bamboo

With the river muddy from last nights rain it seemed like a good time to hit a pond. I decided to air out one of the old fly rods. A Montague Rapidan made sometime in the 1940's. The Rapidan is famous as "the poor man's bamboo". It casts well but doesn't have the sticker shock that puts bamboo out of reach of guys like me. Montague made rods of all price ranges and the cheaper models frankly just don't perform all that well. The Rapidan is the exception. Even some of the guys that can afford the Phillipsons and Paynes that cost more than my old truck have a Rapidan that they take fishing while there expensive wood stays safe in the display case. The average decent Rapidan is valued somewhere between $150 and $200. Mine was an E-bay find years ago that was less than half that. But it's in perfect shape even down to having the original tube, original labels and hardware and an extra tip.


I tied on a sponge spider to start and caught a few small bass in the ten inch range and some ok sized bluegill. But I knew this pond had some big bluegill so I began to tinker. I tied on a beadhead nymph with some gold wire.



It sank fast and provided a bit of flash in the clear water of the pond. That was the ticket. I began to hook up much more frequently. Even the small bass were nailing the little size beadhead. Having grew up on fast action graphite fly rods I had to keep reminding myself to slow down. I'd catch little shock waves rolling down my loop as I cast. When I'd take a long breath and relax the rod cast beautifully. Not a distance cannon like my modern fast action rods but very serviceable at reasonable fishing distances. Then a slow retrieve and the slower the better. Almost every good cast and retrieve then began to pay off. The line would stop or just imperceptibly twitch backward and I'd raise the rod into a fish. Really pretty gills too in the 7 to 8 inch range.



I began to tinker again since the fish were biting so well it was easy to tell what worked and what didn't. Well the ticket turned out to be a big beadhead nymph. More of a smallmouth or trout pattern. But it weeded out the smaller gills while the action was still fast and furious.



Again the slower the better on the retrieve. But now the gills averaged more like 8 to 9 inches long.




It was a fine time. I also took a loop thru a nearby woods hoping to find a few late morels. No such luck but I did find a beautiful little wild orchid and several ginseng plants. It's amazing how fast the woods is changing now. It seemingly looks different every day this time of year.




Bamboo, on the other hand, sets me calm and quiet, and I find that if I "feel" the rod and almost go along with what it wants to do with the particular rig that I have attached to the line at the moment, my efforts are more than rewarded."
from "Tactics on Trout" by Ray Ovington 1969

Trip to Bountiful

I beached the kayak and began unloading here that would be my home for the 24+ hours. It was easily the hottest day of the year so far and I had no idea how that would affect the fishing. It would also be the first trip wading wet so far this year. I also felt that the smallmouth might be spawning. But something like at least a third of the larger smallmouth don't spawn every year. So rather than go harass spawning fish I just keep fishing riffles and seams making do with a few less bass. But everything else is usually in high gear and biting at the same time so it really doesn't matter. Sure enough smallmouth were hard to come by. I'd fish good water for an hour between bites. But I was catching nice fish when I hooked up. All the fish came on a grub or an RR Striker swim bait. The swim bait is fast becoming my favorite smallie lure. At least for good fish.



I'm looking thinking if I just was over there on that side. The place I always cross is tricky. I never wade is without a stout stick to help me. But here a bit below I'd never tried. Maybe I'm missing out. I start across. So far so good I'm 75% of the way across. But water is now up to my crotch and moving fast. I inch a bit further on. Only 15 more feet. I take another step. Oh man, I'm starting to feel light on my feet as the water lifts me. Nope, no backing up, I'd be down for sure. Another step. Oh Oh I can feel me lift off the bottom. I turn on my back, feet downstream just the way your supposed to. But I only go my ten feet before I find bottom and traction. But plenty of time to get wet from head to toe. Thank goodness it is the warmest day of the year. The nylon hiking pants dry in minutes but it will take the campfire tonight to get my shirt completely dry.

But it was worth it. I catch a pretty smallmouth then two channel cat. All on the swim bait. I conk the bigger of the two cats on the head and find a stick to wade back across with. I clean the fish getting two pretty fillets. These are then sprinkled liberally with cajun spice, pepper and pinch of salt. I wrap them tightly in foil and stash in the yak for tonight.



