3 Crazy Days to Close March

 

I hit this fairly well, 46 of 76 smallmouth over 15"

Day 1: 26 SMB 19.5",17.75", 2-17.5“, 17", 7-16“-16.5",4-15"

Day 2: 25 SMB 18.25“, 17.75“, 2-17.5“, 2-17", 4-16", 8-15"'s.

Day 3: 25 smb 18.5", 2-17", 5-16", 2-15"

Don't Call It a Comeback 9-23-23 and There Isn't a Fall Bite.

Days are shortened, rivers are low, beaver dens are exastorbating this. Translates to later bites. I mostly threw Big TRD on 3-16 oz head and dead sticked in deep water with shade (warmer). This worked past when the mid day sun heated things up a few degrees.

The parade of pigs on this day started with an 18" from slow deep water.

A few 15 -16 started to show up on the hook and I knew it would be a good day thereafter. Even caught a couple 17" fish which had seemed to be absent in recent weeks. Only 1 of last 16 bass over 17" was a 17". Not complaining, just odd to be so top heavy.

Here's an 18.5" that hit a Sammy 100 6' from me. It had fouled on multiple leaves and the fish hit it reeling straight in. That's a first.

Sammy 100 strikes! 19"

Big TRD flosses rootwad and produces fabulous 19.5"er.

I keep hearing about this 'Fall Bite'. First, I'd consider Summer pattern through the first week of October typically in Indiana rivers. Fall bite may be noticiable in the north or in lakes, or by those who mistake catching a few fish into more than a few fish.

I'm here to tell you, in central Midwest rivers, there is likely no Fall bite. See the below sample, Hours to catch an 18+ are lower in Summer than October, catch per hour rate is higher in Summer. Fall is characterized by little to no rain, low clear water and leaves in the water column making many presentations ineffective.

Cold months, you catch less fish but often they are bigger fish. If you are good at fishing in the Winter.

See below tan bars for Summer months are smaller to catch an 18+ than October, and Brown bars which signify catch rate are much higher than all of Fall. Additionally, November through April are often the best times to catch bigs quickly, but that is late fall through Spring.

41 SMB 19.5", 19", 18.5", 18", 2-17", 3-16, 10- 15-15.75"

21! New Record on this River!

 Low, low water can mean a bit of time for the fish to get going with overnight temperature swings. For the second day in a row, a late bite. Flossed a rootwad with Chopkicker, where to bigs came out and competed, dooming the larger, and rewarding me with an all time 18 year record for this river, 21"

33 SMB 21, 2-17, 16.5,15

Pig Dump WE 9-24-2023

Had a crazy week with a 21", 4-19.5", 19.25", 19", 2-18.5" 18.25", 2-18"

Century mark...Again 9-10-2023

 105 SMB today. Great to get out after 2 weeks in Bavaria. Mostly small. 18.5, 17, 3-16.75, 4-15. 23" channel cat. Great to get out and stretch after lots of planes and airports.

96.25" Top 5 Decent Day

 Unbelievable day. I'm stunned. Firstly, caught 3 bass on one lure at the same time. Never done that. Fishing sequence of the year: Incredible explosion, "Was that a beaver"? Giant heavy fish jumps, powerful runs around me standing belly deep in the river. Kept the pressure on and finally scooped her my arm was cramping. Just under 21".

Extremely long topwater threading laydowns scored again and again. Big after big. Nuts.

48 smallmouth bass 20.99", 19.25", 2-19", 18", 16.75", 2- 15.75".        

183 Smallmouth!

 On Saturday, I did a 4.5 mile wade. The river was characterized by lots of shallow too wide flat pools with shade on 10' of the 80' wide stream.

A friend had put me onto it with a 10 16"+ fish day a few weeks ago. I waited for the fish to 'refresh' and tried it out. Things I noticed: gras carp are very common. Bigmouth buffalo and smallmouth buffalo are a lot more common than they used to be in some areas. Gar.

Lots of erosion on the stream at first, and dinked and dunked early. 20 bass with a couple 14s by the time I hit the first bridge. Sammy or trd. Had a couple of decent splashes that completely whiffed Sammy. Above first bridge we finally got into some good habitat, and it was from there on I started catching lots of 12" smallies. One 17.5" on Sammy. When the haze gave way to cloudyness, I caught 12 fish out of one eddy then added another 18 the next pool up. It was getting crazy. Dinks, to 15" fish. But where were the big ones?

By 2pm, I was at 111 smallmouth bass, breaking my previous personal bests. Another 17 on trd and a few 16 and 15 on Wake Crank. Another 17" on Sammy and I was at 131 bass, and only 3 pm!

Kept fishing, but honestly, it was getting as rough on me as it was on the fish. One fish after another on trd on bottom. Sick. I inadvertently dunked my Shimano reel and you all know what happened after that. BOUND UP. Cheap reels do not waterproof. This made it hard to get to the 200 smallmouth bass goal.

