Finley Last Night

[ltomczyk]

Ok, went out last night which is unusal for me. Mostly a weekend angler. Put in at the park and paddled like the dickens to get up past the restaraunt. Took me 25 minutes to get to the bridge. I am not Speedy Gonzalez, but I am in a 14 ft kayak that tracks well and has some decent speed. Had the 5 wt rod with a 10 lb. fluorocarbon leader (which didn't cast very well.) Tied on an medium sized crawdad streamer.

I had just re-read RSBreth's article on rock bass and was targeting them. Great article.

Caught one perch and a ton of submerged tree limbs. How do you guys fish the logs and brush and not get hung up on just about every cast?

How far above the bridge do I need to paddle to get into some rock bass? I got about 200-300 yards up past the bridge, past the semi-fast water to where it clears out and opens up and there are a buch of downed trees on one side of the river.

Was getting hung up too much. Switched to a floating popper. Worked the brush and edges. Caught a bunch of perch. Had one nice bass swipe at it but didn't get the hook set.

[smallmouthjoe]

I don't really fly fish all that much, but I'm unaware of any weedless flies. RS might know of some. When I fly fish I usually work the edges of cover with either a Clouser or a Woolly Bugger. If I have to go into cover to get them I ditch the fly rod and get my spinning rig.

It sounds like you where in the right area and I'm surprised you didn't come up with something. The first couple of riffles right above Riverside have pretty good numbers of smaller smallmouth and the run above, the one with all the wood on the right side if your facing upstream, has largemouth and rock bass on them and i have caught some smallies off of them as well. Most of the smallmouth I've caught there have come from the left side off of the wood that's in the current. The second run above the next riffle, again with all the wood on the right side, had good numbers of bigger smallmouth and largemouth on them. I have only fished there with my spinning and casting gear and have had my best luck with tubes.

The best spot for Rock bass up there, at least the last time I went, was the last tree in the line of trees in the first run. There's a tree there that is running parallel to the bank with the trunk of the tree lying submerged. There's space under the trunk for fish to get under and they will sit there out of the sun, waiting for something to come along. If my description is confusing just fish all of the trees looking for places where fish can get under and ambush.

I hope this helps some. Just keep going up there and you'll figure something out.

[RSBreth]

Flyfishing for them is tough in deeper water with a floating line, and sink tips are a pain, so I target smaller pools for "Rockies". You almost always catch them right near the bottom, so you'll need heavily weighted flies. I just stay on the edge of the timber, polarized shades are necessary to see where you're at.

Some day I'll probably see one of you guys up there.