but I only pulled close catching 12 (inc 17, 16) on buzzbait on walk back to car when Jason's sickness had gotten worse.

BT 32 (18.5, 17, 4 16, 6-7 15") JB 35+ (19, 18, 4-5 16", mess of 15"ish)

Lots of fun and Happy birthday JB!

9/5 Wade with John B

Firstrock called me up Wednesday about 2:40pm. John said he had the week off. Inspired by a post on the site we set out for a river in Indiana that really is blue. Got to a bit of river about 430pm.

The river had clear water, moderate fast current, lots of newly fallen trees, flat gravel bottoms, and moderate depth.

John was throwing a Splashtail and I was tossing Wbuzz/Tube combo. We waded downstream for at least 2 hours with each of us catching one dink.

We waded upstream using topwater search baits. Lots of casting- little to no action. It all looked fishy.

When we went into a slight river bend John got bit where current slowed. I looked over and it was large- drag was spinning and I have to say I was a bit shocked by it all. John was redfaced and beached the fish. Fat Smallie. We were beginning to have our doubts, now they were gone. A nice fish about 19"




Well that was the beginning of the fun. We headed upstream and heard some sheep baying- or so it sounded. A deer ran across the stream left to right then disappeared in the woods. Then two more smaller ones seemed to be doggy paddling across but struggling. The hind deer seemed to be hanging onto the first. Why did it have pointy ears and a long snout :shock: ? John and I both thought Coyote at the same time. The coyote was grappled onto the back of that fawn tail in mouth trying to dunk and drown it. Here I thought I'd have a great Youtube vid, I reached for my camera to find it gone. Left on the ground where John caught his nice fish!

John swooped up a couple of river rocks and tossed them at the coyote and it scampered off. One of the coolest thing we'd ever seen! All from 30 feet away.

We kept heading upstream, John caught a couple of 14" Smallies.

It got dark and we decided since the river bottom was so flat we'd pull a JB. No light, no moon, just a lighter and some Marlboro Lights. I caught a fish on Splashtail and then we crossed casts- No one said anything about this. It took 10 minutes to untie. Then fish blew up on my bait a foot in front of me gave multiple heart attacks. We dropped things in the river, trebles caught pants and then we realized there was no moon! We finally made it up some riprap through the poison Ivy and onto a road that led back to the truck.

John caught 5 brown and I caught but 2, but it was a kickass adventure.

9/3/07 Wade results

I got beat to my wade stretch by two other fishemen with Golf shorts and pale white legs. URRR. That's what I get for reading posts in the AM before fishing. I got them back drove upstream road 1/4 mile parked by the road and hopped in the stream.

First pool I hit 15, 18, 16, 15.5, 16.5, 15.75, 12. All on Sammytime. This was going to be a good day. And it would give me pleasure to know I sorelipped all those fish in front of those goons.




Kept throwing the Sammy and mixed up lots of dinks with some 15"ers. A couple of run ins with big blow ups that didn't stick.

Later, I passed campers who had obviously been driving their trucks in the creek. Then there were innertubers coming downstream so that's when I turned around and power walked back with Wolkabuzz in tow. Got another 22 smallies on the walk back (mostly dinks) did include a 16" and a couple more 15"'s. To entertain myself I switched the reel handle to the right side and tossed some WBZ lefthanded. My right hand is the left hand's pimp. :shock:

51 smallies 7 hour wade (18, 3 16, 10- 15-15.75) lots of 8-10"s very few 12-14"ers.

Was also neat to see big smallies hiding under flatrocks from the sun. Noticed this on the way back- didn't look like there was enough room.

9/1/07 wade

Mike and I decided to fish early Saturday AM and to do something different than an hour from Indy east or west. I let Mike pick the stretch going for total surprise. We picked about a 4.6 mile wade and got at it by 7-730am. We ended up going where I was going to take Tim before the rain two weeks ago. Sunrise was about 6:45am. Water was a bit stained at first due to low light.

The stream had a lot of high banks with crops planted close and erosion was pretty common. There was also a ton of rip-rap to repair some of this in places. Decent amount of current was nice and the stream averaged deeper than the three rivers I've been fishing most this year. Tons of bends :-) (why Mike picked it) and a decent amount of wood in the water. I'd say the river was river rock filled, but ample silt made the wade mostly easy on the ankles until the last mile or so.

