Streak Ends with a "Clunk!" 9/27/13

It had to happen eventually. After 11 consecutive Indiana wades, I failed to catch at least one smallmouth bass 18" or better. Yesterday's outing failed me in my neglect of the weather forecast. I made the mistake of looking at the temperature alone as a guide. Forgot the sunny skies, super low, clear, water. Fishing was tough, 14 bass with 2-15"ers in 6 hours. Didn't even see many fish. Just can't get a finesse bite going to save my life on this newly discovered river. I have formed a mental picture of it's quality.

Go after a rain, on a cloudy day, during the rain. The stream is highly effected by bright sunshine. It lacks shade. The river bed consists of softball and golf ball round rock which conducts a lot of heat. There is a lot of wood to hide under. We banged them well with fresh tactics right off the bat the first few times http://smallmouthinyoursoup.blogspot.com/2013/08/camping-and-fishing-822-824.html. Long casts, precise casts, flossing cover or drawing unspooked lunkers with new presentations worked well.

Yesterday was so bad for larger fish, I began to wonder if they had retreated to the lake. Not seeing sucker schools or many carp either. Really tough when you can't wait them out with a good finesse lure. The intensity of the sun was too much. Bass and sucker schools had disappeared.

Signs of the bucket brigade on every stretch, sadly.

Wonder if some years see more smb swim out of the lake than others.

I could have picked a better day and kept this 18" er thing going. Maybe. I'd have to hazard a guess that the last 15 trips (650 SMB-26 smallies from 18-21" in the last 15 trips.) have been the best stretch of smallmouth bass fishing I've ever had in Indiana, and that's saying a lot.

491 bass in 11 trips during the streak. 5.78 bass an hour on foot. 111 over 15". Almost 55 miles of rivers.

Mike Dips His Knees in a Creek 9/22/13

I managed to rope Mike into fishing a stretch of creek far from home, the first time we both had fished this one. It was beautiful day cool, 50-70F, with a nice warming sun. The leaves were just starting to turn colors. A times, a wind would kick up and make the necessary long casts difficult. We also were completely under the shade of tall bluffs which was like suddenly being in the dark. 

Fishing pretty much started out good, tossing "DUAL SAMMY" 100 the entire day. Never let the Sammies touch, best rule. Could have left everything else at home. Mike grabbed some nice 15"ers here and there. We caught some in odd places. No rhyme or reason to where, but hit at pretty high percentage to hand.

We hit a large pool that looked pretty good. Mike had a big swipe at his lure that completely whiffed in the sun. This fish exploded on a Sammy where the sun met shade. Hit 18" by a hair. Extending the 18" streak to eleven in a row. Got a 15" shortly after. 

At the top of the next pool a couple swipes followed by excited pull away. I started to walk the dog again when a big fish had it. Made the ole first one way, then the other zig zag, rear hook popped out under a lot of pressure. Mike and I had just talked about putting new hooks on and found we were [i]both[/i] out of size 4 Gammie trebles. Surely the pig would have been stuck deeper and more often, if I'd maintained my stock. Bummed me for a while. Slower action that Thursday on another stream, threw me for a loop. When you get used to frenetic action and then there is just good action.

Certainly, we pulled more bass together than one person would have. The stream was wide always.  Not many dinks so action seemed slower as there weren't the playful misses.  During that cliff shaded straight away, wind became a problem. Pinpoint accuracy and subtle control on your Sammy get you bit more often. It became difficult as the lure would drift 20' in the breeze, or get knocked down entirely landing well short of an intended target. But it was all cool. Spending time with a good friend in an obscenely beautiful place.

On one cast to a boulder field, a huge fish went completely in the air, not touching the Sammy, only to be grabbed 10' later by a 16.5" fish. A splash at a cross stream rock drew first Mike's attention (missed by 8') then mine (bingo), resulted in an impact strike and this beautiful 17.25" smallie to hand the colors of the mountainside.

Then Mike nails a 16.5" after he almost walks into the spot. I yelled, "fish are there!" He is rewarded with his largest at that point. Not many jumpers, these bass would get square and bulldog. Dinks would leap. 

