Sandy gets a December Smallmouth Bass 12/8/14

Took Sandy fishing for the first time in a couple months. We hadn't gones since it got too cold to wet wade. Turns out my waders DO fit her. Sure the feet are sticking out the tops of her boots, but she's DRY! Was concerned she might be worse with mono casting a bobber rig, but this didn't turn out to be the case. I did have to switch out the braid for mono on my rod as it was s disaster to cast.

At the first pool, on like the second cast, this fish made the float disappear right in front of where we were wading. Bingo! Fish on. Sandy didn't notice her float was gone. Too be fair the dunk came in the last 20% of the drift. Even I thought the area too fast to hold Mr.Smallmouth. Fun to watch the fight. I always get so excited when she gets one. Going to be awesome when Sandy catches a real pig someday. 16" is her largest in maybe 25-30 hours of fishing this year. She loves to cast and be outside, doesn't get too hung up on not catching.

We managed two holes. The second was the one that I thought would produce on this small creek. I hooked a fish and handed it to Sandy to fight. Later this 17"er came to hand from up in the v of an eddy. I was hopping the float. Picked a couple more off bottom on a freelined hairjig. Nice to get out and fish in what has been a gray December so far.

Rising Water, Cold Smallmouth Bass 12/6/14

Rained hard everywhere the previous night, enticing a nice pre rise bight at dark. See last report. Not so bad up north (I thought). At the first pool, three dink to 12"ers on FnF. Couldn't find the big ones this deep pool produces during high water, so moved out and hopped holes. Visibility was 18"early , but water was coming up, up.


 Visibility 12". On the other side of the current break, a Hail Mary was sunk by this nice 17"er.
Second spot, I picked a 14"er in the first eddy on the float and fly, maybe 4' off the bank. Just minutes later the slack this fish was in was no longer slack.:

This fish struck next a foot from the steep, root lined bank. Great fight ensued as the bass tried in vain to tuck under the roots at my feet, and I let my 8.5' noodle rod bend nearly in half. 18.5".  Sandy was texting me and got pics of both of these fish in a 3-4 minute period as they happened! A 15"er was next, nearly right on a tree trunk.

I set out to hit a couple other spots, but the flow had risen even higher. Visibility around 8". I headed home early to see flow had nearly reached 2000 Cubic Feet Per Second from the mid 200's! Had I known I would have brought a tube rod to fish tight on steep banks with undercuts. A black 1/4oz tube with 20/6# braid is just the ticket for cold dirty water bass.

Several of my "go to" Winter spots have been destroyed by last spring's ice flood. This could make hole hopping ineffective compared to the past as I try to stay in the bigger stuff in the hope for more 19-22" SMB.

7 SMB (18.5", 17", 15")

Trying Something New 12/5/14

There was a wade back in July over some shallow bedrock that produced a few 17"ers, Friday I thought I had a good idea where they might winter. Already raining, I set out on foot. problem, I could see creek bottom. No fish. I thought. At the first hole I discovered crystal clear meant camouflaged fish in 3.5' feet of water. Not much light, so disguised them completely. I finally waded into them in my investigation. Pool blown, no bass.

Headed upstream a quarter mile, just above a riffle, what appeared to be a shallow bedrock pool with water willow growth to the left side. On the first drift, my float dunked and this nice 17"er came to hand:

Picked a dink and a 16" free lining. I headed up to the only other hole on this stretch I knew, but the water was too fast and too deep to locate any smallmouth. I kept marching even though I knew it was all bedrock, I thought I might spy something out. Got all the way to a bridge up like a summer wade. Caught a 13"er in an eddy under a covered bridge. Now I had burned a lot of time not fishing. Headed back the mile and a half to the productive pool at about 5:15pm. 2 dinks on FnF, then a 13". It got darker and I landed 6 more from dink to 17" and 2 big rock bass. All free lining a black fly along the bottom. The incoming storm had the fish feeding. 11 SMB and 2 Googs from that flat. No idea there were that many there. Wow. Here's the 2nd 17". Makes me wonder what could have happened had I hit some pig water instead of shallow stuff during that feed.