I go back to fishing with maybe an hour of daylight left. All day carp have been raising cain spawning in the shallows. Now a huge bulge of splashing water is heading my way. I freeze and five or six sweep in around me, backs sticking out of the water as they chase. Another brings up the rear. He heads right at me then flushes as they all bolt for deeper water. Too cool. Back to fishing and thump something hits the swimbait hard and begins peeling line. Please please let this be a smallmouth. No it's too heavy and bulldogs even more line out. Finally up rolls a channel cat. A Fish Ohio Channel at that!



Dark is coming fast now. It's already hard to see back in the trees. I cast the swim bait at a fast bit of lively water and something nails it. A Fish Ohio saugeye. Fish Ohio fish back to back! Well the saugfish awards are probably the easiest of them all to get and this one just barely squeeks by but I'm not complaining. With last weeks big carp that puts me 3/4's of the way towards a master angler pin and a long summer to get lucky in.



I head to camp and start a fire. Once it burns down to hot coals Ill put the fish wrapped in foil on a flat rock surrounded by hot coals. It's warm and walk down riverside to watch night arrive. Overhead silhouetted against the sky a half dozen ducks fly hard upriver trying to get somewhere before nightfall. Back in camp I put on the fish and decide to fish a few minutes while it bakes. Whack a 15 or 16 inch fish nails my bait! I'm thinking it's on now but it turns out to be the only fish of the night. Gathering firewood, I found, like Tom Hanks in Castaway, a friend to share camp.



Morning finds me excited for a another day on the river. Right away I caught a small shovelhead on the jig. It would be the first of three I'd catch this day. Right now would be a good time to do some serious flathead fishing I think.



Today would prove to be a carbon copy of yesterday. With bass you had to work hard for plus a few catfish sprinkled in here and there. I worked my way across to the sweet spot, without a dunking this time. Here a bathtub sized patch of foam marks a dead still spot surrounded by swift currents. I cast my jig and swam it slowly into the quiet center. Thump and the line begins to go. Resigned to another channel I was honestly startled when a big smallmouth hurtled skyward. But he was hooked well and in a few minutes was in hand. 18.5 and solid muscle. A noble fish.



I work my way back to camp for lunch. After lunch I rest for a minute by the stream and I'm out like a light. When I awaken the wind has risen, the sky darkened and rain is in the air. I fish for a while reluctant to go, catching a couple more fish. The yak ride upstream is easy as a stiff breeze pushes me homeward...

Seminar text smallmouth bass

I had a friend say after my seminar that he wished my seminar would be available online for some friends that couldn't make it Sat. So for what it's worth here it is...



I'd make to make a few points about smallmouth bass that you never hear. Trophy smallmouth in particular. But these will make a huge difference in your fishing if you keep them in mind.

1st off, smallmouth bass are not largemouths. Pretty obvious right?? But we all grew up fishing for largemouths and watching TV shows about them. This colors all our fishing if we are not careful. Take cover or structure for example. You know, we have all been taught to look for those downed trees that have largemouths backed up into them or a clump of lily pads with a largemouth skulking underneath. Well smallmouth bass are different. If, if they even related to cover at all it's mostly to the edges. Or even off the edge.
But if you look at both Largemouth and smallmouth bass you will see they are shaped almost exactly the same. They are both built for short burst of speed. In other words they are both ambush predators. So if smallmouth bass aren't ambushing their food from cover how are they doing it? Well current is their structure. If you find a feeding, active smallmouth it is near current. Even when they seemingly aren't they are, we will get to that in a moment. What smallmouth bass are built for is to set in a slower current and watch a faster current and ambush the critters in that one. Or set in a quiet eddy behind a rock and rush out and nail something being swept by in the current.
We have all seen the movie Predator. You know where the predator can change his vision to see in infra red or thermal? Well I believe using their lateral lines and just the waters pressure bearing down on them smallmouth bass see their entire world as a world of currents and flows. As real to them as a wall in this building or the road out front. Not the flat image of the river we see from above but a rich 3/D world of fast water, slower flows, eddies, vortices and seams.
So how do we as smallmouth bass fisherman use this to catch our quarry?