2 bass one lure:

A camera shy Mike goes on an impressive run with a couple 15"'s and a 17"er who nails his lure as it is about to plunge down a riffle. Very impressive sequence.  Fish are everywhere for a while. I airmail a couple chunky 15"'s.

The last pool was sadly under heavy shade. I picked a 15" and airmailed a strong streaking 17"er who was followed back by a larger fish. Mike picked a 12" and headed to the car, as I grabbed another last ditch 15" above the bridge.

Just a great time. Won't be many more of these.

BT 44 (18", 17.25", 17", 16.5", 7-8 15"'s) Difference was a couple airmail 17"'s and I caught more dinks

MC 31 (17", 16.5, 7-8 15"'s)

Shitloads of Smallmouth Bass 9/19/13

Thunderstorms in the forecast, I set out on Thursday to extend the 18"er streak to 10 trips. Been waiting for the canoe season to end so I could blast off a long one.Figured the bass were already wet and would probably like the rise in water. When passing over an Indy area feeder, I noticed brown water and lots of standing pools. Uh oh    . Hard rains cause runoff that changes the water clarity. if those feeders were dumping into the main creek, it could be a tough day. Ominous, dark skies and heavy rain on the drive out. Left the bike at home. In this case, any bike shuttle doubled the wade length, the roads ran way out of the way. I'd do 4.25 miles up and then turn around and walk back. Or tack on a 12+ mile bike trip. Seemed like one choice really.

Nearly 3' long bike tire that wasn't trash:


All the feeders in the area were flowing mud. I was worried. Take day off to fish muddy water and end the streak fishing low, muddy water? Yick. When I drove over the main flow, angels looked down on the stream, flowing clear!

So I got parked, shoed and geared up, got moving, planning to throw WTD for pigs get the streak over early. That. Didn't. Happen. I did get 5 bass early on a small WTD, but it quickly became apparent that my 10am start time may have been an hour too late with the rain. A feeder was turning half the creek brown. Leaves were blowing off trees. The pool I'd hoped to 18" on was brown water. Intermittent dumpings finally stopped and the sun came out. Not much for a while. I did finally get above the feeder, incredibly flow was clear enough. I grinned a little. It's on, bitches.  

I decide to throw on my 1/8oz 'Wolka Buzz', I've upsized these in recent memory to variable effect. To get extra distance, I thinned the skirt and added part of the body of a senko. Believe it or not that part of a worm really helped cast the lure. On the first cast, a dink answered the call, connecting despite a lack of trailer hooks on hand. Over the next 20 minutes, I caught 18 smallmouth bass, topping out at 15". Amazed so many fish near one riffle and that they wanted the buzzbait so bad. Solid hits! Easy to walk with the river channel mostly empty I power fished for quite a while before I pulled the first 17"er of the day, pictured below. Quickly caught a 16.99, a 15" and lost one in the 16-17" range. Wow. Now things are getting good.


Numbers started to pile up, smallmouth mostly missed in the direct sun and destroyed it in shade covered pools. 35, 40, and nice bass too, some 16"'s and 15"'s, but some 12-14"ers too. At the end of one huge pool, I just abused the 15" 16"ers waiting for meals. For the rest of the pool, maybe 125 yards wide, I would walk up the middle and cast a Sammy 100 to the structure and shade on either side. The smallmouth were now on WTD's as well. Caught 3 or 4 on it until I got up near the bridge with 52. Shade under the bridge, but no smallmouth would be dumb enough to sit right in such a hugely pressure spot? WOOOMF! Missed. I threw across the creek and worked the Sammy over a log and towards the bridge piling when another explosion happened up top. ON! BIG! Finally, a chance at big girl. Swept her into some willows and just knew it was the coveted 18" bass I needed. 18.25" and fat!  





YES! Mission accomplished, but I had yet to see the river above the bridge here so I kept chugging, picking up smallies here and there. Got to a plunge pull at the top of a hill at the end of bedrock flats, was working the buzzbait again when it twirled and caught a leaf. Looked over and saw a big bass still interested in the buzz though. Normally I give up on fouled lures, but this bass came right over and nailed it. Short fight and caught before just under 19".


