Sunday Afternoon Wade 11/14/2009

Waded downstream from bridge aiming to hit a rip rap point. The point is piled like a peninsula at the end of a long, straight, shallow, silty pool. It happens to be right above a riffle. The only deep part of the entire pool. Pigs like to lay there in Spring. Though I'd see if they are there in Fall. Picked a Goog and this 17" after about 15 casts with a tube.


Walked back to the car and hit another stretch. The first 6 or 7 holes were empty. Nothing there. Finally, hit a nasty "S" curve. The bottom of the S had fish in it about 4-5' down, first on tube, then dead drifting FnF. 10 fish out of the pool. I'll hit this one again in the winter. Biggest two went in the 15"'s. Some of the float and fly hits were pretty immediate.



9 SMB (17",2 -15") 6 Rock Bass in about 4.5 hours

Saturday Afternoon Autumn Wade 11/14

Was really hoping it would rain and fill the creeks up with water again for the weekend. Low, clear water is mostly the pits in Fall. Reserved to the fact the fishing would be slow and probably hot before dark, I set out to take some lumps. Again brought a float and fly rod just in case.

Fished a large pool with Flashminnow 110. First cast with the bait produced this 12-13" smallie. Thought it would make a funny picture.



Nothing much happened and even suckers were hard to spot. Finally got about to the spot where stuff has happened the other time I waded this stretch of creek this year. In years past, I would have easily expected to have had 5 good holes to catch good fish out of. Nothing in any of them this year. Another was filled in.

Finally, connected with a nice 17"er on a tube in the deepest part of the pool (and in shade).




Later, I swung and missed on a light hit. Worked the tube back to that general area and got a similar light strike. This time it was a nice big smallmouth that did the head shake hustle all the way to my hand. 18.25". The fish was out in the middle of featurless run adjacent to a laydown. The sun had come down out of the sky quite a bit, predictably the fishing got better.


Caught a dink and lost a 12" bass on a jump. Had to make a decision as it was 5pm: Keep wading up to a couple can't miss spots and be on the creek at dark with hunters in the woods, or head back with only 4 fish. Just not enough time in the day to fish patient and hit all the holes.

Bites on the tube were extremely light. We need some rain to get the root dwellers up and moving around. Not a sniff on spinnerbaits, grubs, or jerkbait, after that first fish.

Felt great to be out after a frustrating week. 2 good fish made it doubly worth it.

4 SMB (18.25", 17")4.5 hours that seemed to fly by in the beautiful Autumn sunlight.

More Catching of some Fall Bass 11/08/09 Wade

After catching some fish yesterday I got the fever for more. Got in the new 50+ MPG Bassmobile:



Got on the river by 12:30. Up and clear with visibility to 5'. Sunny and I couldn't see fish anywhere. Float and fly went over like a lead balloon. There was some interest in my 3/8oz white chatterbait. Drew one fish out of a deep hole who turned away when he spotted me.

Hit one winter hole where I saw another fish follow the chatterbait. It committed when I let it drop and started again. When I pulled the fish out of the water, I immediately recognized the fish. It's been caught 4 times that I know of by man. I had caught it twice last winter, and Zpac caught it on a float in March! I think it's grown about an inch this year.



Nabbed a dink who inhaled the CB from the middle of a large pool. Target was an old friend. Hoped to find the bass stacked up in there. Nothing. Waded further downstream without luck. Headed back up and hit the big winter pool from the other side where I picked up a calico boxer admirer and one more dink on LC Pointer 100. At the top of the pool, a 12"er on a tube. I hit another dink on the chatter back at one-eye's home.

The boxer finally went for a swim. Why not? The water was the perfect cool to the sun's warm. Upper half pleasantly toasty/lower half pleasantly cool. Perfect. This yin and yang gave me an ear to ear grin. Perfect moment.

Busted a 16.79999" smallie on the chatterbait in about 4-5' of water in another winter hole upstream. Walked on some pipes and had a half dozen smallies jut out from under one at a choke point, caught another dink on a tube sweeping a short line under the pipe. Little ones sure are dumb.



Finally, chucked a tube into a push water area littered with boulders. The tube got slammed and a nice fight erupted as I tried to keep my FnF rod out of the way. Fish went 17" and change. Threw back in and got another dink. Both nice fish came as the sun went out of the sky.




9 SMB in 4.5 hours (17.25", 16.99", 15")

Little bit of everything. 11/07/09 Wade

Haven't been fishing much, when I have, there hasn't been much to tell. Work is crazy busy and now we have an hour less light each day. Too bad. Suppose I still get more than my fair share. Not denying that, just making comparisons.

I am very close to my record for 18", 19", and 20"+ smallmouth in a year. Seems odd because this has clearly been the weakest of the last 5 years of stream fishing in terms of numbers of smallmouth bass.