Well, one classic big fish place for me is a debris flow point jutting out into the river. Say sometime in the last hundred years a section of hillside receives that storm of the century rain. A normally dry wash is suddenly a raging torrent and tons and tons of rocky debris is dumped into the river. This constriction in the rivers channel makes the current speed up as it goes around the point. As you know a spot close to the center of a wheel is turning slower than a spot on the rim of a wheel. The water curving around the point also has to do the same so it digs out the bottom and far bank creating a hole off the end of the point. As the hole is eroded over time there is more pressure by the faster water on the outside side of any material dislodged. Also often a secondary current right on the bottom is often set up. These result in dislodged objects being moved slightly towards the point every time they are moved by high waters. In multiple high water events the bigger material is moved closer to the point while smaller material is swept away. Over the course of many many years this can sometimes result in a a lateral sort of the rocky material off the point. With the biggest stuff that has stayed on the point after repeated events being right at the tip of the point and steadily smaller and smaller stuff laid down in strips as you go farther from the point.
What's this got to do with fishing? Well crayfish and darters love rocks. Stuff the size of a grapefruit especially. So somewhere
along the width of our point and pool of sorted rocks is a strip of bottom that is ideally suited for them creating a mini city of smallie food while the outside side of the hole might be swept bare of bigger rocks and is just a layer of fine gravel deposited between big events. In other words NOT crayfish and darter cover. Now sometimes shiners will use this fast water pouring over bare gravel too so you do need to throw a cast or two there too.
But what happens is a guy comes along fishing beaches his yak or canoe and walks out to the end of the point. He then makes a nice average cast to the center of the hole and fishes his lure downstream thru the hole. He reels in repeats and does this a dozen times. If he doesn't catch a fish he moves on. Well he cast over top of the sweet spot and his lure was barely in in it. Sometimes we are reeling in and catch a fish seemingly right at our feet. When this happens make sure its not a lateral sort situation. Cover the holes off the ends of points laterally with each cast following a different path that the previous.
After scouring out the hole the river bottom comes back up in the form of a run to meet the normal river bottom. If the slope of the run is abrupt enough this can set up a secret big fish spot that almost no one but you will ever fish. The faster water coming thru the scour hole and run will go over top of slower water with the abrupt run acting like a ramp. Then you will get a situation where down below the run where you wouldn't normally fish a layer of faster water is riding over top of slower water. This is called laminar flow. Well our ambush predator can rest in this slow layer and ambush things traveling in the faster layer without expanding much energy. And you have it all to yourself. A situation tailor made for big fish.
Now our point might harbor the ultimate secret spot. First we have our first big event that creates the point. Everything happens over time just as we have laid out. Then here comes another huge event. The whole river is in a raging flood many times higher than normal floods. And the raging river knocks the end off our point. The very biggest material that isn't completely swept away is now directly downstream from the new tip of the point. So you now have a deep instead of gradual slope off the end of the point. This creates a really strong seam downstream sometimes for thirty or forty yards. And for extra good measure all kinds of really big rocks under the seam for bass to stage under and ambush stuff. Hole run seam point and cover rocks all together. This is your best chance in the entire river to catch a twenty inch smallmouth if the place also falls within our next big fish criteria.
That is the concept of boundary riffles. After spawning till late fall when they migrate to the holes they are going to winter in smallmouth bass become extreme homebodies. Mature smallmouth will spend all summer in just a few hundred yards of river. Smallmouth consider all the way across the river riffles to be boundary riffles and will not cross them all river. So the key to catching a good fish is to find two boundary riffles with no easy access in between. Find our busted off point with a big seam off the end too and your in the money. Another sneaky way of fishing underpressured fish is to find the sexist best looking stretch of water and fish just across the boundary riffle from it. Every single fisherman comes to that great looking piece of water and fishes it. Completely ignoring the fish across the boundary riffle. The great looking piece of stream might support many times the number of fish as the plainer water but personally I'd rather catch only three fish all day if one is 19 inches long than a dozen fish all under 12 or 13 inches long.
I'd also like to talk for a minute or two about how by our backgrounds in largemouth fish sometimes make us select for smaller smallmouth bass. We all know that a big jig and pig is a trophy bass lure. And we all know smallmouth love crayfish right? So we fish big plastic crayfish and jig and pigs or a big tube for smallmouth. Well several studies have shown that the very biggest smallmouth are the most picky fish about wanting to eat small crayfish. Somewhere around an inch and a half is their favorite. I'm not sure if its an experience thing and bigger older fish just know a small crayfish is a much more pleasant experience or not. And a bass eating a bigger crayfish sucks it in, blows it out, sucks it in, blows it out trying to kill it before eating it. Making them much harder to hook if they do hit your big crayfish imitation. Ever wonder why you have trouble sometimes hooking fish on those big tubes? I'm not saying don't use those jig n pigs and tubes or plastic crayfish, just downsize them as much as you can. But weirdly enough those same bigger smallmouth consistently select for bigger minnow. Lots of food with no more fight at play there, just the opposite of those crayfish and their nasty pincers. Big smallmouth like a 4 or 5 inch minnow best, not the littlest size rapalas we are used to throwing. Ok, Ok, I know you caught twenty five fish last weekend on a little rapala or on a big four inch texas rigged tube. Sounds like fun, but how many of them were 18, 19, or even 20 inch fish? These rules are especially true when fishing those sorted rocks off the ends of our points. I have a harder time fishing a small jig or tube in the current off the ends of these points. But if I fish a 4 inch swimbait on a jighead in the same places I have no trouble at all. Either would work one is just way eaiser and thus more practical.

