Last Day of Work 7/27/07

Boss showed up to pick up the last bits and pieces from my office Thursday. Place closed today at 12. Since there was nothing for me to do I went fishing. Hard to believe, I know.


Hit the water at 6:30 this morning. Fished a stretch Prowler and I did Spring 2006. Mainly tossed a Sammy all day. Didn't much matter fast or slow they hit it either way. I mostly worked it fast. Water was pretty stained from recent rainfall but still visibility increased to 2 feet throughout the day.

This rocky stream is really hot right now. Just the sheer biomass along the banks doubles any stream I've seen this year. There are going to be some big fish in there, correction- continue to be big fish in there.

Fished 8 hours tied my best day with 41. (6 17's, 3 16's, 12 15-15.5) Amazed at the amount of fat medium sized fish. As you can imagine, it was a lot of fun. Never did hook into anything really big, can't complain at all. Only caught 1 on a tube and 3 on Wolkabuzz, but didn't really try much.




Did something I never do- fished fast and completely ignored middle and bottom of the water column. Smallies were biting so good I pounded the backs of pools and picked up a few on the way up to each new push area.

Hookup % was pretty high for Sammy, though I did get a couple in the gills.

Pic:

2 Part Wade 7/10/07

Tried out a new stretch of an old fav. Stream was actually wider than I'd expected. Took awhile to find a put in spot. Finally found a medieval bridge and parked.

Walked down about a mile, mile and a half then started fishing. It didn't looks so good. Silty, no current, and plenty of wood. But then an odd thing happened, I stopped pouting and started fishing.

I was throwing an 1/8 OZ tube Hooked up brand Sweet potato . In 20 minutes, I caught 7 bass (15.5") and a goog on tubes, then poppers from a hole near a root wad at a bend in the stream- the bend was near a trickle of water.

Moving up, I picked up a few fish on Poppers worked slow (shade) and a couple on tubes. Nothing big, but 4 fish from 15.5-16. Caught my last fish on Splashtail 90. I managed 12 Smallmouth and a goog. Saw plenty signs of bucket peeps so it was time to move out after about 3.5 hours. Got back to the car and decided to hit another stretch while waiting for the prestorm binge.

Got to the second stretch about 4pm. There was plenty of limestone/shale flats with steps for holes the water temp was a balmy 86F! I headed this way because the gradient would produce more flow and hopefully, activity. I was going to work the backs of pools heavy with the Splashtail- hoping for a high hookup percentage out of the lure.

It's pretty much what happened. I caught another 25 Smallmouth and 1 goog. 4 smallies on Tubes. 21 on the Splashtail. The stream had almost no wood so this was the perfect surface lure. Ripping it, popping it, and pausing it led to a very high hook up percent maybe 80% or so.

This fish, like most, came off pushwater at the tail end of pools, it was a competition strike, and the fish hit the lure right before I snatched it up. 17.25"



I did get two fat 17"+ers on a tube. The first, was caught near a downed tree and rootwad, right next to some current and the eddy created had foam on it. The fifth cast or so, the fish struck. It had picked the tube up while I dead sticked it. It went 17.25" and was fat.




The last good fish was after the topwater bite died around 7:15. It was near rootwads and current with a log leaning in from the bank. When I pitched the tube in the right spot he took it. Another fat fish, this one went 17.5". You can see the spot my tube hit to the left behind my right shoulder where the log slants into the stream- a foot in front of that right up near the bank,



Storm started rolling up, I caught two more on SPT90, one had a madtom sticking out of it's gullet backwards.

When I started the long and soon to be wet walk back to the car, a guy pulled up and offered me a ride. Heck yeah! Rain started falling like cats and dogs.

He's the town family doctor. We both could swear we'd met before. When he said he kayaked I thought I might have seen him on the water or at the Expo. Thanks, Chris!

8 hours: 37 Smallmouth (17.5, 2 17.25, 8 15.5-16) 2 Googs.

Fishing with Wool all Damned weekend 7/6 and 7/7/2007

Fished with Mike on Saturday, the flow was almost stagnant and low. We both lost some big fish and the wade ended with some domestic violence heard through the trees.

We got out to a rocky stream on Sunday it was boiling hot with a little current and cool water that helped immensely.

We threw tubes, Sammy's, and cranks. No pattern other than the fishing was slow and it was very hot.

Mike caught an 18"er on a tube near a root wad and a 15.5" fish that slammed a Sammy 100.

