White River Fishing Report 9-18-14

[Ham]

Left work a few minutes early to make a mad dash to the river this afternoon, I got the boat in the water right at 5 PM. I motored downriver a couple miles and started fishing. I was into fish immediately. They were biting about as well as I have ever seen. I was getting bitten nearly every cast for extended periods of time.

I had gotten a warranty replacement rod for a Fenwick Elitech Smallmouth rod. A young man that was using it broke it while fishing a Ned Rig with me. It took kinda of a long time, but Fenwick sent me a Fenwick Elitech River Runner 6'9" LF-2. I was anxious to try it out.

Previously, I had bought a St Croix Premier 7 ft UL rod. I caught a fish on the very first cast I ever made with it. I decided I wanted to catch a fish on the very first cast with the new Fenwick too. You get one chance ever to pull this off. No pressure right? I made a big cast out and across the river and instantly got whacked. Nice 14 inch colored up Rainbow. I had gotten it done. I caught a bunch more on that rod before the trip was over. it took a while to get the feel for it and in some ways I know it cost me some fish, but I wanted to try it. It's a good trout rod. Super light weight. A true light action rod.

I had hopes the Fenwick would be a great crappie rod too, but It isn't going to replace my old Shimano Aero rods. It is a joy to fish with, but I still prefer to use my Dorber OMT rods to the Fenwick. They are more sensitive and I can lean on them a little more. The Fenwick is light,pretty, and fairly sensitive, but soft. I did notice that a lot of the trout had taken the jig in much deeper with the Fenwick than the Dorber. I don't feel the bite as soon and I can't snatch it away form the trout as easily.

It loads and throws little jigs a ton. The Fewick is way too light to be ANY sort of bass rod. The FE Smallmouth rod fished a Ned great, but this rod is far too light.

With our high humidity levels, fog started building up early. It made me cut my trip short. I put the boat back on the trailer before 6:30 PM. I fished about 1 1/4 hours and got 44 to hand. Lots of real nice fish, but nothing over 16 inches.

[Ccox1982]

I jig fish with a 6'8" ULF River Runner. I ended up buying a couple of them last year because I thought they worked pretty well for small marabou jigs. I was looking to buy another one for a friend, but couldn't find one anywhere. Then I noticed Fenwick came out with a new series of River Runner rods the first of September. Only thing I can see that is different then the first series is that they offer them in a few different lengths and raised the price by about $20. I really like fishing with these rods, but like u said, they are a little soft. Still a great rod. I think I'm gonna pull the trigger on a Loomis TSR 791S for my next rod purchase. Great fishing report by the way. I was on the White last Friday. Let my 7 year old boy skip school for a day of fishing with his ole man. We caught plenty of fish on the minimum flow water. No big fish, but we had a great time. Think the biggest was a 15 inch brown my son caught on a Zig Jig. Even ran into my ole farmer buddy on the water.

[Ham]

It all honesty, I would have been much happier if they had just been able to replace the rod that was broken. I only had it a month and I loved it. It fished the Ned really, really well. I never felt under gunned on the hookset and it let me enjoy the fish. Very light in the hand.

Has your farming buddy fished the River Runner rod? I immediately thought of him when I was fishing it. It would me much more responsive than the noodles he prefers, but still soft enough to let the fish load on the rod. I bet he'd love it.

I appreciate you pulling your boy out of school for the day. I'd wager he learned more with you than he missed out on in class. Not suggesting that he doesn't need school, but a day fishing with Dad every now and again is a GOOD thing.

[Terrierman]

Good reports, both of them. Love that White River, wish I lived a little closer.

[Ccox1982]

Ham, as far as I know he hasn't tried the River Runner rod, at least none of mine. If I ever get him to lay down the Loomis for a second so that he can demo my RR, I think he would be happy with it.

[JamiePatterson]

Guys, guys, come on... There is no finer jig rod than the loomis sr720 To try another rod would almost be as bad as cheating on my wife. Ok, maybe that's a stretch, but you get the point lol

[Ham]

I just hate to see you handicapping yourself fishing that noodle all the time. Just imagine how good a fisherman you could be with a real fishing rod. Lol. That's actually a fairly scary though. Lol.

[JamiePatterson]

Lol. I think I've figured out why loomis discontinued the rod -it was so detrimental to trout populations that they were forced by the AGFC to cease production. Yeah, that's gotta be it...

[Ham]

*speechless*