Waded up a few hundred yards picking good bass from crack in the bedrock or in shade near wood. Another 16.5" and I turned around with 65 bass and started back to the car, throwing a buzz bait below the bridge got answered by another big bass, this one headed for wood really quick, I had to horse her over and to me. 18.5" skinny fighter. I think they have in many cases gotten so skinny because food hasn't been getting flushed to them. Make no mistake these fish wanted food! The slight rise in water levels gave them the perfect opportunity.



In the faster plunge pools, I started picking bass off wood with a spinnerbait, two 15"ers in a row. Then a couple more fish swimming the spinnerbait in heavy current in place. Still, I headed downstream, another 15" on a buzz, a 17" on an impact strike on a propbait. A few more and another 17" on a Sammy followed by another 15". 77,80, could I hit one hundred? Only thing stopping was time and lack of a trailer hook for some cheap numbers. Got to 90 pulling the Wolka buzz upstream in front of a riffle, Boosh!

When I passed the feeder that was muddying, it was finished dumping rain runoff. The creek had cleared up below as well. It was nearly dark. I had about a mile of ankle deep water to power walk. Got to the car in the pitch black. Awesome.

I waded 8.5 miles in 9 hours. Catching 90 bass: 88 SMB (18.99,18.5", 18.25", 3-17", 16.99", 5-16", 7-15") 1 Spot, 1LMB

Long Mid September Wade for Smallmouth Bass 9/15/13

Long wade 5.5 miles, more than half of which I've never seen. Water was cold and only the bigger fish were catchable until after noon. Then, the sun scared them into swinging but not hitting, finally the go nuts phase. Extended the streak to 9 trips with an 18" or better. Fish were schooled up. On a couple occasions, there were upwards of 12 smallmouth in schools jammed into rootwads at riffles, you'd catch one, the others would swim all over. They always came in packs. Saw the largest smallmouth I've ever seen and I'll be back to get him. Followed a dink to my feet, of course. Happened a lot today, but still got 16 smallmouth from 15-18.5". Didn't get many dinks at all until after 5pm. They had to warm up. If all the false starts had been eaters! Crankbait was off, caught maybe 4 and a walleye. Added a 14" white bass on a Sammy 100.













9 hours 5.5 miles 43 SMB (18.5", 17.5", 17", 4-16", 9-15") Caught more fish over 14" than dinks today. With bike it was over 12 miles.

 

Airmailed Pigs 9/12/13

Dropped good friend at the airport for a trip to Dublin, had to get up at 3:40am. Went into work early after the drop off, decided to fish with the extra time, hitting water about 3:10PM.

Things were slow and the wind picked up leaves on surface made it tough to not foul. The slightest leaf of algae string will cause the bait to not walk. Got on some better water and let my Sammy do the talking. Only caught bass on WTD. That's all I threw, completing nearly 4 miles in 5 hours.

18.99"

18.75"

28 SMB (18.99", 18.75", 17", 3-16", 3-15")

Pig streak goes to 8 in a row and 11/12 21 smallmouth 18" or better in the last 12 trips. Just crazy.

 

Streak Continues 9/8/13

I set out to do some fishing Sunday, with goal of extending my 6 trip 18"+ smallmouth bass streak. Hide the bike up one bridge, then set to the put it. Horrified when I picked up my pack and noticed my hardbait box was gone. I'd left it at home on the workbench. I had tubes, buzzbaits, flukes, grubs, spinnerbaits, and a chatterbait to fish with. Not a bad selection. Problem is, I selected a river I have yet to find a finesse tube bite on. The smallmouth bass simply seem to feed on shad in there! The next obstacle, was low clear water, making spinnerbaits and chatterbaits less than ideal as well.

 

With that in mind, at the first riffle around 8:45am, I pull a spunky 15.5" SMB on a single spin 1/2 oz spinnerbait with one huge Colorado blade. 2 More fish quickly follow, the third causes the Colorado blade to fall off somwhere at my feet. I can't find it. Ok, I still have the twin spin 1/2 ozer. A few casts into the day, not one fish more and one of the blades on it decides to fly off!  EEK. I take the last tiny blade at put on the first spinnerbait, throwing that periodically throughout the day where cover and depth dictated.

