That Rocked! Why am I Disappointed? 9/3/12

Insane day when it finally rains. Perhaps my best ever.
Water was a little stained to start. Lots of floating algae made it hard to fish anything but a single hook. Chatterbaits and flukes.


Landed 77 total. 9 from 17-18.75" 14 over 16", close to 25 over 15".

Lack of really big fish has it feeling all too samey.

Camp and Fish 8/23-8/26

Couple of basses Matt and I landed on route to eventual 110 or so on Friday.

Popped a flat tire after everyone left camp. So I was stuck on Friday and didn't fish.

 

Zack and I fished on Saturday. Lots of big fish wiffing at our offerings. frustrating. Think I had upper 40's and Zack had 30 or so. We both had one closer to 19 than 18" but we had shots at more bigguns.

 

Fishing was pretty crazy on the trip. The 12 of us landed and released like 700 bass, but the large fish seemed to be eating late. The really large fish made a couple minor appearances. Matt B got one at 19.5" as largest, but  there were other opportunities. Matt D lost a huge fish far to the north, that "didn't belong".

Quite a Weekend

Saturday, got out with MH for his INSA guided trip with me. Beautiful day, cool, sun, breeze.



We caught a lot of fish 60+, mostly on tubes in about 6 hours. Good time. Glad fish cooperated. I didn't get Mark any monsters, but we tried. Pulled a couple nice ones from Davey Jones, mostly hanging back... Can't get over the pull on these guys.

One of the more bizarre things I've seen from the river:




18.25"


17.5"



Sunday Mike and I got on a different flow. Drastic difference. We WC and Fatbustered them early, until it just became a wake bite. Simply crank and wind. Closer you came to roots the better. Again over 60 bass. I hit two 18.5"-18.75" ers, a 17.25" which came with a dink attached. Lost another acrobat that was in the 17"-18" range. MC was having a rough day casting like I haven't seen him before, probably kept his pig count down, but he managed 26 basses.

Some arial acrobatics from this fish:





No pic of the other 18.5"

BT 37 (2-18.5"-18.75", 17.25" 3-15-15.5")
MC 26

Not too bad, 72 bass sharing the water and taking a backseat, still scoring.

 

8/4/12 Ripping Shin

Strange day. Threatened rain all day, but never did until the bike shuttle after dark. Got started around 11:30.

Brought a LC Fat Blaster that paid dividends late around rootwads. Same basic idea, just can be let to sink for added depth. Rip, pause,Rip to remove fish from cover.

Early a couple fish to hand on swim bait and couple on a Sammy- that wouldn't hold. Turned out to be a tube day again. Bites were incredibly light. Terrible time hooking and landing fish. Must have been barely sucking them in. Lost two really intense drag pulls which would have been big ones I'm afraid. It began to be a comedy of errors when a wind kicked up and they just quit.

Later, it picked up again with this and that scoring action. As the storm moved in it got dark. Camera said 4:30 and then 6:30 some 34 fish later. Tube bite got intentional and sick, pronounced thumps, though most big fish came on Sammy or FB.

I wasn't going to make it to the bike with any light. Fortunately, thunder storm came up and provided light (without rain). Cut across a field and house under construction was my way out across a bean field in darkness. Fell over a low barbed wire fence in the dark and ripped my shins open. GAAAHK! MMMRRRRLLL!

8 hours 48 SMB (3-17-17.25, 16.5", 16.25", 2-15") 11 Misc fishes: hybrid greensunfish/bluegill! shiner, green sunfish, 8 Googs.

Should have been 60+ day. A day like that will make you question yourself, but in all honesty used to be a lot more common when I'd throw tubes 80% of the time.

 

Deathwade 2012: The Century Mark Falls 7/23/12

Matt D and I have done a few Deathwades in the past. Usually good fishing, if not really good. Today was no exception. Pretty much wade further than most people would dare over rough terrain, starting early, ending late, fish like hell.