Mike started out throwing LC Gunfish 95. We had donwsized to this lure with pretty good effect last weekend when fish wouldn't touch sammies. The water was cold, fog was coming off the water and I was freezing. I predicted the Topwater morning bite would be off. Mike lost a 14-15" on a jump and had a couple other slaps before I got a bite. We hit a nice pool where I caught a dink and a skinny 15.25" smallie on a red pumpkin tube.

Behind us a guy in a turqouise kayak started to paddle upstream behind us . We both dreaded this guy zipping past us all day spooking fish, but luckily he turned around. If you're out there- thanks :) . Hope you caught some.

Next pool up the tube was still getting bit, another decent fish and a couple more dinks. Mike was still working the dog to no avail. As I moved up I was tossing buzzbait into everything- with no results in likely places.

Mike finally started throwing a tube and we were getting bit regularily by dinks. I picked up fish here and there. Mike caught a couple of dinks on Gunny. We couldn't get anything in or near the woodpiles.

Hit a pool with a downed tree that screamed 'fish me', I fouled on the first cast, but when I moved to get it, I spied some grass near current at the head of a riffle. Tossed my tube up there nicely and was rewarded by a solid 'thunk' and drag peeling fight to which a nice 17" was landed:




We hit another shaded pool with riprap I caught a 15" off the rip on a tube, when Mike hooked a fish on the gunfish. I threw my tube in immediatley and got bit on the immediate drop- nice fight and 16"er landed. As the day went on the tube bite was in full effect. I caught 5 in a swirly current area including a 16" that took my tube as I dragged it over a log. We got pretty close to the fish here due to the fast current and deeper water.

Mike landed a nice 15.5"er off current seem on the bank. It was a no brainer pool just below a bridge. Here he is complete with manical grin:

-This photo harkens back to the 60's Batman show where the villains were always filmed sideways in their lair. With that getup, I think the angle suits him well. It also reminds me that the fish in this stream were thin and long,we didn't see a lot of food like other streams and there were tons of 6-10" fish! The fish had huge heads in the main, and big tails. In a tourney, they wouldn't have weighed much! I caught another 15" on a tube and we moved on.

Above this spot, we took a break at the bridge to eat contemplate the lack of good topwater bite. I said we hadn't yet tried a prop bait. Second cast, nailed another 15"+. Mike and I went on a prop bait madness run for about an hour picking up dinks and 15"ers. Seemed to be very few in between. Occasionaly, I'd whip out a tube and catch one, Mike kept throwing his prop.

Mike hooked a fish in front of a "V" in the stream and some down tree limbs, when it happended I was in midcast and pitched over his line. It quickly wrapped and climbed for his rod tip! I saw it making a mess and said " Mike, stop!" While I said this a 17-18" fish came and was hooked on Mike's Prop bait, too! The two fish were shaking and we had a horrible clustered mess!!!! I grabbed the line, but only the smaller 14-15" fish had stayed hooked in our bickering .

I had changed from 1/8 to 3/16 oz tube jig halfway and it paid off near deep riprap. A nice 17.5 and 15.5 caught in about 4' of water :-) .

The day dragged on and the fish turned off , I was in the 40's and Mike high teens when I began to recognize where we were. The very same secret stretch a local had taken me during the rodeo! Jeff must have been through recently because it fished like pooh. One dink was caught in hawg hole.
Mike and I went back to buzzbaits at dusk (that's right dusk), and caught a few more to make it respectable. From about 3pm on We had to work hard for every fish.

Strange that so many dinks were feeding. I probably had at least 25 dinks on 3-4" baits?


Final: BT 51 SMB (17.5, 17, 2 16", 10-12 15-15.75") 2 Googs, 1 Creek chub Mike 22 (6 or so 15-15.75") Not one damned fish on 'Sammy'

Wade just would never end, must have been the good tube bite. 4.89 miles 13 hours!

Lots of fun cutting up. We coined a new phrase. If you tripped on a rock: "Beaver Trap"!

8/30/07 Wade

Got out for a wade Thursday, hit a stretch Tim S will recognize. Got an the water by 9:30AM and it was overcast and the water was a bit chilled. Visibility was 12-14" initially then improved when the sun came out around 3pm.

Fishing was slow at first, lost one on prop bait on jump, then a few half interested slaps. Tried throwing everything, at one point I was tossing a jerkbait and jig. Got a LM on prop bait when it hit the water near some weeds. That kept me from turning around 3 hours in.

Caught a 14" on a tube then another on a Sammy when it hit water. No patterns... Fish seemed off.. but then it started to warm...

I was throwing for one of the many downed trees when a good fish came out and nailed a Bluriversmallie WBZ. The fish wrapped the branches and I had to go get it. To my surprise, it was a beauty 17" with dark green and black markings. Here's a photo of the fish, which didn't do it justice.




