Finally An All Day Trip...

[Al Agnew]

I had been toying with the idea of attending the Smallmouth Alliance Rodeo, coming up this weekend on the North Fork. But I have this big painting to get done, a commission of a pack or wolves harassing a bison, and it's been going slow and I need to get it done in the next week or so. So when I got up this morning I made the decision that I needed to work this weekend. But...

I figured I could take off one day, and today seemed as good as any. So I asked Mary to pick me up at the end of the day, and headed for Big River.

The stretch of river I floated is about ten miles, and it's always been one of my favorites, mainly because relatively few other anglers fish it. It's in the section heavily affected by lead mine waste, and the habitat is not good, which keeps a lot of fishermen away. I've fished it for...oh...fifty years or so. And I float it once or twice every year. Obviously I know it like the back of my hand, but after the floods we had this spring, I was looking forward to seeing the changes that had taken place.

The river was still flowing strongly, maybe 200 cubic feet per second; by mid-summer it will be flowing at less than 50 cfs. Beautiful color, visibility about 3.5 feet. I had brought a fly rod along in case the cicada action was happening. But when I reached the river and loaded the canoe, I noticed the cicadas weren't very loud, and there were none on the water at the put-in. So I didn't string up the fly rod. I'd brought three casting rods and a spinning rod. The spinning rod was stowed in the back of the canoe--I wouldn't use it unless I had to go to something slow and deep. I started out with my three old favorites on the casting rods; Sammy 100, my homemade crankbait, and my homemade spinnerbait. I wonder how many generations of bass on this stretch have seen those lures!

I had two swipes from nice fish on the crankbait before I reached the first riffle, with one of them hooked briefly. But in the next pool I only caught one very small smallie. The pool after that is one that I used to fish with crawdads when I was a kid, and it almost always produces a couple nice fish. I switched from my homemade twin spin to a buzzbait, and eked out a 13 inch spotted bass, but that was all. Things were not looking good.

The next stretch is mostly fast water with rocks here and there, and it always seems to be full of fish, though tough to fish. I was fishing the crankbait at the top of it when I got the first nice smallie, about 14 inches. A few feet below, in very fast water, and had a bigger one take. The canoe was careening down a riffle, the bass was diving into a submerged tree top, and I had little chance. The line broke as the lure snagged on a limb, and by the time I could paddle back up against the current and reach the snag, the fish had gotten loose, but at least I got my lure back.

Toward the bottom of this stretch is a fairly deep run along a water willow bed with some nice rocks. With the river up, it was very fast, but this spot is a proven big fish producer, having given up a bunch of 18-20 inch smallies over the years. I was able to slide the canoe over a shallowly submerged weedbed on the inside of the bend, in order to cast cross-current to the rocks. The crankbait dove under water, swinging deep and away from the big rock that is the sweet spot...and stopped dead. When I set the hook I thought for second I was hung up, but then the fish slashed downstream, stripping drag. Definitely a big fish. It leaped. DEFINITELY a big fish! Took a while to get it to the canoe. The first legitimate big smallie of the warm weather season for me, about a half inch under 20 inches.

Well, it looked like the pattern was that the smallmouth were in pretty heavy current. But in the next mile or so, it was hit or miss in places where I expected them. The non-native spotted bass were in slower water and right on the banks. I was catching enough to keep it interesting, but not really consistently. So I started doing some more experimenting. Different colors of the crankbait--a fish now and then. Switched to a double willow leaf spinnerbait--a couple nice smallmouth. Switched topwaters to a G-Splash popper--several decent fish. Switched to a homemade Subwalk--a couple fish. Strung up the fly rod and put on a streamer of my own invention with cross cut rabbit body and a chamois curly tail, and caught a 15 inch smallmouth and a 15 inch largemouth.

I also tried one of my homemade cicada imitations, and couldn't keep the sunfish off it, but got no bass action on it.

Stopped for lunch, and decided to keep the fly rod ready but to only fish it in slower water...too difficult to fish it from the canoe in faster water. Put back on the Sammy. Put back on the spinnerbait. Went back to the crankbait that had caught the big smallmouth.

As I float this stretch, I almost know exactly what lure to throw at each spot I come to. Fast, rocky run at the head of a long bluff pool...pick up the crankbait rod. First cast, big dark shadow closing in on the lure as it dives beneath the surface, violent surface bulging take, lure disappears completely. Set the hooks, feel the weight of a very good fish. Largemouth, almost exactly the same size as the big smallmouth I caught earlier. Further down the pool, the crankbait produces two more 14-15 inchers.

The upper half of this float is better fishing than the lower half, and by the time I'm into the lower half I've caught 33 bass and I've got more than four miles to go and not much more than two hours to get there, which is how it almost always goes on this float. So I move along a lot faster, fishing only the spots I know hold fish. The river does look different in many places, partly from new trees toppled into the water, partly because the greater water flow makes for more good looking spots than you'll see in low water. When I was a kid, I didn't fish this lower half much because it looked like such terrible habitat. One day when I was a teenager, and buddy and I decided to wade and fish it when it was up about 1.5 feet and very murky. Everything looked like good water, and the funny thing was, we caught the heck out of fish just about everywhere. We went back again a week later when the river was back down and clear, and were amazed that some of the places where we had caught fish were less than a foot deep when the water was normal.

Fishing had slowed, although the Sammy was finally producing a fish here and there. At a tangle of logs, the Sammy called up another big largemouth, this one an inch shorter than the other one but still not shabby. A bit farther along, the biggest spotted bass of the day, a 16 incher, took the Sammy.

And then it was a half hour to when Mary was to pick me up and I still had a mile and a half to go. I reluctantly put down the rod and picked up the paddle, and got to the take-out just before my ride.

Totals came to 19 smallies, 18 spotted bass, 5 largemouth, and a hybrid, with the three real quality fish. Nice to see you again, Big River!

[ColdWaterFshr]

Good report, Al. I love the Big. Might be heading there this weekend to retrieve Hoffmeyers canoe. Some yahoos he loaned it to last weekend, took it out and sunk it, escaping with their lives. Got the rough whereabouts, but I don't know if the water will be low enough.

[Greasy B]

Great report, thanks. 667 cfs at the Richwoods gage looks like just about right, High but fishable. It looks like Smallmouth fishing is ramping up, I’ll bet the hot temperatures this weekend will only help.

[Al Agnew]

Good report, Al. I love the Big. Might be heading there this weekend to retrieve Hoffmeyers canoe. Some yahoos he loaned it to last weekend, took it out and sunk it, escaping with their lives. Got the rough whereabouts, but I don't know if the water will be low enough.

Bummer! Hope you find it. I'd think the water is low enough to see it unless it's buried in a really deep log jam.

[Mitch f]

Great way to start the summer!

[Gavin]

Great Report Al...may wet a line for smallies on the way to the Current this afternoon......CWF, I hope you get Hoff's boat back...he'll be hitting us both up for boat rides & beer if you dont.

[yeehaw]

Hey Al, one of these days I need to pick your brain about that section of the Big where my inlaws live. Always been a lake and pond guy myself and that river fishing is just foreign to me. I should definately take advantage of the high water as we normally can't get upstream with the outboard due to small water and big rocks. Hollar if you ever need a partner down there!