Bike shuttle set in place we started slow and on the water at 7am. Started slow, but then stayed consistently very good all day. Tubes for me, Matt was pulling dinks on a tiny buzzbait or various tubes. Lots of impact strikes, lots of ultra dinks biting tubes- leading to swearing all day. Today was a case of getting more out of the water than one fisherman ever could alone. Matt kept the pace slow and topwater was nil, so we worked the wood like champs.



We finished with 112 bass and 8 Googs. 3 or 4 largemouth in the group, the rest smallmouth bass.



We had a shootout, where Matt took the early lead and kept it most of the day until I went ahead at 33-32 with a flurry of pigs. Didn't last long as Matt downsized and started nailing dinks on a small tube.





Some great moments maybe I'll describe in more detail when I'm recovered.





BT 52 (3-18-18.25", 2-17.5", 17", 2-16" 3-15") 4 Googs
Matt 60 (2-18", 17.5") 4 Googs

Movie Film 7/8/12

Enjoy this small MovieFilm. I work hard, I ah like you. Hope you like my MovieFilm

No Particular Theme Fishing Report 7/3/12

Returned for a second dose of my last trip. T-storms forcasted, so it was going to be cloudy again, right?

Wrong. I did do one thing right. Got there early. Had 3 18"'s and a 16" before 10am. Sun got bright. I got paranoid about doing a 7 mile wade and what the sun would do to the bite. Turned around maybe 2 miles in.





Don't know what this pose was.



Left to hit another flow, changed my mind. Hit a new section of the same one. Lost a 16-17" on a spinnerbait that was simply an amazing fight. Got off in the shallows and skimmed away. Some kids had been fishing ahead of me. Got out and hit a downstream stretch which was cooking. Warm water, sun baked and nothing going on. So I sat in the shade and watched the fish swim around. Tied a senko on and caught 4 or 5. Bite woke up a bit, got 14 back to the car, but lost a pig up top that would have been the 4th 18"+ of the day.

Threw a Supreme on today because it had Power Pro 15/4. The new Power Pro Slick 15# I've been using is just garbage. Wraps far more than normal and less cast distance by quite a bit.

Puttered around too much on a cooked river, but nothing else was near. Lots of walking between casts and fish out there.

Ended with 26 (3-18", 16")

Fuego 6/30/12

Just finished up a 6.74 mile wade Saturday. Epic. Starting to figure this one out. Of course, the low water helps. Caught fish on 10 different lures because the fishing died in the middle of the day. Then I'd catch a lone fish in no man's land on each.

Early I had a Sammy bite and a 18.25" within sight of the bridge, passed some bucket sitters and got a 19.25". Things warmed up and the bass stopped connecting on the Sammy (but still swiped/whiffing). I had 4 or 5 really big blow ups, that knocked the bait in the air. Changed to Sammy 65 and an 18"er nailed it. This was by noon and barely 2 miles in, so I thought it was going to be great. Things got really slow, couldn't get them in the woodpiles because tube wasn't getting bit. Storm came in that wasn't a storm and suddenly, there was a tube bite. After like 10 bass out of one riffle, including a couple 16"'s, I picked another 16" on Sammy. Three hours of slow fishing in the day followed by more mayhem as it got to the end of the wade. Pulled a 17.5", 16", 16", 15.75, 18" out of the last confluence. Could have been many more pigs with the wiffing. Couldn't figure it out

Now what to do tomorrow?

Sadly, my camera battery was kaputt from testing movies! BRAWR.

52 SMB (19.25", 3-18-18.25", 17.5", 5-16"-16.5", 3- 15-15.75")

Fishing

Nothing new covered, pound it out. Good results.

Dog came along for Megawade just to remind myself why I don't always do this. Her fur picks up every bur in the woods, but ever so faithful to master's pocket of sausages. Usually after a mile of river rock she starts looking at me like we should turn back. I get a guilty feeling for a moment.

Water was ice cold Saturday, sun was really shy. Wendy probably had no idea the adventure she was in for. She likes to lead, while not helpful for catching the ever spooky smallmouth, early the scaled rascals were not interested. That's OK, we were just moving and trying to stay warm.