I kept throwing the Wolkabuzz and had some promising results. There was an excellent laydown at a bend and riffle with riprap. caught a couple more on WBz, then a nice fish on Popper called out of the wood. Another solid splash left my popper hung on a log branch. After retrieveing it, I headed upstream again throwing WBZ, fish started cooperating full force. They were hitting all sorts of topwater but none consistently.

By the time I got to my 12th fish I had an 18", 17, and 16.



The rest of the day, I alternated between Sammy and WBZ. When a few larger fish didn't get hooks, I replaced the trebles for immediate results. land % went way up. Unfortunately, no more larger smallies.

43 Bass and 2 Googs: 38 SMB (18",17", 16", 2 15") 5 LMB (16"). First three hours were crap, the last 6 pretty excellent.

Fun to get out after a week of sealing driveway and painting house.

08/19/07 Sammy Doubles

Mike and I got on a creek by 7am. He threw a Sammy all day. I threw one 80% of the time.

We were cutting up the whole day smack talking as we had a shootout brewing. Both of us threw plenty of topwater. Mike struck first on sizeable fish with a nice 16" on top.

He caught a nice 17.25", while fighting it I hooked and landed a 16" on top. While holding the fish in water waiting for me to release and get my camera Mike accidentaly let her go! I thought he'd get another because we both already were at about 10 fish 2 hours in.

Weren't many 13-14"'s odd. We either got 15"+ or 12" unders.

We ran into a local property owner that was very nice fishing creekside with a grandson. He said the flathead population was up and they released everything they caught. Nice to hear!

On the moveup, I caught a couple 17"'s and a 16 on 1/8 Buzzbait. As well as one fish on a tube.

We ran into the same people again sitting at a different part of property upstream. I chatted and caught a 17" in front of them on top when Mike told me where to cast.



We picked up some 15's here and there, I landed a 16" who swam inbetween my legs an impaled my pants with treble, then another 17.5 for me. I had a 19-16 lead at halftime. Mike forgot to go in for the meeting and caught 5 straight fish from the same boulder area I got my 17.5! He was up by 2!




Mike told me to cast over by a downed log in 18" of water because he saw a minnow get popped (notice a pattern here?). I reared back threw left handed and got bit three wags in, by a dinker who pulled on an angle all the way down the log- some 20ish feet- fish came shooting out of there when it got towards the end suddenly there were two fish on my lure- one going 17"!!!

First, I wasn't going to throw there. The log definately didn't look fishy. I would never have caught the bigger fish if not for the dink, the opposite of my last report and perhaps a bit of justice. Props to Mike for calling two of my shots for me today.


I went on a good run with a prop bait, then we hit some woody slow algae filled water and the bite died off.

Final score in our shootout: BT 33 (17.5, 5 17", 3 16" 3 15) Wool 27 (17.25", 16, 4 15-15.5")

We waded 4.1 miles in 8 hours with the last two hours almost a skunk.

8/14/07 Report of Great Smallmouth Bass Fishing

Tried a totally new stretch on a familiar stream. Don't know how I overlooked this one in the past. Too close to civilization?

Got on the water about 6:15am, which was pre light. Proceeded to break the ceramic of my rod tip guide in a tree. Filed it flat and kept moving.

There was goodly amounts of wood on this stretch, picked up the first fish, a 15"er on Sammy while a couple others thought about it.

Moving up I spotted a big boulder sticking out of the water. I heard a voice in my head say, " That's too tacky!" but my arm threw anyway. When the Sammy aproached the current side of the boulder SCHWAMM, a big, fat, powerful fish nailed it. The fight was on, it quickly tried to jump, but hardly came out of the water. It ran towards a tree, my drag zinged and it turned just it time...to go on a drag peeling run downstream. Yes! Finally got the fish turned and beached it. My jaw hit the ground. What a beautiful Smallmouth, easily 4lbs, but shy of 20".



Next pool up, I hit this 17"er on Sammy guessing depth or wood where I could see none. Nice start!



Then for a while I caught 8-12"ers, another 15".

17.5"er on Sammy who bit on the splashdown.



The bites just didn't slow all day long, several times I looked down at the time and was shocked to see how little time had passed. 4 hours in I had 32 Bass! Gotta keep going :) .

Here's a fat Smallie just short of 18" who followed the dog about 20 feet before he got it:



3 or 4 more good ones on WBZ, then this guy on Wolkabuzz (17"):




Stuck my hand in stinging wood nettles taking this pic :? :oops: .

