21 Gun Smallmouth Salute. 5/15/2011 Wade

Smallie fry- this stream is legendary for slow/low flow. So these fish are ahead of the curve. Much of the wade was a trickle.


Highlights were the laughter. Mike, Nate, and BT banter is not to be missed. Worth being pinched and bumped on a small stream by two other guys with that dialouge.

21 gun salute refers to the rapid plopping off of large crank baits in rapid sucession at a single small target from a bunch of dudes lined up side by side in a small area. It was like watching gun fire impact. VOOM! POP! BOOM! KERSPLASH! KRACK!

Nate's current rod is a rocket launcher. Kind of. Sounds like a rocket launcher, though the results be less impressive. He won 'Tree Boy" gold medal. Couple that baby with a 2:1 gear ratio spinning reel. The reel seemed to bring in about 12" of line per crank. The smallies got bored and just hung out after a while. [romance]All that is ok because his ear to ear smile was eternally stretched for nocturnal carnal reasons[/romance]. Also, I have yet to fish with Nate without Nate swimming. He apparently walked the last two miles with an extra couple gallons of water aboard.

Mike may need to drink less coffee. Just saying. For the first .5 miles he set a blistering pace.

Hey, neat: MC walked on the bank while I walked along it. Spotted a couple old beds. Then a slight undercut in 1.5' of water in the middle of long expanses of bedrock. A 15-16"er and then a larger 18" ish smallmouth shot from under that smallest of undercut and spooked off. Beds, fry, beds, fry, fry, fry. New fry, less than a week hatched.

Hey, neat II: We spotted some fish in a deeper pool inbetween like a mile of bedrock on each side. The fishes seemed to spot us so the other guys moved on. I was still working the RC LC 1.5 in chart. There was a nice fish hanging just off the current. I plopped the RC down, swung it upstream, let it float up and drift downstream, Bass took notice. Then like I've tried to explain before, I cat and moused him into striking. It was awesome to see that nice smallie take notice of the repeated diving, wobbling the drifting up. Then it struck. and I saw it all from less than 25' away.. Very cool. Still can play the movie in my head. The 17"er above.


Hey, Cool: Mike catches a fish on a crank, while he's fighting it I throw in and grab the follower on my crankbait. Nate sees this and throws in and catches a third as we've landed ours. How about some Gold points for all of us? Maybe +5? Yeah or nay?

Hey, Cool II: Nate is given a confluence to fish as he is lagging behind early in fish count (we were calling him sucker due to catching one in the mouth with his crankbait). At the confluence, Nate gets a nice 14"er or so. Mike and I come up to look at him. After a few casts, I get thumped by the largest fish I've caught out of this stream. Small, small pool. The 18" spawned out female above. Complete with black parasites.

We got 57 SMB (18", 2-17", 3-16",several 15") 1LMB, a sucker, chub and a handful of rock bass. Crankbaits and some action with tube baits at the end of the wade. 31-13-13


Smallie fry and abandoned nests everywhere. Flow was low and slow

Everything Grand. Almost. 5/14/2011 Wade

After instructing Cub Scout Troop how not to hook each other, I rolled up on my river at 3:30PM. Bike stashed in the woods a couple miles up.


Water looked good. A stained green, fast. Overcast and promise of rain.

Caught a few and was kind of bored, contemplated heading home. The heavens opened up and poured a quick bone soaker. Mosquitos were as bad as I have seen. Stopped back at the car for change of hat and some spray. Still thinking about leaving when I discovered the pattern of the day. Chartreuse Rick Clunn 1.5 crankbait wobbling along current seams and in the full current in some areas.

Started catching lots of fish. Lots of action. Ended with 30 SMB in 5 hours including (2-18", 4-16", 1-15") 2-Googs. I ripped through river like a high speed chase.

The rain had muddied the hillside I parked on. I couldn't get out and had to call a tow truck. Lesson learned. Leave a tire on road. Lots of thin fish that were in need of a feed. Guess they haven't spawned much. With water finally down have moved up in the riffles for food. Overcast and rainy with above average flow have been killer this Spring. Sorry I left the camera at home, but here is some word flavor on arranging the tow truck:
 

I was standing at the crossroads of this near vacant town near midnight dialing my wife (tow truck), when a black cat rubbed agin my leg and purred.


I stood under the only street light, blackness quickly surrounding the stage. Wondering if I should chance a knock. Mud oozed between my toes, fingers pruned from rain, soaked to the bone. Has the phone stayed dry?

I could see a sawmill where no furniture is made, the door hanging half off. Rusty implements on the floor from an age gone.

The abandoned(?) houses rotting. High grass with paths pushed aside by many small animals. A dim blue light, sheets over glass muffled. Decay. Paint chipping.

Eyes, eyes. Always the eyes and the purring. The trip across the oaken bridge swallowed whole both sound and light alike. Heartbeat, silence, and breath.

The people here wear straw hats. The people here wear straw hats. Hurry Jay, hurry.

