First Smallmouth Trip Of 2012

[MOsmallies]

I wanted to get this up last week, but I just didn't have the time so sorry for the delay. I finally hit the river in 2012 and had a chance to break in my new Coosa. A buddy and I drove to one of my favorite Missouri flows on Friday, April 20 hoping the weather would warm up and the rain would hold off for the entire weekend. We setup camp along the river just as the sun was setting and started a fire. Since we were the only ones in the campground, we played some music and enjoyed a few beers while we prepared our gear for the following morning. We got to bed a little later than expected but still had no trouble getting up by 7:30 am. We were wanting to push off around 9:00 or so, but some car trouble delayed our self-shuttle. We finally pushed off around 12:30 pm and were glad to finally be on the water.

We had chosen a simple 5 mile float that I knew well since it was my first time in the new kayak. The water was gin clear and ranged from 58-65 degrees throughout the day. I started off with a 4" Tru-Tungsten swimbait, a Popper that I can also walk the dog with, and my favorite finesse creature bait. The first mile or so of the float I didn't fish too hard. I was trying to get a good feel for the Coosa with the seat in the high position. By the end of the day I was very comfortable with it. We stopped for lunch around 1:45 pm since we hadn't eaten yet. While we ate, I watched several nice smallmouth cruising around on a large gravel flat. I finally hooked my first smallmouth of 2012, a solid 13" fish. After a quick release we pushed off again to fish harder for the last 4 miles. The majority of our fish came from one 200 yd stretch filled with large laydowns, boulders, and deeper water with slower current. By the time we finished our float, I had caught 11 smallmouth with only 2 dinks, 7 between 12"-14", a 15", and a 16 1/2". All fish ended up being caught on the finesse creature bait as I couldn't get anything going with the swimbait or topwater. My buddy ended up with 6 small fish on flukes and senkos.

I was planning on heading back home early on Sunday, but my buddy convinced me to float the same stretch again. This time we started around 9:00 am and paddled quickly through the unproductive water from the day before. We caught a few in new places, but the majority of our fish came from the same 200 yd stretch again. This day I finished with 6 smallmouth... 1 dink, 3 at 12"-14", 15 3/4", and another 16 1/2". All on the same bait from the day before.

All in all it was a great weekend with cool but pleasant weather. The water felt great and the Coosa got some good slime on it. We didn't catch any monsters but several solid fish that I was very pleased with. Only saw one smallmouth on a bed and most were in a very skittish mood just cruising around. Long casts were definitely needed. I've attached pictures of the 4 that were over 15".

Can't wait to hit the river again soon!

[Mitch f]

Nice story! Nice pics too!

[Stoneroller]

I like the sea-dek. Any clue how many sq ft it took to cover the foot area and the area under the seat?

[MOsmallies]

Thanks guys... I'm really happy with the way the my SeaDek project turned out. I bought the 18"x74" sheet and was able to do my whole boat and cooler lid and still have more to spare. It held up perfectly in the water too. I'll try to put a separate post up with pictures of the whole process... Stayed tuned!

[Gavin]

Good for you! I like the new ride! a SOT that will cart a Full Sized Cooler! And that Sea Dek stuff looks interesting...think I need some stuff on the bottom of my canoe to fend off studded rubber soled wader boots....that might be the trick.

[Stoneroller]

I got a sample of sea dek from smalliebigs and put it where the paddle indents are so my paddle doesn't make noise when I put it there.

[Mitch f]

Thought they would have been on that popper

[Greasy B]

Sweet fish. With the spawn winding down the prime stream fishing is right around the corner. Thanks for getting me fired up.

[Smalliebigs]

Very nice Paul, you did pretty good considering the cold front that came thru right before you went. Our creature bait is a crutch....but you know and I know most people don't fish it right and it will never catch on with the masses, which is cool with me.

I know you were stoked to get that rig on the water and now we need to go hit some far out, goofy places. How did your buddy like the Malibu miniX???

nice report and pics, thats what we need to get back to here.

after spending the last 9 days with that stupid Coosa down in the Gulf I can tell you it has a really big flaw.....it does'nt surf waves in worth a shiot.I could only get it to surf to the beach once out of many ,many attempts. Once out of the muck in the surf it was a dream ride and very nice to fish out of.