Go to a hole where I caught 3 straight 15"s then another 17" fish these fish were going nuts:



Arrived under a bridge where it was evident the locals party pretty hard. Was just going to skip it when I looked downhill and saw a medium bass, a very large bass, and a smaller bass. Threw on the WBZ- they all went after it- the larger fish knocked the WBZ into the air and the smallest one got it on the landing :roll: :cry: ! I heaved him up bank and the larger of the two bass was still sitting there a foot from shore looking for his food. Tossed a tube out for him, the line took off- another 12"er got to the bait first! At this point, the hawg left and I saw him no more.

Pretty much threw topwater all day. Amazing, Buzzbait or Sammy both worked well. At one point I pulled out a tube and caught a smallie and a Goog.

Another 17" WTD victim:



Then it became a matter of beating last Thursday's numbers (allbeit in 4-5 less hours) Slammed 3 or 4 more 15"'s on Wolkabuzz, when I finally got #60- all of 6"!!!!

I'll take it!

Walked back to the car, big smile on face, which is still there. 3.14 miles fishing (7 hour 15 minute) 6.43 mile round trip.

60 Bass: 57 Smallmouth (19"+, 17.99", 17.5", 17.25, 3 17", 11 15-15.5") 3 LMB 12-14", one Goggle eye!

Hog Wade turned numbers

Wanted to try a creek I haven't fished since May 07. It's known for holding some big fish, so I went hunting. Plan was to go up one totally new stretch bridge then walk back. I would use Sammy for long casts up uncharted water, then Wolkabuzz/tube all the woodpiles.

Got on the water at 6:30am and immediately started catching fish on Sammy. Mostly small 10-12. Lots of shallow shale/bedrock would hold dinks but not the pigs I was looking for. Kept going and going. Caught a 16.5" smallmouth bass on Sammy.

Caught this deformed smallmouth bass on a Sammy 100, an 18.5"er that would have gone close to 20" If it's spine was straight. This fish was thin and actually came for the bait a second time after I had failed to hook him at the other end of the pool.



Fishing was very consistent. When the sun finally came out and the heat shot up. Smallies were pulled out of the wood by Wolkabuzz baits 'popped'.

Ended up seeing three bridges total. Finished up the 4.3 mile wade with 45 fish, but then decided to wade back and hit spots I had seen fish with WBZ, this 17.5" fish included on WBZ:




I added another 14 on the wade back to finish with 59 Smallmouth (18.5", 17.5", 16.5", 2 16", 4 15") The walk back took almost 3 hours. An 8.6 mile wade!

Caught about 18 on Sammy, 30 on WBZ, 1 popper, 8-9 on tubes. The second half of the first 4.3 miles produced more 12-14"s and also the few larger fish. I'd skip the first mile at least.

Never did find the hawg hole I was looking for. Couple areas with woodpiles could have held bigger smallies I never saw. Had a few chances at bigger fish, but didn't hook up.

Spent

Fan Club Wade another 20" SMB.

Got together with fanclub (Russelfish) this am out in the boonies. We were to meet at 615 in nowhere'sville. Russ said he'd be early so I got there about 6 after eating McYuk. I predicted in my mind Rusty would get lost. He did. Rolled up about 630. I told him I was going to give him 5 more minutes.

Well, the put in was not "right next to" the creek, nope. Not really. What happened over the next hour was like the movie Stand By Me. Except for the part about leeches on Junks. And the dead body. Well, it was pretty much just walking on RR tracks like they did in that movie and climbing down 50 foot ridges- We talked about the fat kid marrying Rebbecca Romijin:



Finally made creekfall by 745! Early on I hooked these two fish on Sammy Limonade:




Russ, missed a couple on his dueling Sammy ahead. When I threw mine into what was about 8" of water a big fish destroyed it and pulled me downstream towards the next riffle. Finally got it landed. It went 19.5" !

Oi:




Unfortunately, the 3.6 mile 8 hour stretch I picked had lots of big long pools rather than more smaller deep pools, this kept our numbers down a bit as we did a lot of wading between riffles and push water- most fish were caught in current at the front or back as the day went on and the sun came out they had moved to shade.

I did pick a roomy stretch, so we weren't rubbing elbows and we mostly threw Sammies. I threw a tube/WBZ a bit and Russ caught some fish with his Flukes.