Always exciting to have success finding winter fish in an area for the first time.
13 SMB (2-17", 16", 15") 2 Rock bass 8-9"

December Starts with a, 'BANG!'

On Monday, Sandy and I loaded the kayaks up to go do some fishing. She managed to fit my over sized boot feet into her wading boots and we were off on the road to catch some frozen smallmouth popsicles. Excite. Didn't notice the wind in Bloomington because of all the trees. When we got out on the highway, I was a little concerned about the kayaks on top of the car. I should have been more concerned. In Martinsville, the wind blew both kayaks, still tethered together, Yakima rack system still attached to the boats. It all seemed surreal. Could this really be my kayaks those cars are dodging out of the way from a la a Jerry Bruckheimer film? I saw the boats bouncing down I37 with minivans swerving out of the way. Amazingly, the cars managed to avoid the kayaks.

Rack was trashed, so I had Sand drive one kayak back to B-town and return for me. I sat in that median on my commander's perch contemplating whether I had locked the locks on the rack system. Two people stopped to offer short rides, but not back to Bloomington. Discovered the Commander 120 fits in the rear hatch pretty well with a strap to keep the hatch down.

Caper foiled.

Tuesday with Commander in the hatch of my Prius, I set out to fish again. I knew water would be down and cleared up quite a bit.

First stop produced nothing. In fact, the water was so low, I could see there were no fish schools where they normally would be. Out and scattered in the pool. Next stop, I floated down 3/4ths of a mile. I planned on standing in the yak to spot out boulders and such. Fish must have been deeper than light would penetrate. I saw nothing. Managed a 12"er on FnF and a 14"er on a slowly dragged fly jig. Disappointed. I did note I can anchor and spin completely around and face the other direction sitting in the WS Commander's commander's perch. This came in handy for fishing without having to pull anchor and possibly spook wintering fish with paddle strokes. Nice feature.

Paddled and dragged back to the car, made easy by the longer, better tracking boat. Still had an hour before dark on this gray early December day, I walked through the woods to another spot leaving the yak sticking out of my vehicle.

Quickly pulled a 14"er on freelined hair jig. Affixing the float about 30" above the jig, I let it drift downstream on the slow side of the boulder field, letting my bail stay open to allow the flow of line. A very nice presentation if I do say so myself. Was thinking I was slightly too far out when the float dunked. The fish tore up  8'6' noodle rod, even going slightly airborne in that 32 F air temp. 5 or 6 really good runs for a woodpile, then back upstream towards a boulder, turned aside at each, I had the fish to hand in the splishy mud of last week's thaw. The bass taped 20.5", my largest of the
year.

What did I learn here? Clear water, seek slow areas you can't see bottom of. If there is cover, fish can be in some current, but not much. I love the way the float dunks on a drift. Exciting. 6lbs test breaks off a lot of hung jigs, so bend the hook a couple times first to have any hope getting the jig back. Get rear anchor installed for windy days.

I moved downstream of the spot and picked up three more bass, a 15"smallmouth,  and the odd green bass, all freelining. My "never be pleased brain" ponders if it might have been a late bite, first spots should have been better.

It was cool to stand up and site fish in the kayak, it wasn't ground breaking information this time, because my sunglasses weren't polarized and there wasn't much light to peer into the depths. Not enough flow to make fish location easy to predict in large pools.

7 Bass 6SMB (20.5", 15") 1LMB

Fisherman's Journal September 2014

Whoops, forgot to post this. I'm in the September 2014 issue of Fisherman's Journal. Check it out! Click on 'expand' and use arrow buttons.

 Full article can be read here:

http://thefishermansjournal.com/blog/2014/09/06/the-september-2014-issue-of-the-fishermans-journal/

Floating for Float and Fly Smallmouth Bass 11/29/14

Got a late start, finally fishing by 1PM. Took a while to figure out how slow a presentation and how slow of water the fish were in. Broke through with this 15.75" smallmouth who dunked float after several squibb moves followed by pauses. Almost no movement to the flow there. 

