Wade Fishing Question

[drew03cmc]

When wade fishing creeks, yes, creeks, the kind where you can cast clear across them with just the tip of your rod, what is in your vest, fanny pack or chest pack assuming there are any of the three black bass in the stream? What tackle do you carry and use as well?

[Al Agnew]

I always go minimal when wade fishing small creeks. Basically, I carry a short, light baitcasting rod and a box with a couple of small and medium size walk the dog topwaters, a couple of popper types, a small buzzbait and one of my homemade twin spins, and sometimes a few hooks and split shot along with a handful of brownish or olive colored tubes and worms. Of all those, probably 80% of the time I don't actually fish anything but the WTD topwaters. Bass in small creeks, in my experience, will almost always come up and take topwaters, including the biggest ones, as long as you're stealthy.

Of course, this time of year would be different. Once in a while I wade fish certain places this time of year, and all I ever take is jerkbaits and hair jigs.

I carry the stuff in a sling pack, along with a bottle of water and maybe a snack, and a waterproof point and shoot camera is always in my pocket. That's about it.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I most always, not always, pack the spinning rod. And as you learned this fall, 5' to 5 1/2' is all you need.

For the tackle, I mostly downsize my cranks. You will never go wrong with a Teeny Wee Craw. But make sure you get the deep diver version. You can work more of the water column with them than you can with the short billed version. The smaller shad type cranks are also killer. Another way to fish these small baits is to add a split shot about about 6 inches to a foot above the crank. Toss it to the edge of or on the bottom end of a riffle and let the current provide the action.

Smaller stick baits like the floating Rapala also work great. But also pack one of the CD models. Like a CD 3. You can work these like a small jig deeper in the water column with great results. I like the gold and black.

And don't ever over look the good ol' Beetle Spin. Still to this day one of the most productive baits you can use on smaller streams.

I like small plastics too. The 1 1/2" or 2" soft craw on a 1/32 oz will produce all day. Smaller worms, in the 4" to 6" range either texas rigged or on a jig head will work wonders too. An H&H spinner is really good on smaller creeks.

One thing you need to do on these smaller baits is change out the hooks. Most, like the Teeney Wee Craw, come with a #14 treble. I change all mine to a #10 gold. You don't have to have gold, I just think it adds a little flash. And I only change the rear hook.

You don't have to have a large variety on smaller creeks. Four or five cranks and a handfull of small soft plastics will fit the bill all day.

I don't discount what Al said either. We just have a different approaches.