The river and the rain, An epic adventure

I pushed the kayak away from the bank at my friends house leaving the baggage of regular life on the bank for a couple days. Little did I know what a trip I was going to end up having. I lazily traveled downstream drifting as much as paddling. The little kayak was loaded like Fred Sanford's pickup truck anyways, it was probably best to take it slow the few miles down to my camping spot for the night. I stopped a few times to halfheartedly fish but only had a six inch smallmouth to show for it by the time I made camp. Camp was a big rock bar facing a couple hundred yards of some of the best fishing I know. Having all day, I decided to put off making camp and headed straight for the water. On my second cast I caught another six inch fish and was wondering if it was going to be one of those kinds of trips. About a minute later something thumped my swimbait and bore deep pulling line off the reel. A big channelcat I was sure. It got out into a swift run of water and used the current also putting up a great fight. Finally I got it into the eddy and it rolled up giving me a good look. It was a big smallmouth. It didn't jump at all though most fish this trip did. It just made great runs each a bit shorter than the next till I closed my hand on the lip of a 19.25 inch smallie. What a start!



I fished the rest of the day catching five more. Plus two small channel catfish. But one more fish was a hefty 18 inch fish that fought even bigger.




With evening fast approaching I headed back to make camp. While I tinkered around putting up the tent I threw out some doughball on a heavier rod equipped with a baitrunner. With rain due I'd brought along a small backpacking tent.



As I began to gather driftwood for the nights fire the baitrunner began to purr. I set the hook into what seemed like a compact car. The fish just slowly and steadily began to cross the river. I began to wade after, the rod bent into a D shape. For some reason the fish swam across and into a spot of slack water and just sort of drug me up and down the bank for quite a while. Finally I was able to beach it on a gravel bank.



Finishing camp I sat by the fire enjoying the night and catching a few smaller carp.



After a wonderful night spent mostly by the fire. It began to rain at daylight. As I gathered my things for another day smallmouth fishing the baitrunner sang again.



Setting out I walked ten minutes downstream to a deep run that had rock and boulders all along one side. As I lifted the rod after the first cast a small bass swiped at my swimbait. I just dropped in down and jigged it up and down and blam A ten inch smallie smacked it. In steady rain over the course of a long soggy morning I caught a couple largemouth, a spotted bass, a white bass and ten or twelve smallmouth. The rain quit and I headed back to camp for lunch. After lunch I waded back into the river in front of camp. In the good water. Over the next couple hours the river raised a few inches and colored up slightly and the fishing took off like a rocket. Unbelievable Canadian shield lake quality fishing. I remember catching an 18 inch fish on one cast and a 17 inch fish on the next. Then a 7 or 8 inch fish and in a few casts another 17 inch fish. All on a three inch swimbait. What River Rock's website calls green pumpkin with pearl. I'd waded across a run and realized the river was coming up. I found a stick and waded back. With heavy weather in the last forecast I'd heard a few days back and a ways to go in the yak before getting out I reluctantly headed back. I think every inch of my body was wrinkled from the rain and river. It was the kind of trip dreams are made of...

New Toys...