 

I am rewarded with this bruiser 19.5". He came off a laydown in shade with depth. Powerful fish. That makes 7, don't know if I can get to 10. Should be interesting to try.

 

Got 4 more after, three on a small buzzbait, and all seemed good. The sun came out with no cloud cover, I was in trouble.

 

 

 

Scrounged some bass on small swimbaits in shade and riffles, but the day never got going right. Off the water by two with only 15 smallmouth bass (19.5", 2-15") 1 Goog. I really missed my hardbaits in gauging fish aggressiveness.

 

 

 

 

This stretch I had fished for the first time 3 weeks ago had more water (and fish) then after a T-storm.

Ridiculous August 2013 for Smallmouth in Indiana

This Saturday, I got to the water about 10 am with thunderstorms in the forecast. I was pretty excited about this because we have had very little rain. Seems like fish have been on it by 10 if there was shade. I picked an all new stretch of river to try. Visibility was close to 2', decent flow.

 

Started out throwing a Jackal Ashka 60 Crankbait. Crank it down and bring it in slowly, thunk!

This bait just doesn't want to hang up on anything. Brought it through and over wood all day.

 

Got a 16"er relatively deep early, made for a good sign. Fish were never very far from choke points, riffles, and shade. Bring a bass back to hand off cover and there would be 2-4 more trying to steal the bait. Could not get bit on finesse. These smallies are eating shad.

 

On the shallower flats, I'd throw the Lucky Craft Kelly J jr. A small 1/4oz propbait. It cleans up on dinks, but I did manage a 16" early on it.

 

I was starting to pile up the numbers and nice medium sized smallmouth. I spied a downed tree in heavy shade to my left. The new confidence in the Ashka, I made a 25 yard cast across several submerged limbs. Shortly after landing I saw  a big bass snarf it up. Hadn't planned for this. Kept the rod high and got him over the logs. Fought the bass left and right. Just a bulldogger.

Thick fish just past 18":

 

Continued to be a good day. I had one problem. I was on an open ended wade. There wasn't another bridge on up to the next town some 7 miles or so away, so no hidden bike trick. At some point, I'd have to turn back. It started to T-storm and I figured I'd hit all the wood from short range, making 10-15' casts with a chatterbait, then dragging it quickly past the front of rootwads. The rain had me totally covered and I imagine was distracting for Mr.Smallmouth. Man, it was the ticket. Scored several more thick bass in the 15-16" range this way.

 

Ended the day with 43 SMB (18.25", 6-16", 3-15") 3 Rock Bass in about 8 hours.

 

Hell of an August 2013!

 

Thanks to the Camp and Fish I fished 8 times in August 2013. In those 64.5 hours, I landed 369 smallmouth bass and 19 'other' fish. A rate of 5.72 bass per hour or 6.02 fish landed per hour. Pretty sick for river fishing with more than a handful of outings. Size was great too.  42 over 16", 16 over 18". Never come close to 16 smallmouth over 18" in one month before!

 

I tied my 18"er on each trip record at 6 outings and have hit at least one 18"+ bass in 9 of the last 10 outings.

How/Why? Part I would attribute to my work out plan working- with medicine ball, squats and 130 daily push ups. It has really helped. Other keys are stretching, staying hydrated, and energized.

Teeva water shoes are working great, so no heavy boots. Nice to find a middle water column presentation in the summer that works that isn't a overly riggy fluke. Tossing the crankbait the last four outings has truly bulked up the numbers.

 

 

 

Camping and Fishing 8/22-8/24

I am back and alive. Replete with 9 different rashes, but a ton of great memories.


First fishing while I still remember.

Zach M and I fished Thursday, covering close to 7 miles on foot in 12.5 hours. It was amazing day, overcast and then thunderstorms. Smallies upticked when it rained and went nuts. I got 103 smallmouth bass to hand- loads of dinks, but plenty of nice ones too. ( 18.25", 17.75", 17", 4-16", 8-15") 11 other fish of 7 species total on the day. Zach added 48 (19.25, 18", 17"). We both lost a couple other large fish. Mixed it up quite a bit, square billed crankbait was on fire.
18.25":

17.75" in the rain:

18":

19.25":


BT 103 SMB  ( 18.25", 17.75", 17", 4-16", 8-15") 11 other fish of 7 species total on the day
Zach 48 (19.25, 18", 17")




Waded with Mr. Doddridge Saturday, covering 3.7 miles in 7.5 hours everything was again coming up gold for me. I finished with 50 SMB (19.5", 18.75", 18.25", 17.5", 17", 4-16", 9-15") Matt nailed 19 or so. He just couldn't get his favorites going. Ran into Ben at the end of the wade.