We had or ourselves a shootout, albeit without many fish. Which Mike won 9-8. Most fish were caught on a variety of lure since nothing was working consistently. Mike may have beat me in size and numbers, but I had more bowel movements by the creek- hollow victory but take what you can get.

My biggest was a 16.25"er (Sammy)

We both bought new Pflueger Supreme reels. They are extremely light- hold a lot of line on the oversized spools. The Magnesium seems to transmit vibrations astonishingly well. I could feel the rocks and strikes in my reel like never before. I also lost several big fish this weekend fuddeling with drag or not putting enough pressure on fish because the reel felt different.

Mike also got his first custom rod from John Bunner.

Fish in the Rootwads Beckoned Forth

Riff-Raff and I got out for a wade. We decided to do an entirely new stretch.

Riff caught two on Chatterbait and I caught two googs for like the first four hours. We hit a log jam where I had a big fish pick up my tube and run with it, but alas, it came free in the root wad. Then I fell into a 4 foot deep pool of algae. Nice! We walked and walked. Until midday the stream seemed empty. Very few strikes.

I caught a fish on a Jimmy, then another on a tube. It seemed like the bite picked up when the sun got in the sky.

Riff caught a 15"SMB and a dink LMB and I caught a 15" LMB on a Jimmy, 14" LMB and a 13"smallie on a tube. I snuck up on a hole and lost a 17-18" fish who smashed a Jimmy when a treble caught on some brush and the lure pulled free. The I lost another fish on jump on a tube .

Wasn't shaping up to be my day. Jim had an encounter with a big fish that smashed his popper- but it got quick released too. I caught 2 more fish on Jimmy and backlashed, while I untangled it, Jim moved ahead and caught a 17"er on a popper! I was behind him and hit a spot he passed for 5 Smallies 13-15" on a popper worked slow near root wads. Fast moving or loud topwaters did not work.

We moved up a narrow stream area near more root wads, I caught 2 fish on Popper , and had a 16"ish fish throw the lure on the jump! UGH. 3-4th encounter with sizeable fish with nothing to show for it. What was strange was the fish that had hit came near rootwads often, but the water was often knee deep. Only a slow deliberate popper close to the wads drew strikes. I theorized the fish were coming out of undercut rootwads to strike the Popper. Seemed to be the pattern for the day.

We hit some sort of ancient bridge, I lost a fish on jump, then caught a 17"er on a tube while Jim was snagged up.



Jim caught one on the chatter and we split up. I caught another fish on popper then 3 more on a tube at an 's' bend with quick current and good depth.

Met up with Jim to fish a log jam, when he stayed behind to fish it more thouroughly. Moved up to the top of the pool and tossed the Jimmy to where it widened and brought it's dog walk close to more rootwad. A dink missed the Jimmy followed by four more strikes, I didn't panic and kept on walking the dog under fire. Paused the bait, then started again when a pig smashed it! When I landed the fish, it went 18.5" ! and was fat. The first strike was NOT from that fish, since riff caught a couple there after, I think the pig came in to finish it!



We fished on for a while, Jim caught a couple more on Chatters. Then we walked back to the car after debate as to direction to take. Total trip was 6.7 miles 11 hours. Beer!

I caught 18 Smallies (18.5, 17, 3 15") 2 LMB (15" 14") and 2 Googs. About 5-6 fish on tube- the rest topwater. Could have had a lot more size, but for fish playing mistakes around roots .

Jim had 10-12 bass (17" at least a couple of 15"'s

Last Wade First 6 Months 2007

Waded a rocky stream, caught fish on poppers, Sammy, fluke, tubes (intensified late), and slayed them on LC splashtail 90.

I used the ST 90 double prop instead of a buzz and the sharp double treble hooks had a very high hookup percentage.

29 smallies- 16.75", 16", 2 15" mostly a dinkfest. 20 were probably 8-12". I left because I got bored catching small fish.


I did lose a Hawgzilla that slammed a 1/4oz WB in some current from behind a boulder. I could not turn the fish and it took drag in front of a couple of boulders and my line broke. I'm sure its from walking the dog with those razor sharp sammy hooks. This has happened three times since I started using topwaters with trebles. Poor fish has a WBZ attached to its head- Hope it didn't go to deep.
I may have to go back to 20/6 PP.