Tom Waits destroys piano: Tango

Stumbled across this on youtube. Love it. Dude kicks piano. Sounds like a precusour to Tango 'Til Their Sore"

The Lone Floater 5/7/11

Had the zany idea of hauling my kayak (complete with new fangled Deathlock camcleats) and bike shuttle in the hatchback. It fits . Now to find somewhere that isn't posted or muddy. Dropped the bike in the woods at a confluence launched 5 miles upstream. Everything looked good. Maybe I'd be lucky and get another good spinnerbait bite.

First cast with a 3/8 ths oz spinnerbait slow rolled along slower water side of a straight run nailed a 16"er about 30 yards away. Got in the boat and test out the new cammies. No slipping. Marine grade nylon slides so nice when I pulled the anchor up. More expensive, but the anchors aren't going anywhere. I'll just leave them on all the time. It was great to have a functional rear and front anchor for the yak. Never leave home without. Drift downstream and towards the first eddy below the bridge, the spinnerbait got thumped again.

Here I am anchored in the riffle facing downstream. Just pulled this 17"er from the eddy on the right:

Kind of got slow after that. Nothing doing. I decided to start throwing a tube. Nailing 7 smallmouth and a couple googs under a bridge. Biggest were 15" and 16". First three fish were caught working the current seam upstream anchored in the shallow fast water from behind. Methodically picking apart the holes so that no fish saw me before they saw a bait. Easy bites, just keep the jig bumping the bottom, some pauses, and reeling slack.

Slow again, some dinks here and there. A couple spots that should produce didn't. Then I got in town. The fish in that hole were on fire. Think I got like 11 out of there, largest 16" all on tubes. The tube bite was really picking up. I was in the 20's and they were still hitting spinnerbait as I picked up a couple that way.

At a big bend, a big fish exploded on the spinnerbait and drug me all over the place. She was FAT. Was almost using the SB like a tube when the blades got spinning get it down and a the thump would come.

Another nice 16.5" on the spinnerbait. The Pflueger Supreme's gear box broke on that fish. To crank was like driving with a flat tire. That was bass 29. Got #30 at the confluence and called it a day.

The bike ride was about 5 miles, but went really well.

The googs were going crazy today, I got 14 and a longear that hung on to tube tails back to hand. Some were huge for Indiana creek 10" or so and mega plump.

8.5 hour float- 30 bass 29 SMB and 1 KY (18.5, 17"4-16-16.5, 15") 14 Googs and a sunfish. Missed grand slam by the LMB. 30+ fish on tubes, maybe 8 on spinnerbait, but most of the good ones.

Fishing Log and Rainy Days

Rain and more rain. A lot can probably be learned with the water up and muddy. I'd love to be out right now in some of my favorite spots just to see what the rivers look like right now. Where the slow water is. Problem is, I'd like to see any of a thousand spots right now. My brain wants knowledge to sift through. At the same time, that is a lot of effort for no physical reward. So instead, I stay home. If someone wants to pay me to do this, get in touch.

Been trying to be more creative in how I look at river smallmouth fishing, setting goals on new things to try, etc. In the rain induced boredom, I found myself drifting through my fishing logs, looking for a pattern in the numbers. Sometimes this becomes an activity more like looking at the back of baseball cards. I compare years and streams over those years for some nugget of information to enjoy.

I am making this a best and worst type post, if only to throw up something to surpass in the future.

Best 5 Smallmouth Bass in inches in one day total: 93.5" (9/22/2007), 92.5"(2008), 92"(2009) Combined with another person: 95" 2007, 95"(Mike*2) 5/25/2010 9/22/2007
Most Smallmouth Bass in a day: 72  7/31/2010; 72 6/24/2008; 70 7/24/2010
Most Smallmouth Bass in a day combined with another person: 103 (Nate)7-2011; 98 Mike 8/14/2011, 98 9-2007
Most 16"+ Smallmouth Bass in a day: 15 10/2/2007; 11 9/22/2007
Longest streak of days 1 or more 18"+ Smallmouth Bass: 4-2011, 4-2009, 4-2008
Longest streak of days without a 18"+ Smallmouth Bass: 10 Oct 15.2008- Nov 16th 2008; 10 May 27th-June 24th 2008

Sense of Urgency When the Bite Is On

When one is primarily an on foot river and stream angler, there aren't too many short cuts you can take when the larger smallmouth bass spread out. There is no 25 mph zip up river to the next guaranteed spot in a jet boat.When you really get on a pattern covering ground becomes vital for larger numbers of big fish.

 Higher water helps bunch bigger bass in eddies and current seams. Hopefully, the big girls haven't just eaten when or if you get there.

You can try to stay mobile by riffle hopping in a car-if you know the river or creek well.

You can also try to float in a kayak or canoe. The weakness of floating is the massive loss of observation skills. On foot, I can climb high banks, up sycamores and log jams and really spy out what is going on. I will make more casts to a spot on foot than a floater. This will often lead to more fish. Sometimes on foot you 'mistake' your way into a undercut bank on the bank of an eddy. One which you would have never found because you would have kept your yak out of that eddy as not to spook what you are casting at. Often in a yak, you are out of control, your bait isn't presented slow enough, or you fiddle with some malfunctioning boat element. Cutting further on the casts. many times visual clues lead me to notice something I would have missed sitting in a boat.