We had just talked about called shots when Rusty commented about a fish being behind a boulder. He wisely chose to make a long cast past it and the fish nailed his bait. It was a pretty 15-16"er so we took a picture of the fish. Here it is for your enjoyment (sans good photography):

We got to a bridge where I hit a dink which was follwed by and 18 that went right up to our feet before it saw Russ. I then hooked and lost the same fish moments later under deep logjams.

Russ was really starting to get the hang of new rod and reel. He was zinging his casts increasingly close to danger=good. He was hampered throughout the day by his spool being less than half full- resulting in lots of friction on the line.

We landed fish here and there 12-15"ers on a assorted baits when we hit a pool that had a stream coming out of the mountains- that bank was deep grassed and directly in the sun. I took the sunny side and sent Russ up to hit the shade and front of riffle. Caught two fish and was working Sammy extra slow along the steep bank by grass when a fish annihilated the bait right near shore. After a short viscious fight I beached the whale!

Here she is busting over 20":



We picked fish here and there and were both wilting in the heat. I asked Russ if he wanted to walk back to the car via road or hit the last good spot. Fatefully, he decided to go on.

We worked the entire 400 yard long still algae filled pool (normally a raging froth) with nothing in the middle until we got the fornt. I caught a 15", then a 13", a fat 17", 16", 13, 15" and Rusty caught a 15.5" bam, bam, bam!

Here's the 17"+ (fatty):



I ended up with 30 Smallies ( 20"+, 19.5", 17"+, 16", 5 15-15.5) I'll let Russelfish retell his part in our tale. Sorry about the pregame nature hike. He had around 15 or so...

Drag looser and new treble hooks worked like magic.

Rusty is a lot of fun to fish with and a hell of a funny guy. Look he and Macfan26 up if you are near Lafayette! I'll definately fish with both again .

Death March 7/31/07

Waded the part of the same stretch jjwilson caught his 20"er on Sunday. Only guessed after I saw footsteps all over the place .

Got fishing by 615am, Started catching active fish at the top of pools immediately on a limonade Sammy. A 15", 14", 13". Then a 16.5" on a tube and another 13" Moved up to a spot Riff should remember me calling my shot for a 18" last time there, well sure as spit another big one hit, but this time he made it into the logs and was gone, when I went to free my sammy a 15" smallie that had been under the log jumped up onto my back .

At the next pool, I quickly hooked a fish 17" or so and lost it as it dug into a stone in shallow water and the sammy pulled free. Then I had the same thing happen again moments later on another 17" or so fish. Caught a 15 and a dink then moved up and hooked a 19"+ and quickly lost it on the jump! WTF? Looked at my hooks and a couple tips were turned a bit. Swapped for some equal size crank hooks and moved up tossing a tube where appropriate, etc..

Next big blow up produced a 17"er to hand:



Fish were in the shallowest of current areas, several times I surprised a group of them in inches of water.

At one point 5 hours in, I had 26 smallies but only one 17" and had lost like 6 or more 17"+, so I had to go on hoping for one good bite I knew would come. Threw a tube in a bathtube sized hole after a couple dinks missed a sammy was surprised to pull a 18" out! Doesn't look 18" maybe I mixed up the picks. Sorry I'm fried.





Then I lost another 17"+ when I tried to pull it just a little too much. Landed several 15-15.5"ers on the sammy, one on a popper then like 4 in a row from behind a stump/shade on sammytime.

Went up the next stretch and caught a 17" on a tube where Wool had seen me hit one on a skipped sammy under a tree. The fish came back and I got him. Caught another 15.5 under a log on a tube.




Moving up I decide to throw a LC Flashminnow 95. I finally got to futz with it a bit on a long slow stretch and the lure performed! Jerk, jerk stop= 15.5 LMB, then a 14" and a couple 12"ers. Nothing out of the hawg spot then moved up and caught this 17" on a Sammy:


Then I caught a couple of dinks lost another good one pulling the lure free, then hooked an 18" fattie on sammy out from a Sycamore tree- dropped him and didn't take a picture. Moving up I caught a 18"LMB that followed the Sammy in less than a foot of water in slow motion- then engulfed it.



Other funny things: had a blue heron nearly divebomb the Sammy until I yelled at it. Saw one of those stupid little green herons skulking around.

Here's a pick of another fish I caught at some point.




Walked to the DQ and got a banna creampie Blizzard and walked all the way back to my car 4.6 mile return trip after a 3.8 mile wade. My feet are aching. Even with the poor fish playing skills today it was an excellent day!

Got to get some new trebles and loosen the drag a bit!

41 bass, 36 Smallies (2 18, 4 17", 1 16.5", 8 15-15.75") 5 LMB (18, 15.5)