Saw a huge snapper at least 30lbs. Found a leech that had been living in my wading boot. The leech had been in there since at least Thursday if not longer. It fell out of my boot, to my horror.

6/28 All Day Wade

Met up with Riff-Raff for an all day wade about 930am we got on the water. He started working a large pool downstream a few shelves like steps that water fell over.

He caught couple or three smallies right off the bat on a chatterbait as well as missing at least that many. I was throwing a Sammy 85 with newly bucktailed treble. Caught two bass on the lure including a 15"er. I worked counter clockwise along the huge deep pool and finally made it to the water ledges/shelf. Ran a Wolkabuzz across the ledge and a couple smallies popped out from under the ledge and considered the bait before retiring back. I quickly switched snap to a black tube and pitched it gently about three feet from where the larger of the two fish had emerged. Fish jetted out and took the tube .

Went 18.5":



Jim caught one at the back of the pool, you can see him in the background thumbing for tube bites, it went 16".

We waded downstream and Jim caught another 16"er. Fishing was slow after that with Jim picking up most of the fish on Chatterbaits, occasionaly a tube. I caught a bunch of googs on a tube. It wasn't until we headed back upstream I started throwing the Sammy again and catching fish. The Feathered treble seemed to help fish locate the bait better than Monday. Caught a couple more on a grub and then a biggie hit the Sammy, my line immediately snapped- the sharp hooks had cut away at the line that had been wrapping while walking the dog. Fortunatly, like last week the fish jumped and threw the bait clear and I got it back! We waded back up to the starting pool and I caught another 15.5"er on a Jimmy that didn't fight- at all.

We left the first stream about 3:30. 6 hours I had 12 SMB and 6 Googs. Jim was around that many Smallies too.

We drove to the next stream as some very scary thunder hit right close to us. Beautiful smallie habitat. It rained a little on us during the day.

The fishing was either picking up late in the day, better stretch, or turned on due to weather. We moved up I picked up fish on tubes (15") and cranks. Some of these fish were right next to super fast current in eddies caused by rip rap with the stream being 8' wide. Caught another fish on Jimmy, then another on a long cast to the next pool that went 15". We moved up to the pool I switched to Wolkabuzz and talked to Jim as a fish came out of nowhere and destroyed it right in front of Jim near shore. To my shock it measured 18", even though it didn't look that big while fighting it. Here it is with Jim freeing Chatterbait from behind the tree The fish may have come from. He hung on and caught a skinny 15" after I moved up.




Jim caught a bunch of fish at the confluence of a couple of stream arms. We decided to split up. I went left he went right.

Saw ahead where a boil had appeared by a Sycamore tree. There were two jutting out into the current providing protection from current. I carefully worked the rear tree first, On the third cast, I hooked up with and fought this nice fat 17"er.




Put the Jimmy on and walked the dog from the top tree to the next when a really big fish attacked the lure. It bulldogged and felt heavy. When it finally came to hand it was my third 18"er of the day .



Then I tried walking the dog past the first tree as far as possible- the Jimmy played like a champ because I could make super long casts. A big fish missed then got the Jimmy as I walked it past. The fish pulled hard and I saw another good sized smallie follow. It went 16.75"

When I finally met back up with Jim he had caught 6 more SMB including a 17", I was at 28 SMB. We decided to keep going. Jim caught 5 out of the next 6 fish on chatterbaits. Including a nice fish that went a hair short of 17".

Numberwise, we were really close. It had been a very competitive day without being at all competitive. I caught 5 on tubes at the 11th hour to give me 34 SMB (18.5, 2 18", 17", 16.75, 5 15-15.5") 1 LMB and 6 Googs. According to my calculations Jim was right there within a fish or two one way or the other, and surely passed me on the Googs. I know he caught a couple of 17" and 3 or 4 16".

12 hours of fishing in the heat, sun, rain. Grueling and hellafun .

June 25th Wade

Hit the water for a wade today hoping for a repeat of the last couple of rainy overcast days. At first, it seemed like I might get that, but then the sun came out and it was muggy hot like no other day this year.

The fishing was hotter. I started out with an 4" Xcalibur 'Jimmy"- High dollar LC Sammy knockoff that is nearly identicle, except for the colors. I've had the lure since last year, but never really give it a shot.

The Jimmy was amazing. Fish were hitting at it from everywhere. It casts a country mile and a half and rattle as I walked the dog attracting attention. Really, I was casting the thing like 50 yards with no overhead cover.