Was fishing 300 yard by 50 yard pool by myself, the battle was with impatience with water up to 8'. Stood in my Commander 120 through much of the pool to target fish bolders. Fishing was made very difficult by a 20-30 MPH upstream wind. The wind made it difficult to read slow water and locate smallmouth bass.

Felt really great to have fighting bass running all over the place on my 8'6" BPS micro lite. I downsized to 6lbs test, so far it's held up well and definitely allows the light jig to be cast further. Another key was standing up to spot discolored bottom contours, found a couple of bass that way I wouldn't have caught otherwise. Of note, the float being sucked a couple feet under, really makes it hard to tell how big the fish will be until you get the float above the surface. Second, If I sit on the commander's perch on the Commander 120, I need to wear a neoprene glove or bring a net, as I am at least a foot higher off the water.

Second to last fish was a beastly fat 19", tore all over the pool. Only one bite after that.

Finished with 7 SMB (19", 16.75", 16.5", 3-15-15.75")

Matt D Classic Smallmouth Photo Bomb to End All Fishing Photo Bombs 10/8/2014

Matt and I waded far east on Wednesday 10/8. Getting started somewhere around 10. We waded, because you had to wear waders. I didn't initially, knees were burning it was so cold. Bad bail and no waders, deuce on the way, I headed back to the car to take care of all three. Always carry an extra reel in the car and baby wipes. Matt picked up three 13-14"ers on the tiny fluke fished slow. I had gotten a 14" on a Sammy before I left.

Morning was gone, the bite died before it even came. Bluebird skies and sunny. Worse, everything had been pushed around by Winter icebergs or something.

Matt started to pick up dinks on a slow spinnerbait after he lost one about 15", he had started a pattern. Kind of. I couldn't get anything going until my second buzzbait cast (closer to the woodpile this time) got annihilated by a big golden bass. Shocked us both as it seemed the sun had squelched the fishing. Well, that bass was in the shade and under wood pile. Matt added some more dinks on the spinnerbait at the next good hole. I finally got another Sammy fish in the middle of a large pool with three sets of laydowns down the other side. At the top of the pool, in some shade near the riffle. My Wake Crank first fouled, then as I tried to shake it normal and big sploosh and momentary hook feel happened. Totally not ready for that. Matt and I fished everything through that shade spot. We spied some larger bass in there, so I decided to clip on a shad square bill crankbait. I cranked it in s-l-o-w-l-y from the other side of the river. When the lure finally ticked bottom a couple times, it suddenly stopped. Bass on! Big one. Fish were cold and fights were never in doubt. Very happy to get another nice one to hand on a day where I had almost given up just 20 minutes earlier. Bass measured 18.25"-18.5".

17.5" buzzbait

18.25" crankbait



I started adding a bass here or there on the crank. Later I add a 12", Matt a couple spinnerbait dinks, another 15.5"-16" skinny bass nails a wakecrank in full sight of us watching from above. Really cool to see that fish come up and hit. Mostly from there it was slow. Plenty of depth, wood piles, but wood piles that had been moved a ton by the river this Spring. This seems a theme this year along with a early/late bite.

We folded up this 2.8 mile wade in about 7 hours.

MD 12-13 SMB
BT 9 SMB 17.5,18.25, 15.5

Earlier this week, I headed out for a longer one on the day it rained. Creek was muddy, so hit a second. Tiny tube and wake crank got me 5 from 16-17.75" out of one hole in 30 minutes. Added another 16 and went home. All the driving killed my water time.

9SM (17.75", 5-16-16.75")



Short wade produced a while back, don't know what day. Chubby.

Mike Lives! 9/26/14

Mike was ready to fish for the first time this year. Can you believe that?

