No One Eat(s) Smallmouth Bass!

I am going make a video game analogy. Bear with me.  Madden NFL series of games, as real as they are in simulating professional football, the results end up a cartoon mockery that seldom mimics an actual NFL game.

Basically, most players play it so much they become pretty adept at the game, then it fails to be a simulation. Instead it is an arcade button presser with  less strategy dependent more on reaction time and rehearsal.

There's no question we want the arcade version in our river and stream fishing. Gimme action over simulation in my fishing, baby. Thing is, smallmouth bass grow very slowly and have fairly short life spans. A smallmouth bass may take between 4-6 years to reach the 12" mark in Indiana. A fish reaching 12-13 years is a rare specimen. High, muddy water can wipe out entire year classes of fry. The quality of your river fishing hangs in the balance.

Habitat that allows overwintering, survival during flood, spawning ground can be totally destroyed by nature and man. Very few states do anything to fix the smallmouth bass populations so the fishing is good.  Now if by some miracle a fisherman does catch a nice smallmouth, no thought to harvest should be taken.

I think we all want to catch 50 18" bass a day on topwaters, right? The only factor we can directly contribute to is quick release of smallmouth bass we do catch. A big smallmouth is just too valuable to fillet and eat. Spread the word.

9/25/12 And A Pig.

Pretty Good Fall Day: 41 bass (21.25", 17.99", 2-17", 5-16", 6-15")

Fall's Surprise

Flowing water dribs and drabs through round rocks ancient
Dropping, shifting, chilling my lower limbs close to discomfort's edge
Fall's sun pleasantly and lightly bakes my neck
A cacophony of wonderful competing sensations
This outdoor euphoria sets my mind adrift

Perfect
All else - matters not

Can I just stay in this place?

Jolted awake by a splash, dried grasses fighting
Time's recovering flux brings slowly... reality
What's this?

A wet, yellow dog slaps playfully at Mr.Toad
Dozens of nature's presents lining her previously golden fur
A smile cracks

-Perfect moment.

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")