So I missed a few fish on the Jimmy, then switched to a ZellPop and had three seperate swipes at it from near a huge boulder. The fourth connected and produced this fish that went 18":



Caught a fish on a tube and had a lot of walking through shin high water. Found a likely spot in some shade and caught 4 Googs on 4" tubes.

Then I saw some foam on the water and plenty of boulder in the stream with some depth. Several fish again missed the Jimmy, so I pulled out the ZellPop and tossed over by a big protruding boulder. A fish nailed it- it was just an 8"er but another bigger fish followed it nearly ashore before turning away. I quickly took the dink off and tossed the popper back out the fish nailed it: Another 18"



Put Jimmy back on and a 16"er smashed it as I brought it across current. Then another the same size a hole up! Nice. When I got to the top of the riffle, three more fish blew up at the JImmy- this was par for the course throughout the day. If I caught 10 fish on it, I had 25 missed strikes- violent strikes!

Caught 5 more fish on the Jimmy, including another 16" and 15.

Then I caught like 25 fish on 4" tubes and the ZellPop. It was an every other cast thing. hardly any dinks.

Caught 41 Smallmouth Bass (18", 18", 4 16" 4 15")and 6 Goggle eyes in 7 hours. Which is my personal Indiana stream best(at the time).

6/20 6/21

Fished today with Riff-Raff on the stretch below kayaking Omish. The water was mostly empty as the sun was high beading down on us and the water. Didn't get much above knee deep for the first mile except for one good hole I'd guess Matt, Manash, and Lance might know something about.

I got a fish on a popper, then a disgusting 15.5"er on a tube that had black spots and half his tail missing or it might have went 16". Didn't fight well at all and came off impossible cover- off rootwad behind current seem behind downed tree and under branches.

Jim was throwing a chatterbait a lot and a tube as well at times. He caught a couple of fish one from a ridiculous spot- in full blasting current under a log that seemed like it might have 6" of water to its name.

I was having trouble with a newly lined reel, but managed to put a perfect WBz cast infront of a downed log that was smashed by a 16" fish. When I went over and looked the fish had come out of a tiny crack of space under the log in about a 1' of water . That and one other fish were pretty much it for me for 4 hours.

Jim caught 3 fish on cranks at the front of a deep pool. A largemouth and I missed tons of dinks on the WBZ.

Was just about to cry like a sissy when a fish hit a tube at the end of downed log and deep rootwad bend.

Fought like crazy. Went 17+".



It was fattt. Compare it to a fish I caught the day before on another stream: Yes, I am pooping.



Jim caught this fish on chatterbait 16"




Jim had 14 Smallies (16") and a LMB

I had 9 (17", 16", 15.5") and a Goog.

Worn out and a little buzzed from 1.5 beers (thanks Jim).

Good night!

Top Secret Wade

Went for a wade with Riff-Raff today. Water was low and stained with visibility 2feet. Warning: Left camera at home !

I quickly caught a 14"er on a popper. After being warned to stay in the creeks and not on the banks by a resident we were told where to catch 5lbsers . Proceeded to catch a chunk 16.75"er from that very spot on a popper! Then a dinker on Wolka buzz and Riff caught a dinker on a tube.

We worked our way to a bend and large pool where I told Riff I had caught an 18"er the only other time I fished this stretch. Pointed to a large downed tree at the head of the pool as the spot the fish was caught. From 40 yard out I landed the perfect cast, after one pop a fish destroyed the popper. I had to keep the fish up in the water column to prevent diving under the trees. It jumped nicely then dove down deep as I struggled to keep up with it's downstream acrobatics. It felt like it got hung up on something then jumped straight in the air from the depths, one more jump and a strong run and I had him to hand, right about at 18" .

Riff caught two off the opposing bank downed rootwad- one about 15".

I moved upstream and got hung up after a couple of casts and went in to get my lure. The hole was much deeper than it appeared. I became afraid I had spooked a good hole and moved on.

Riff came in behind hitting the pool I thought I had pooched and caught 3 fish one at 17"+ and another at 17" on a small chatterbait.

While he was wrangling his third fish I hooked into a solid 16"er who swiped and missed my popper but came after and nailed it deep. Caught a fish on a tube and the two more on WBz.