18.25":



19.5":


BT: 50 SMB (19.5", 18.75", 18.25", 17.5", 17", 4-16", 9-15")
MD: 19

18.75":


Saturday after 10-11 beers the night before, I parked at the first available bridge and went out solo. Sun was bluebird and intense. Fishing was not great , but I managed some nice ones and lost a couple more.



18.99":


17 SMB (18.99", 18", 17", 16", 15")



The true star of the weekend was an unexpected square bill style crankbait at 1/2oz.

More 18-20" fish caught than I can ever remember amoungst the INSA CF crowd.

 

The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Streak for Stream Smallmouth Bass

Ok, these streaks and Joe Dimaggio got me thinking how to measure your own fishing progress on rivers and streams in Indiana.

Gold Streak- 20"er or better in consecutive outings. My best streak is 4 in a row, last Fall/Winter.
Silver Streak- 18"er or better in consecutive outings. My best streak here is 11 in 2013, 6 in 2011, 5 in 2011, and 4 outings in a row 3 times.
Bronze streak- 17"er or better in consecutive outings. My best streaks here are 18 (2013), 12, 10, and 9 on 4 occasions.

After Work 8/14/13

Finally got on the water at about 3:30. Low, low, just a little flow. I walked down through the woods to fish a seldom fished riffle. In 10 casts, I had 3 impact strikes resulting in two 17.5" smallmouth. The third strike was more of a drift of a pencil bait. Snarfed off the surface by a decent smallmouth. Followed back to me by a bass much larger. Naturally, I'll sacrifice a 13"er for a 19"+, so I played the fish into a double hooking. They shook and struggled until I had them almost to shore. The thin pig went airborne 3' from me and the second hook tore loose from her. DAHHH! So close to epic.

 

Wow, what a great start. I was a little concerned nothing hit when I moved the actual baits. Pools were a waste of time. Near flowing water or forget it. Preferably shade. Sensing a pig bite, I moved with authority. Until I found a dying 17" bass in the shallows. Nothing I did seemed to help, so I left him near current in the deepest water I could find.

I picked some dinks on a small, shallow diving crankbait, but again these were in aggressive feeding areas. Was not shaping up to be a numbers day.

I decided to go with a light pencil bait for less splash in spookier areas and switch to Sammy when I wanted big splash. This worked well. Soon, two more 18"ers and a 16.5" to hand on the Sammy 100. Still just a few lethargic swipes or a larger fish crushing a lure intermittently. 15.75"er destroyed the lure, another one launched in the stratosphere and was lost. Yet another charged impossibly fast at a lay down and was gone.

The sun's drop played games with Mr.Smallmouth's tracking of my walk the dog lures. It played the same trick on me. Depending whether some low angle sun fell on a pool to light it, my bait would be smashed or ignored. Causing quick assumptions as to their disposition.
Finally, I hit a choke point below a major pool. It hasn't produced many fish in the past. I let loose with a knuckleball Sammy cast 10 yards short of my target. I cringed as the lure hit the shallow water much harder than I wished. Three. Dog. Wags. BOOOM!!! Rakka-tack-tack-tack- Ker-splash! Zip-Zip-ZZZZ. *Oh, crap, only the rear hook* *Bulldog her or she's gone* Wowwle-Wowwle-splash. GOTCHA! Celebration pelvis thrust. Snap pic, release.



19.5" Jeez, I love catching the largest fish at the end of the day. Pumped. Just an 1" and a jump away from 6-18"+ fish on the day.

I spent insane calories getting back to the car. It was worth it.

5 hours 29 SMB (19.5", 2-18", 2-17.5", 16.5", 15.75")

 

 

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