So what you get left with when you do find a really good bite for plus size smallmouth bass is a mad dash for the likely habitat. Cutting across farm fields, through woods, over hills, whatever. To get to that next sun exposed wood jam in an eddy near current.

A sense of urgency is a keen weapon. Planning your route on a map and any short cuts you may take. Remembering where the riffles are and which parts can be skipped.

Often, you have 30 minutes or 45 minutes until you have the next chance at some big boys. It can be hard not to fish for a dink or two in some of the available spots along the way. Just remember, every dink I stop for means more mishaps and more time eaten. Time away from more 16"+ smallmouth.

Now that you've cross country hiked through the mud and over the one hundredth dead tree blocking your path, your heart rate will be elevated. Beware the loss of patience. Early in the year, patience and thoroughness mean more big smallmouth bass. Slow things back down once you get on the hogs again.

4/17/11

Crankbite was still on Sunday. Water had come down and cleared up to maybe 24" visibility. At the first riffle, my crankbait got nailed by a 13" smallmouth bass. Guess they didn't have to warm up much.

Lots of walking today to get to the holes.

Had a large fish flop off at my feet when he hooked my crank on a root. Looked in the 18-19" range.

Some fish on tubes, but most were on crankbaits. Here's the best fish I landed:

17 smallmouth (17.5", 2-15") 3 Googs and 2 Chubs in like 7.5 hours of which a lot was walking through woods and long expanses of bedrock.

Good exercise. Bite was probably better than my results as I had a bail problem and was breaking in a new rod with a lot less butt than I am used to.

And They Came In Twos 4/15/11

Matt  wanted to fish today, so we headed to a flow with a little bit more water in it, hoping Mr.Smallie would be in more predictable places. Got to the river about 10:30. Visibility looked like 18" and green. Water pumping.


I went with a RCLC 1.5 in Chartreuse. Got a 13" and a 17" in a slower, swirling eddie. Picked up a couple more on a tube- been going with 3/8th oz and I like it in faster water. Then a couple of dinks on the cranks and Bengs had to head out. He was nice enough to drop me off.

I was aiming for some back channels as they stay slower when the water is high.

Got a couple 14-15" in an eddy where another channel pours in gently.

Really shocked when a back channel that is dry in summer produced these two fish back to back:

Here' an alternative cut that didn't quite work out, was going for the ole' "show the fish, hide the face from the paparazzi shot"

Key was a slow, wobbly retrieve that ticked bottom or bounced off stuff. Strikes were solid. The darnedest thing, I would catch exactly two fish in each spot for the first 8 spots I caught fish. Was getting erie indeed. With one exception this continued all day.Don't know what that was about. Strangest thing. Water wasn't clear enough to be spooking all the buddy fish... :

I had just landed a thick chub on the RC, when my next retrieve seemed to brush over an unseen laydown and into another+ smallie:

I went with the "War Face" on this one:

No run and gun , deliberate dissection of the different holes, sometimes the angle was the draw or the deflection in the right way.

It rained and I knew that would have them feeding so I moved quick between holes. When the pattern became slower water, I headed to all the slower water areas I have memorized on this 3 mile wade. The water was too fast in between.

Towards the end of the day, this beast inhaled the 1.5:

Finished with 25 bass in 8 hours (18.5", 3-17"-17.5", 16", 3-15")(one was a LMB) 3 Googs, and a chub.

4/10 Float and Wet Wade

Got out for a solo float by 1230. Sun was blazing and I couldn't find any smallies in the large pools I was in. Managed 1 10"er on a Pointer 100, but had another chase from a fast run.




With the warmth, bass had moved up into runs and riffles. The pools and winter holes were mostly empty. It was windy again so I ditched the yak around 4 with one bass and a sunfish to show( both on foot) . Hit 4 dink to 13" in a fast run above a large pool wet wading. Later added a 3 Googs. Worked some riprap after 5pm and hit a nice 15"er. Headed to another rip rap area and the bite definately was on right on a current seam. Dragged a 1/4 tube. 14", 16", 19.25", 16.5", couple 12"'s. Missed some smaller fish. Carp were playing and flopping. Air was warm and water felt great on my legs.

Recognized the in riffle/run pattern late, but not too late. Spent the first three + hours combing large pools. It has been a good Spring and my guesses have been mostly on the money until today. Hindsight should have said to work ambush points in shallow water near feeders bringing in even warmer water. Was going for cold big fish and they aren't cold any longer! Should have hopped riffles in the car. What could have been....



12 SMB (19.25", 16.5", 16", 15") 3 Googs and 1 Longear.

Just some weekend Smallmouth Action 4/2 4/3

15 Saturday 18", 17.25"

17 Sunday 18", 2-17", 16.5"

MD 20  20.5"

We had a mess in the 15-16" range. Mostly tubes worked slowly, though I did score 5 nice fish in 9' of water on Float and Fly.