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

Post Show Piggy 7/20/13

Laaaaate night Friday. One Man Band Legend Bob Log III came to Indy.

Thought I'd be in on Saturday, but the overcast called my name. Incorrectly guessed canoers would shy away and so wasted an hour plus driving to the wrong stretch on the wrong stream. Dozens of them. Skipped out and so arrived on the water about 130pm for a long one. 

Dead Sea mostly. A couple of tiny dinks, until I hit a pot hole in the rock. Hooked a large fish in the 18-19" range. He rubbed my tube jig onto a ledge and was gone. Sadness. The silent suck lasted for 4 hours before I got happy on this 20.25" bass.

Did some minor modifications to a prop bait and things got better. Viscious for a couple hours then relaxed into slow fishing again.

Got over 30, the 20.25", a 17", 16", several 15"ers, so not a bad day

Bass Pictures

6-29-13 Smallies Biting Shallow

I took the dog for a quick wade mid day on Saturday. Smallmouth were immediately on a Sammy 100.

The trick to taking the dog for a wade is a Slim Jim in the pocket. She starts too far ahead, I call her to come. She does this immediately to get a bit of SJ throughout the day. Bass stay unspooked.

Fish were shallow and required long casts, but were pretty agressive on that Sammy. Didn't try much else as I had nearly 20 bass in the first hour plus. Slowed a little after the storm rolled past. Turned out just to be less fish in the area. When we walked back stragglers picked it up again.

Got 35 in 4 hours (17", 16.5", 3-15") lots of 12-14"ers

Nom, Nom, Nom, Goes the Smallmouth 6/23/13

Network problems again at work, so I went fishing. Did a long stretch, with bike at the next bridge. Big pools and 3.5 miles on foot. Air temps in the 90's. Water temps have warmed up considerably. Water clarity had improved a bit since last time out. Day started off overcast, hazy which helped. No lie, it was hot.

Loaded up ice in my platypus water bladder. Set out wiping my sunglasses as sweat formed constantly. Smallmouth were biting a Wake Crank on the day, but man, we're they flopping off easily. I had partially hooked and lost 5 nice bass by the time I had 7 landed. Didn't have a spare feathered treble or a hook sharpener (trying to keep weight down on long wades). This hurt me in terms of numbers and size of smallmouth bass throughout the day.

Fishing was ultimately very frustrating. I ended with 57 smallmouth bass and 6 rock bass. Could have caught double that if I had that sharp, rear, feathered treble. I had thought about tying just a couple days earlier. Not sure I lost any real pigs, but definitely 4-5 15-16" bass.

Pulled a few on tubes when I gave it a chance low and slow in faster deep current.

Also, found a single flat on the entire stretch where some late spawners were guarding beds. Kind of a shock here because I thought they had finished up. Thousands of black fry on that flat. Good to see.

Another note is the record flooding has moved riffles and bottom substrate in very advantageous ways. Deeper overall and different. 

Lots of 6-8" smallmouth, which I try to avoid catching, kept impailing themselves on my hooks. kind of a hollow 57 bass, the most hollow high number day I can remember. All those lost fish were frustrating. Such light bites.

57 SMB (17.5", 4-16"ers, 4-15") 6 Rock Bass

6/20/13 Half Day Gone Fishing

Our Network was down today, so no email, no printer. Finished up what I could and left for the day. Mowed the grass, then set out to stream.

Bright sunny day, good flow in my creek, visibility in the 18" range of brown stain. 4+ mile wade and then bike shuttle at the end. Arrived at 230pm, so maybe 7 hours to finish. I'd have to run and gun.

Sammy produced until about 6pm. Then the bass started missing. Got a few waking baits, then moved to slowly fishing a tube when that stopped.

Nailed an 18.5" bass near dusk on a tube in a water willow flat. Was just thinking I haven't gotten any nice ones on finesse baits in a while. This spot I had seen bass on several years ago produced now with the limited visibility.

38 SMB (18.5", 3-16-16.5") 4 Rock Bass

6/18/13 20.25" Smallmouth Bass

Long wade, 12" visibility, good tube bite, gave way to some Sammy, Buzzbait action.

32 SMB (20.25", 18.25", 17", 16") 2 Rock Bass

Smallmouth Action Heating Up.

Smallmouth action has been heating up again as the larger fish have recovered from spawn and now the smaller fish are getting there too. Water has been up or stained most places, which has been nice for me as the fishing has more difficult than just cranking and winding. Lures producing have been tubes, chatterbaits, wakebaits, Sammies, and buzzbaits. Nothing better than another I might add. Here are some random pics. Pretty consistently 2-4 bass 16-18" each time out 20-40 fish. Rock Bass won't stay off my line either.