In anything but really deep water, you could make out quite a bit. At one such point, a wide bedrock plain with chipped out rock piled to one side and shallow ledge to the other, there was a large school of redhorse. The slightest footstep would send them scurrying. I reigned Wennister with bit off meat piece. A 'stay' and she held her ground well. Several periphery casts revealed a revulsion of all schooled fish. Slightly upstream a good size smallmouth sat waiting for food. It had spooked when Wendy and I first arrived. Test reactions. The bass moved away from any lure or noise and returned to the school several times. On the third or fourth repetition of this I spotted other black tail fringed fish. Larger still. They showed downstream spookabilty from my lures. Clear they probably saw me.

I gave up the experiment, the dumb bass had returned to the fore again. Hungry, also aware danger was near. Wendy grew impatient and headed upstream. A second large smallmouth began to retreat down to the suckers, but then turned back. We stood still in the shade as the fish took up feeding positions several times, repositioning several times. Maybe to get a better look at me, or perhaps keep sun out of its eyes. After about the 10 cross court topwater presentation the fish slowly advanced the 8' to my lure and took it, some 8-10' in front of me. Guess it didn't notice me so well after all. 18"

Thought about waiting on the hole and watching the other 4-5 really nice bass move up and repeat. Could be all day or never. We had a long journey. Fishing did pick up.

Wendy and I are fishing along when I hear noises in the woods. Surprised, a dude in fly gear decides he's going to come late and then cut in front. He went up one channel, never looking back. No way he didn't hear us. I didn't' travel all this way to have someone jump in front on spooky water halfway into a wade. He was power walking through water where I normally catch decent smallmouth. For a quarter mile we took the left channel as he took the right. Skipped back in front and slammed on the brakes. Unfortunately, a third of the fish on this wade are usually in that 1/4 mile. He followed behind eventually wading in water he should have been fishing and turning back. Could have saved himself the trouble when he saw us at the bridge to find another section.

Smallmouth weren't evenly spread out, when I got into some they were often in bunches. Finally at the large end pool, Wendy and I are in waist deep water, she swimming comically in circles. Had just landed a 12"er, next throw of some 30 yards lands with a nice hop and following explosion. One of the longest fights and most powerful smallmouth in a while. She was in charge. The fight may have lasted a minute or so. Directing the swimming dog away from hooked bass was hilarious. She would turn the wrong direction and I'd have to convince the bass she was not a tree. Finally reached shore and it was a nice one 19.5".





Not much further, 17.5"er and another swimming dog/fish fight.



We got off the water and biked back to the car. Worn. Out. Dog.

Sunday- debut of Platypus 3l water bladder. Doesn't quite fit in the pack. 85-90oz/101oz capacity will fit and stuff in the back pack. Improvement. I stayed pretty well hydrated in a 7 hour wade. Went for afternoon this time. River traffic was out. Bikini hatch canoe, 4 yakers/fishermen, then later 2 more fishermen, barking dog and waders. Nice fun . Hope this doesn't get like Kentucky.

Fishing wasn't knock 'em out, but consistent. Nothing big, 5 smallmouth 16.5"-16.99", several feisty 15"'s, lots of black fry strewn all over starting to act like they have brains. Still easy to step on if you aren't looking. Easy, easy to see if you look.

51 SMB (19.5", 18", 17.5", 6- 16.5-16.99", 5-15") couple Googs, longear

5/13 Pig

Things started off slow @8am, but at least one big girl wasn't in a spawning position.








Lots of nests and smaller fish hanging near them. Counted 50-60. Can't tell whether they've done the deed or are waiting for a mate. Didn't see any black fry yet. Caught smallies on 9 lures, but I'm sure some were just dumb nest guarders. Wish they were done. After I got the first giant, I started thinking a long wade for multiple pigs. Canoers came into sight so I turned back, got in the car to go to another spot and was tired so went home by 1. Need to get some boots.

26 SMB 3 Googs 5 hours+