Small, Clear, Low Summer Summer Smallies

[smallmouth61]

thanks a lot for the post Al... it looks like I need to buy more some more topwaters

[creek wader]

Thanks for all the info, Al.

I fished the Lower Osage in my yak, today. I was trying for a bigger stream that was stained, like others have mentioned. I snagged and lost my only two spinnerbaits, two crankbaits ( a bomber and wiggle wart), in the first 30 min. It was getting a little expensive so, I switched to a Yum Dinger, and caught about a doz. sport Kentuckys and a Kentucky/Smallie hybrid. I did snag and lose a couple of dingers, also.

It was too difficult fishing out of the yak, with the strong current. Trying to control the boat and fish. Yak paddle in one hand, pole in the other, and lots of brush and rocks.

I'll go back to the smaller streams and experiment with your methods, next time.

I'll let you know how I do. ...wader

[Al Agnew]

Here's a little proof that my method works...caught yesterday afternoon on a stream that was VERY marginally floatable and clear, on my homemade spinnerbait. It was right up against the bank in no more than 18 inches of water, and charged my lure when I landed it two feet away and reeled it about a foot.

For comparison purposes, my paddle blade is 20.2 inches from the tip to where the flare of the paddle out of the shaft starts. This fish was exactly 20 inches. I had another that was about 17.5, and caught 51 bass altogether.

[fishinwrench]

Very Nice !

[Al Agnew]

A little more about why my methods work, and why they might NOT work for you...

The fish I caught on Friday was in a spot that, chances are, the guy fishing soft plastics on the bottom wouldn't have bothered to fish. Thing is, when you fish slowly, you have a lot more time and effort devoted to each cast. So you tend to make your casts all to places you think will be holding fish. You thoroughly fish the good-looking water and ignore the rest, because if you tried to fish every possible spot, you'd feel you were wasting a lot of time in unproductive water. But the fish aren't always in the best piece of cover or the best looking spot in the pool. If they are active, they may be roaming around, cruising the banks, making forays into shallow water. That fish Friday was on a bank with nothing but a few straggly little limbs and a few small rocks right on the edge, nothing but gravel off the edge, the nearest water that was any deeper about 20 feet away, and it wasn't much deeper. But the fish was in the shade, probably lying in wait for schools of minnows to go cruising past. Minnows tend to avoid deeper water. Fish feed where the food is, and big fish like to have just a bit of security when they do so. The shade and the bank itself provided the security, the spot was a good one to lie in waiting for the minnows. But it sure didn't look like much, and I would NOT have predicted that fish to be there. If I was spending a minute or more on each cast, I'd have gone to the next place downstream that was deeper or had some real cover.

But when you're only investing 15-20 seconds on each cast, you can make a lot of casts to spots that have just a SLIGHT possibility of holding a good fish. You can, in effect, put a lure in front of every fish in the stream. It's up to them to decide whether they hit it or not, but at least you're not skipping any of them, you're giving them all a chance. Fact is, I've probably caught as many big fish from spots that somewhat surprised me than I have from spots that I just KNEW had to have a big one.

One more thing about this type of fishing. It's run and gun completely. You have to be able to cover lots of water. You very seldom make more than one cast to a spot, no matter how good it looks, unless you get a fish to hit there and think there might be more. You're fishing strictly for active fish, and if they don't hit on the first cast, they usually won't hit on the next one UNLESS you show them something completely different. As for the covering lots of water, if you're wading you have to be physically able to wade long distances up and down the creek. I'll wade and fish the smaller creeks at a rate of about a mile every two hours, which means if I'm spending much of the day at it I'll wade three or four miles of creek, and then have to wade or hike the same distance back to the car. Covering 6 to 8 miles a day on a creek with deep gravel, big rocks, heavy brush, slick bottoms, etc. requires being in shape to do so. If floating these small streams in a canoe, you are doing a lot of getting in and out of the canoe, dragging it over obstructions, and still being very careful to be as quiet as possible. It's not for everyone, but anyone can do at least some of it in combination with the usual slow and careful tactics.