Brought the float and fly gear and a tube/jerkbait rod. One rod ML 6'9" Avid rigged with 8lbs mono, a weighted one inch round float, and a 1/16 oz hairjig (size 2 hook). The other was my medium avid rigged with 20 lbs yellow PP braid (last 8' colored green with a sharpie),black tube, 3/16th oz EWG gamakatsu 4/0 jighead.

The water was lower than expected and very clear. There was a lot of leaves in eddies, and many floaters as well. Not as bad as last time. Sun was bright but that is usually a good thing in cold months. Helps to warm water and pack bass into places you can't see bottom.

I aimed to hit a few winter holes. Picked up 5 fish quick from dink-nearly 15" under a bridge with 5' of leader under the float, float didn't sink, it just moved different.

Moved up and fished a Sycamore rootwad with FnF. Nothing. Switched rods and threw the tube. The tube was slowly tapping along the bottom, when it suddenly felt like someone flicked the bait with a ruler. I flipped my wrist back from 45 to 90. The rod bent double and a large fish was tearing up the surface. I was able to swim him clear across the creek, keeping pressure on to land the bass. Measured just shy of 20". Thick as a tick.




Picked up another bass 13" off the sycamore on the tube. Then another dink off some riprap on Float and Fly.

Moved up to a couple of other holes. Mostly waisting time, two more 13-14" smallies and a 10" crappie on float and fly.

Headed back downstream, nailed a couple on a white grub, finally a 15.5" bass fell to a chatterbait. Of note, the smallies were getting pretty frisky, several times nailed my float as I bounced it.

I ended up with 15 SMB (19.75", 2-15", 3-4 14"'s) 1 crappie

5.5 hours with a good half hour of that waisted walking between holes.

10/18 Smallmouth action

Clear, low, cold, sunny....spinnerbaits/chatterbaits?

Whatever works. Nothing big, 12 fish all but one 12-15.99". 6 were in the 20 minutes before dark.

10/17 Tube Toss- Dusk Spinnerbait Action

Found a black tube bite, if I made long casts to deeper holes. From 1:30-6:30 I hit 8/11 strikes. The largest was a 20" fish that was long and thin. Had been caught at least once before. Unfortunately, my batteries depleted when I went to photo the bass. So I missed out any photos of the two monsters to follow.



Lost another nice fish off a laydown that seemed in the 16-17" range. Walked the cornfields back and hit a confluence just before dark. Picked up one on a tube and missed another. Went with a white Spinnerbait and all hell broke loose. Hitting 8 more bass from 12-17.5 in like 15 minutes. It was awesome. The 17.5 was well over three pounds I'd guess. One of the fattest fish I have ever caught. Looked like a bluegill. When the night went black the bite stopped.

Didn't bring a winter jacket so toughed it out in the 40's temps and wind. Spinnerbait bite warmed me up just right.

17 SMB (20", 17.5, 3 15-15.5") All but one over 12" in 5.5 hours

Ghetto 10/14/09

Met up with SJ after work on Wednesday. Got fishing by 5:30. Smokey Joe was late so I wet a line. On the second pass back upstream I threw a 1/4 white spinnerbait up into some trickling low head dam. A 14ish" fish hit the bait from the side but did not hook. On the next cast, I threw closer into the dam. Maybe 18" into the retrieve, my bait got hit by a rubber band.



Pulled the fish out thinking it was decent, but it stretched on to 18.5". Half the mouth was missing from a previous encounter with man.

Went to look for Smoke. We fished about an hour and had some maybe bites, but no fish in about an hour.

Will try again tomorrow, maybe some sun?

Favorite Movie Moments I- The Big Lebowski

I'm going to start posting some of my favorite movie moments to the blog. Maybe it'll take.

The Big Lebowski:

I first saw this film on video in the late nineties. I think I enjoyed it. It didn't register much with me. So much that the next time I saw it, I seriously wondered what was wrong with me the first time.

An all time quote classic. One of those films you enjoy more with each viewing. I love this movie.

Here's a little reminder if you haven't seen it in a while.

Phillies Advance to NLCS

Just finished watching game 4 of the NLDS between Philadelphia Phillies and Colorado Rockies. The last two games have been legendary. Back and forth, tension, great plays by both teams. The Phils finally vanquished a scrappy Rockies team tonight scoring 3 runs in the ninth with two outs. Phils second straight National Leaugue Championship series against the Dodgers.

Had to post this to release some tension. YES! Incredible games.

Now on to a quick drubbing of the Dodgers (I hope).

Rain

I have a love/hate relationship with rain. It cleanses, washes away, and renews. It rained all day today in Indianapolis. We have had very little rain since June. A good soaking and cleansing now and then are just the ticket for changing river fishing patterns.

Low, clear water, ultra spooky fish. I've had enough.