As we chatted, I started catching fish like crazy- like 4 in a row on WB including a 17.25" That Riff saw follow my buzz across the stream then destroy it just feet in front of us. Then I caught 3 more on a tube topped off by a nice bruiser that went 17"+. We hit a pool that produced fish for each of us then I had a very large smallie slurp a tube under a tree enough for both of us to see the length of this fish was the largest yet. My line caught a stick and pulled the tube free ! Gahhh!

Crazy stuff was happening.

We hit a hole where I caught 3 in a row on the popper that went 14", 15.5, 14, and then at the fourth cast a fish destroyed the popper when I went to put pressure on the fish my line snapped. The fish continued to jump- we could hear the popper's rattle weights shake every time it jumped. Riff said it looked 17"+. Then he caught a fish on a tube that went about 18". Lo and behold there came my popper floating downstream, complete with snap and about 2 feet of line! I had just been moaning losing a 10$ lure in a fish's mouth and possibly killing it. Sweet!

The hole was fished out so we moved up a Riff caught 2 about 12-13, then a nice 17"er all on tubes. I landed a nice 14"er on popper.

From there, the sun went into the clouds and the fishing died. We fished hard some areas that should have held fish, but maybe they were well fed?

We caught some more fish, 3 about 15-15.5" on tube and chatterbaits.

27 bass for me 2 were LMB (18, 17.25", 17.25",16.75, 16, 2 15.5, 15)

Riff had 18-20 (18", 17"+, 17", 17", 2 15.5, 15)

Lots of fun and well met.

Left camera at my computer from downloading previous photos for report.

We finished up about 8:30pm, I sent him to another spot as I went home. So he'll have a chance of catching up post game.

What's around the corner Wade 6/16/2007

A friend once said there is something that makes you want to see around the next stream bend. There could be one more nice fish. You could find 'the' ultra hole. Perfect example today. I have a bad case of this fellows. I just keep going, going. 10 hours today.

Got on the water by 615am. Fishing stunk, did manage to hook one largish fish 17-18" on a popper but lost him when he swam under one of the millions of brush trees on the first third of the stretch. Took me 3 hours to catch my first fish a 10"LMB on the same Popper.

Smallies either weren't there, or asleep. Didn't get a sniff on tube, crank, or WBZ.

There was brush and fallen trees everywhere and few holes that fish could be caught out of. Low hanging branches and clear ultra low water don't help. Had to take a lot of chances- zing a perfect cast or try to get closer and spook the hole. I had to make a lot of medium casts between limbs and under them. Seems when I did hit target, the lure would snag or foul! Black flies swirled around me most of the day.

Took a wheelburrow break- ate to reconcentrate and down some grub.

Started at it again, and started catching SMB on the popper. 11, 15,13.5,11, then a couple on a tube and I was starting to feel better.

At about 6 hours I had 9 Bass and a Goog. Had to keep going because I wasn't going to drive out here again if it sucked, so I had to find out!

I changed from normal chart/white WB to one with shiney blades for the sun to gleam off of. Worked the WB at the end of a new pool- 'suck' a fish enslaved the wolkabuzz and tore ass. Landed him and took a couple pics.
17 3/4":



Here's the arm length view. Looks the same size really.




This different look from the gray WB started producing... 13, 13.5, 13.5, 15. the tube bite turned on and I was off to the races.

A 16" tube:



Then I saw a hole that screamed 'big fish' it had foam on it looked a deep blue green. The hole had a huge rootwad providing an eddy and had a riffle 20 yards upstream from it.

Tossed the WB across the eddie after carefully picking apart the back of the hole to no avail. Another slurp, the WB disappeared to something big. Problem was there was a tree across the stream for where I cast, so I waded in and ran to the tree while frantically trying to keep pressure on the fish. Got em! another 17.25" jem. Picked up another 14"er on a tube and moved on.



I don't know what the hell is going on with that face I'm making. Never said I was photogenic.

While sneaking up on a hole spotted a bass 5 feet in front of me and was shocked when it went straight for my short pitch tube. Landed all 16.5" of it in about 3 seconds, of course it was a Largemouth Bass!

Turned out to be a pretty good day. 20 Bass 17.75", 17.25", 16", 2 15" bunch of 13-14"ers and one 16.5"LMB. Also caught a Goog and a big shiner on my popper- guessing it wanted the feather? About half or slightly more than half were on a tube. The two big Smallies were WBZ gold and silver blade.

Then there was the small matter of 54 minute walk back to the car .