I was in the 170's and closing in on my take out bridge and bike shuttle. Another 17 on Sammy. never did find the big fish, 181. A friend did, so I don't know what it says abut this stretch? Upgrade my sunglasses? Weird. Didn't see anything big.

Now my 10# braid was wind knotting. I tried to deal with the kink and couldn't get it out, kept casting. Removing line would decrease cast distance. Basically, with two KO'd rods, and energy levels at a super low level, I was KO'd. met a nice local who was a name redacted river watch. He gave me a ride to my car. I gifted him a Sammy and some trd's and jigs.

I knew I would maybe only ever have one chance at 200 bass. That's not to say I wont try again. I was going to fish both days this weekend. This much action wore me out.

183 Bass, 182 SMB and 1 KY Spot, 5 Rock bass 4-17-17.5, 3- 16", 10-15"

Is Smallmouth Fishing Better than Ever?

 River otters, deforestation, siltation, habitat loss.

We're in an era of Indiana Smallmouth Bass fishing one where one can easily conclude things are better than ever.

In some ways, that is probably true. Angler lure ease of use is increasingly on the side of less skill to catch fish. It is not meant as an insult to good anglers out there.

• Those who have been around awhile will recognize a lot of basic, "plug and play" lures have subtle adaptations that draw more bites than ever. 

1. TRD/Big TRD is revolutionary on finessing river smallmouth any season. Almost idiot proof. Get this, it doesn't tear and the tail floats up from the bottom! Goodbye tube.
2. Whopper Ploppers taught folks if I throw it a long way from me, I'll catch big fish. 
3. Even the new premium hard jerkbaits are so much easier to use and catch fish on than 10 years ago. I learned the key to these baits on Youtube. Guess what, they were right.  

• Social media and advertising has smallmouth fishing looking more accessible than ever. I remember in the beginning being afraid of snapping turtles, so I wouldn't wade deep pools. Not kidding. You can now look up how to do something on Youtube and some great content provider will show you how to rebuild a transmission. This is awesome. I love the idea you don't have to work for the man. People are creating better history documentaries than TV does. And they get paid. Great. BUT. Are we being responsible? I am a hawk when figuring out where someone is fishing from pic and video backgrounds. People want the easy short cut to great fishing. Content providers can open up a crowd of pressure on waters and land owners that can't handle it. "Let's Go" every dink you catch?
• Confirmation bias. I am definitely catching more fish and more biggish fish because of all of the above. Therefore, there are more smallmouth than ever? Right? It is my skill and not me pounding a few good stretches or these almost 'cheat' lures. In fishing I have to constantly check my ego and take a stab at what is really true. Human's own mind will attribute to talent which one could really just attribute to the deliciousness of bacon. What if we're really just more efficient at catching the bass that are there? 
• I know the above is true for me, because my knowledge of where to go is at its near peak. Those above lures made a difference for a lot of people. While the plopper only replaces LC Splashtail 90 for me rather poorly, the Big TRD/Rerange 110/ITO Vision 110 are massive difference makers for me in the same places with different similar lures.
• I'm traveling further and further than ever to catch good bass. Rarely are there good fish near a bridge. On some streams miles and miles of missing big fish. I just go elsewhere but I don't have to like it. Winter holes are often empty now.
• I'm seeing a lot less fish or no fish in pools that used to hold them. Before we say it is just a bad day, or it filled in with sand and fish moved. I'm witnessing the same thing on entirely rocky streams. Empty holes, clear water, lack of rough fish. Miles of piles of fish scales in the form of otter pooh look very incriminating. If you're lucky enough to have a favorite stream with sandy banks, you may notice an increase in this type of footprints below. And if you have, your stream's Smallie population is in dire trouble. More to come on this in a future article as I form better thoughts. Have only started seeing otters the past couple years and only noticed scat since last year.
• More pressure on fish as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, kayak tournies, or just tournies put pressure on fish and increase mortality.
• More new fishermen in recreational kayaks. In the last 4 years, I have had to adapt to places you couldn't kayak through. This is because the increase in kayaks has made it hard to fish unspooked fish on certain streams.

March 3-19-23 Hot Smallmouth Action

 

27 SMB - 18", 3-17.5-17.75", 4- 17, 4- 16-16.75", 4-15" On jerkbaits, all caught in the last 3 hours. Ran across fields to continue 18"er streak at 7.

March Staycation

 

18.5"

18.75"

18.75"

19.99"

18.5

19.75"

18.75"

Got out Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday. Total of  14 hours fished. 47 bass 2 Googs, 2 suckers

19.99", 19.75", 3-18.75", 18.5", 17.75", 17.5", 2-17", 10-15"

Numbers went 19, 17, 11, 3, largest fish caught on the 3 day,