Finally time enough to be able to spend the night on the river. Camping out on the river is one of my greatest pleasures. And last night was a perfect example of why. A bald eagle winging up the river. A snowy egret flushing ahead of the yak. A few decent fish, a tarp shelter, campfire and a couple big andouille sausage cooked over the flames. Two barred owls, one on each side of camp, sending out haunting calls. The only slight downer on the trip was the river was low. Very low and the slot was only about an inch deep with just a trickle running thru.
It was now pitch black and calm the only sound the slightest murmur of the river and the occasional owl still calling. Time to fish. But off comes the 8lb pound mono and on goes a spool of 20 lb braid. Instead of the usual grub or curly shad I tie on a buzzbait. A big 1/2 ounce triple wing model not one of those little cute ones you sometimes see guys throw on the river. Two casts in and a beautiful Fish Ohio smallmouth tries to rip the rod out of my hand. Then nothing more for ten minutes as I work my way up towards the slot. I'd probably logged 30 hours in this pool trying to hook the fish again in daylight and I was comfortable slowly wading in the dark. About twenty feet this side of the slot the river still ran pretty strongly over the riffle. Enough that I'd thought about running the riffle here in the Jackson on the way in before deciding to beach the yak and hike down to camp. I threw across this run into the slack water on the other side and then brought the buzzbait back at a right angle to the current. Nothing on the far side but just as the lure cleared the current on my side something hammered the bait. The rod bent all the way into the cork Tenn handle and I was sure I had a big channel on. No somersaults or leaps skyward like before just a heavy strong pull. A really strong catfish or hybrid striper pull. Then the fish comes up with it's head out right at the bank and I slide her out on the gravel. Holy $#@ its a smallmouth. The smallmouth. Fully twice as heavy and several inches longer than the fish I'd been so pleased with a few minutes before. I'd guessed right before on how big I thought the fish was. Just a tiny sliver under 21 inches and fat as a sumo wrestler. A fish worthy of whoops and high fives at St Clair or the boundary waters much less southern Ohio. I doubt I will ever see a fish rival this one in bulk in my streams ever again. Come to think of it my biggest smallmouth ever came from the boundary waters in the middle of the night on a buzzbait as well. I guess I'll be stalking the rivers at night a lot more in the future.
Just before daylight a shovelhead hit a big swimbait and the most exciting fish of the next morning
was a smallmouth of about 18 inches that hit a buzzbait with about a rods length of line out. The fish zoomed around in a big semicircle and actually jumped right out on the bank at my feet. It flopped a couple times, threw the buzzbait, flopped back in the water and was gone. It was about as exciting a 3 seconds of fishing you will ever see.
Daylight brought smaller fish but some cool encounters with wildlife. I'm walking down the path and two deer take off busting thru the brush with white tails wagging. And as they do three racoons flush up a couple trees scared by the commotion. On my side of the tree peering around the tree trunks like scared squirrels. If you look closely at one of my pics you can just make out the closest one. Then another eagle sighting, a beaver and some dink smallmouth to finish off the trip.
Easily one of the most exciting and enjoyable trips I've had in years. And some serious food for thought about night fishing rivers for trophy smalljaws...
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