Long Float On A Small Creek

[Al Agnew]

The creek has some popular stretches. In fact, it may be one of the most popular creeks with the party crowd. But it isn't all a party river.

The stretch is 13 miles or so. I do it once a year, usually about this time of year when the water is low enough that I'm pretty sure the party animals aren't going to be on the upper half of this float. It's a long way, but it's either do the 13 miles in a long day, or do just 6 or 7 miles, too short a float for a full day of fishing.

So today was the day. I didn't decide that until I woke up this morning...not looking forward to getting into the studio and painting, weather supposed to be gorgeous, wife said go ahead. What choice did I have?

Because I didn't plan it ahead of time, I got a late start. Didn't get on the creek until about 10:30 AM. I knew I'd be on it until nearly dark, but so what?

Like I mentioned, the upper half is remote. The fishing is usually very good. So I was pretty disappointed to not catch much of anything in the first half-mile. So I started experimenting. Fished the fly rod with poppers and streamers, including a streamer I devised myself with a chamois curly tail that I was sure would catch fish. Nothing. Fished tubes. Nothing but a small smallmouth and some goggle-eye. Tried four different topwater lures. Buzzbait. Spinnerbait. My sinking walk-the-dog lure. Superfluke. All those things got a few strikes, but only from small fish. Nothing was working well.

Oh, well, some days you win and some days you...win in a different way. Solitude. Beautiful stream. Water so clear it looked like pool water. Deer and vultures and hawks. Turtles. Minnows everywhere. Cool but sunny. The wind was a minus, but not that bad. The creek was flowing enough water that I didn't have to get out and drag, although I had to lift the solo canoe over a couple of logjams. A small price to pay for a day on a piece of remote creek.

There were a few "fish" highlights in the first half of the float. Nearly all the fish I saw and caught were small, few of them much over 12 inches, but there was the occasional bigger fish that came out of the shadows and cover to investigate my various lures. One of them, which followed my buzzbait to within a few feet of the canoe, was a real horse, 20 inches or better. Another that was getting close to 20 struck my spinnerbait but didn't get hooked.

I took my time on the upper half, knowing that once I passed the bridge in the middle I'd be on popular water, but figuring that I'd get there late enough in the afternoon that I'd stay behind any party floaters.

Sure enough, it was 4:30 PM by the time I reached the bridge. Six miles to go and three hours or so in which to do it. At that point, I'd caught about 35 bass, all but two of them smallies, with one nice 16 incher and a few 12-14 inchers spaced among the average 10-11 inchers. Far from a great day of fishing--there have been trips when I'd caught twice that many fish on that stretch, and they averaged bigger.

Topwater had not worked well at all, but now the shadows were hitting the water in most places, and I decided to simply fish a walk-the-dog lure the rest of the way, hitting the good pools carefully, otherwise just casting to nice pieces of cover here and there. One thing I'd noticed on the upper stretch was that some of the bigger fish were hanging out beneath logs and root balls right on the bank in pretty shallow water. So I thought I'd better look for spots like that and at least make a cast to ones that looked like possible fish-holding spots.

I hadn't gone far below the bridge when I hit a nice little pool and started getting action. At first the fish were striking short, but they were nice fish. I switched to a somewhat smaller walk-the-dog topwater. Better. I started catching fish. Better fish than before. 13 to 15 inchers. Regularly. And sure enough, in a shallow run I made a cast that landed about five feet away from a small rootwad in less than 2 feet of water, and a big smallie came charging out from under the roots like it was shot out of a cannon, smashed the lure, and immediately leaped two feet out of the water. I love it when that happens. The fish went 18 inches.

The sun was down by the time I got to really civilized water close to the take-out. People everywhere. But I continued to catch fish, right in front of them. It was getting dark by the time I slid the canoe onto the gravel bar next to my waiting vehicle. I'd caught 30 bass in that 2.5-3 hour period, all on topwater.

I never get tired of that float!

[fishinwrench]

You lucky dog, I wish I had a flying canoe. Or a truck that would get to the takeout on it's own.

[smallmouthjoe]

Great post as always. Sounds like a great day. I've been looking for a sub surface walk the dog style bait for a while now and haven't been able to find one. All they have at BP in Springfield are the giant ones that are for musky. Thanks.

[RSBreth]

Awesome report, and a good read also. Always love your reports, wish I had the time to expound here. Not so much these days.

[creek wader]

smjoe, checkout the Rapala x-rap sub walk, or the Rapala skitter walk. I p/u one of each. I haven't had a chance to try them yet. The rivers around here just got a good flushing, from the recent rains. I'm waiting for them to settle back down. ... good luck

[Guest]

deleted

[Gavin]

Sounds like a great trip...think I floated the same creek a few weeks ago and we did well. Plastics in the AM, poppers in the shade lines when the sun finally came out.

I've got a subwalk or two, but I've never caught a fish on em...the ones I have dont seem to suspend right and I have a hard time getting em to do what I want in current. Think I need to play in the pool with em a bit.

[smallmouthjoe]

I have only tried the subwalk a couple times, and for me it doesn't like to WTD all that well. Anyone else have any experience with them? I have been modifying some sammy's to run below the surface, but haven't gotten them right as of yet.

I've been thinking about modifying a spook to run below the surface but I don't know how to go about it. Any suggestions?

[Guest]

deleted

[smallmouthjoe]

I have been using storm suspendots to get it to sink slowly, then try it out in some clear water so that you can watch it to see if it still Walks the dog. After that you can drill and add some lead or ball bearings in the same general spots as the dots. The problem for me has been where to put the dots to make it sink properly and still move correctly under the surface. Be careful when you drill into the plastic baits, some have compartments inside the bait that will crack if you hit a seam. It might be a lot easier if I used a wooden bait.

I was thinking about drilling some holes in it to allow water to flood the compartments. Maybe add some suspend dots to help it sink initially.