Water was nice and clear, but cold. Air was too. Fishing by 9am. Mike wore a raincoat early. We started out throwing Sammy 100's on this wide, shallow stream. A couple playfull slaps, then I get a 15"er to hand in a side pocket. A 14" came right into the riffle water at the back one pool to take my Sammy. At the next water willow lined pool, Mike nails these two fighting smallies from 16.75"-17.25". You can see here, after a long hiatus he's happy as can be to catch some nice ones. Felt great to see.
















When the sun finally shined down on the water, the bite ebbed. At times, it seemed like we couldn't cast far enough to get bit. The water was low and empty in many places. We hit a large pool with most of it silted in. The one hundred yards or so where silt was cleared showed hundreds upon hundreds of fish. Quillback, suckers, catfish, some smallmouth, but a tiny percentage. I went to a Confidence bait 3.5in ribbed swimbait which was the same color as the bottom of the creek, rigged on a 1/4 EWG that made it stand up. Proceeded to sight fish 13 bass out of that pool of all sizes with the largest being the 17"er above. Mike hauled in a chunky 17" sauger. A first for both of us in this creek. Funny to see the fish spook and then throw up pool to the unspooked ones. Sight fishing like this was very enlightening. Showed how bass rotate around the school and new fish come into the scene ready to eat. If you move the lure right. The tail drop was the key followed by sitting the lure as a bass approached. We hid our profiles in the high bank. The screw lock jig kept us catching with only two of those baits.

Next pool, using the same technique I hooked and lost a good one, then lost another I could see mouth the bait when I couldn't set the hook on it because the braid had double wrapped the rod tip. We played around witht he fish in this pool to less effect because we had bitten off a 5.25 mile wade.

From there, we threw Sammies to cover water and the numbers piled up, but nothing big. Mike lost his swimbait, but he proved a paddle tailed fluke worked just as well on a nice 16" we sight fished. We hit a large deep pool. I sight fished a nice smallmouth hovering near surface in 5' of water. Fish immediately took the Swimbait, but soon, also came off. Uggh. Looked 17-18". I was bummed. True it was a new jig and hookups aren't fine tuned on the technique. Maybe swinging too soon. Having lost a giant last time out, it's pretty rare for me to lose larger bass at all.

We continued and had random action as ospreys and eagles swooped overhead. A beaver swam under a boulder we were standing on. Mike got worn out, but I kept adding fish. 

Turned out to be a great day all together. These stretches haven't produced the pigs like last year

http://smallmouthinyoursoup.blogspot.com/2013/10/8-perfect-moments-101413.html

http://smallmouthinyoursoup.blogspot.com/2013/10/mike-and-i-fished-new-stretch-of-river_7.html

http://smallmouthinyoursoup.blogspot.com/2013/09/i-managed-to-rope-mike-into-fishing.html

BT 42 (17", 2-15-15.5")
MC 15 ( 17.25", 16.99", 16", 15") 17" sauger

9/20/14 Cold Snap Smallmouth Bass

Air and water temperatures have radically changed here in Indiana. We look like we're in for an early Fall. How did this effect smallmouth bass fishing in our creeks and rivers? First time out, we stumbled on a late bite, fish going nuts in the last half hour before dark.

I headed out this Saturday and got splashing and casting by noon. Quickly had a 16" bass on a buzzbait, a good sign. Unfortunately, this sign didn't pay off in further buzzbait fish. Absolutely spooked by any finess lures, I discovered a WakeCrank bite and soon had a couple more 16" smallmouth bass.

Spent a lot of time observing the bass swimming in pools and how they reacted to my senko. Neat to see.

Finally managed this hella thick 18"er and a few more 14.5"-15" thick smallmouth bass. Ripping that wake was the answer. Almost no activity from smaller fish. Towards the end of the day, bass had moved into the riffles.

Only got 9 SMB in 4 hours (18", 3-16", 2-15",14.5") one dink.

Standing Up in Your Kayak? Is This a Real Thing?

Wilderness Systems Commander 120