But...and this is important...as well as being in shape, you must have the tackle for it, and you must have the proficiency. Yesterday I took a guy from Virginia on one of my Bataan Death March "floats", 7 miles of stream where we had to drag the canoe over every riffle. First of all, he wasn't equipped with felt-soled shoes and wasn't used to getting in and out of a canoe all the time, so it was very difficult for him. Second, he had brought one spinning rod. Spinning is inherently not as good for these tactics as casting tackle...you CAN get proficient enough with spinning tackle to do everything, especially the never letting the lure sit still thing, but if you're not very much accustomed to fishing this way it will seem almost impossible with spinning tackle. I was getting non-stop action on topwater lures and my spinnerbait. He tried topwater but couldn't seem to master the quick tempo of fishing this way. He tried spinnerbaits but couldn't seem to get them moving as soon as they hit the water. The weight of the topwaters and spinnerbaits wasn't matched well to his tackle, so he wasn't accurate. His rod was too long and he couldn't fish in the close-in, brushy, overhanging spots. So he ended up going back to what he was used to fishing...soft plastics, slow. He ended up catching some nice fish with the soft plastics, but I think that under the circumstances he could have done better. I got a whole lot more action fishing from the back of the canoe than he did from the front, only fishing spots where I could make a long cast without messing up his fishing.

[Bman]

Here's a little proof that my method works...caught yesterday afternoon on a stream that was VERY marginally floatable and clear, on my homemade spinnerbait. It was right up against the bank in no more than 18 inches of water, and charged my lure when I landed it two feet away and reeled it about a foot.

For comparison purposes, my paddle blade is 20.2 inches from the tip to where the flare of the paddle out of the shaft starts. This fish was exactly 20 inches. I had another that was about 17.5, and caught 51 bass altogether.

Wow, I'm drooling.

What does it take to get in the front seat of your canoe...just kidding...not!

Thanks again for a great thread.

[rps]

Mr. Agnew has clearly stated the run and gun method that has helped a number of good fishermen win big deal tournaments. Other fishermen use the thorough, slow entice method. Both work, and both are right.

Al: do you make your own twin spins? I do and would be glad to share/trade with you. Anyone else still fish twin spins?

[Buzz]

Nice brownie Al.

Well, I decided to give your top water advice a go today. I dug out a popper that I had used in the past but had never caught a fish on it. I had made a few casts in some moving water with no response. I moved to a fork in the creek with some slower moving water and a nice shady spot under an overhanging tree. I cast the plug up under the tree and began the walk the dog popping action. The bait moved about 5 feet when I saw the bass shoot out and inhale it just before it cleared the shady spot. It was a great take and a nice largemouth on the end of the line.

That was the only bite I had on the popper, but I will definitely try this method in the clear streams. I didn't mention it, but the fish came out of Shoal Creek.

I didn't land any smallmouth, but jumped off two that would have been decent.

I did catch several more largemouth, all well above keeper size, on soft plastic crawdad, and buzzbait. The only difference was that I couldn't buy a bite with a smaller buzzbait. They went crazy over the big thumper though.

Buzz

[Al Agnew]

Mr. Agnew has clearly stated the run and gun method that has helped a number of good fishermen win big deal tournaments. Other fishermen use the thorough, slow entice method. Both work, and both are right.

Al: do you make your own twin spins? I do and would be glad to share/trade with you. Anyone else still fish twin spins?

Agreed, both methods work. But often one works when the other isn't working. So it's nice to be confident and proficient at both. To be honest, I'm probably far from the best angler at fishing the slow entice methods, but I do use them when I have to. The thing I've found for myself at least, is that I can almost always do okay with fishing fast in the summer, but often when I try fishing slow I don't do as well. Your results may vary. If you're wading, it's easy to switch from one method to the other, but if you're floating, you need about twice as much time to fish the same mileage of river with the slow method, so you almost have to decide beforehand which method you're going to use that day.

Yep, I make my own. I'd be interested in seeing some of yours, so a trade might be in the offing. Warning, though...mine are not exactly works of art...they just work well for me.

[et84]

Very informative post, Al. I've also found "run and gun" style fishing brings the fish out when finesse presentations don't seem to be working, (and vice-versa), but now I want to try some micro size buzzbaits- that's something I have never used on streams around here. Thanks again for the detailed post, Al.