I picked up a new rod today at Queen City Outdoors in Goshen. Most of last year my most used rod was a Vendetta by Abu Garcia. I really like the action of this rod but it had a quirk I found really annoying. Over the course of a long day fishing the ring holding the reel in place would work loose. I ended up cutting a three inch piece of electrical tape to hold it in place. Other than that it was a great rod comparable to top end rods costing 40 or 50 bucks more. Well long story short last fall I broke it. No big fish story it just broke in the middle during a cast. So ever since I've been kinda in the market for a new rod. Don't misunderstand I have fishing rods in half the corners of my house but not that perfect river rod. Well today I got one I think is pretty close for the kind of fishing I do. It's made by the Timeless Fishing Rod Company. A local company that assembles premium parts into a super high quality but affordable rod using stuff like St Croix and MHX blanks with Pac Bay, REC, Etc., components. In other words top drawer stuff. Mine comes with low profile guides which I've never used. That will be interesting. Nine of them BTW, like I said its a quality product. I'll get back with you after using it extensively on a two day float coming up in a couple days.




I also got today a bunch of my favorite smalljaw lure. The River Rock Striker. In the past I used their four inch Striker in pools as the best shiner imitation Ive ever used. Their website calls it 3.75 but it's the same size as everyone elses 4 inch swimbait.
The deal is when you get the thing in the water it just comes alive. Ever watch Larry Dahlberg's Hunt for Big Fish TV show? He throws this big giant homemade swimbait for muskies and saltwater fish and striper and a hundred other giant fish. Well I'd watch that show and think that big giant lure looks more alive than anything I've ever seen. Not crazy wacky action but lots of realistic fishy looking action. Well the first time I saw a Striker in action I realized I'd finally found that real action in a normal sized lure. Well this year they now have a small one the size of my three inch grubs I throw to imitate darters and smaller minnows. I'm super super excited to throw these this year. As great as the grub has been for me, my all time most productive lure for sure, the Striker just looks better in the water. And a big mondo size to throw at Stripers and (ssshh, don't tell) big shovelheads. Remember how my buddy Dan and I have found a pattern of catching big catfish on lures at night? Well I think this big mondo striker will be perfect for that. But more on that some other time. The regular Striker will get some hard use in the next few days hunting big smallmouth.

At Last

I was beginning to think this day would never get here. But finally at last. Today I finally got my hands on for the first time the published version of my book, The Little Miami River. Now just have to sign 2000 more...It will probably seem a bit more real by the time I get that done.

A monster river fish

So A lot of people have some sort of lucky totem. Maybe they wear their lucky shirt fishing or carry a lucky rabbits foot. Well let me tell ya, I am a walking talking lucky rabbits foot for Dan. It seems like everytime we go fishing he catches a Fish Ohio Fish. And today was no exception. Ive seen him catch fish ohio saugsfish, even watched him catch two fish ohio shovelheads on lures within 15 minutes of each other. The guy flat out catches big fish and is such a good guy your rooting for him to catch another one. He's simply a fine river fisherman. Well anyways, we met on the GMR right at daylight. Dan could only fish an hour or two while I had most of the day. Right away I hooked a big fish that bored upstream and down. Too much fish for my bass tackle. Probably a big buffalo or shovel. Ill never know cause it pulled off long before I ever had a prayer of seeing it. Dan shows up and we stand fishing this eddy visiting and passing time. Boom Boom he catches a couple pretty smallmouth on a chartreuse grub. I finally start to catch a few, meanwhile Dan is looking like Bill Dance fishing his own private pond. I try a few other things but every time I do Dan catches another so I finally just tie on a grub and start catching them regularly too. Then thump and Dan's rod bends double. But it's not fighting like a smallmouth. A buffalo? Dan wonders out loud that it might be a carp. When up rolls this giant bass. A largemouth! A big Largemouth in the river is thrashing around out there. But nothing crazy happens. Dan calmly lands the fish, I lip it. And out comes the tape measure. 21 inches and shaped like the circus fat lady. When you look at the picture remember that Dan is like 8 feet tall and bigfoot is scared of him. What I'm saying is Dan is a vary big man and that fish still looks big.
It's an absolute horse to come out of the river. It's way up on my list of most impressive fish I've seen considering where he caught it.




Then after a few more smallmouth Dan has to leave so I walk out with him and try another three places. Kind of river hopping my way home. Almost everywhere I found that had slack water or an eddy right up against fast water held smallmouth. I caught them pretty steady all day, 90 percent of them coming on a chartreuse 3' grub. It was a perfect day.