Floating This Weekend

[DainW]

I'm staying at Bass River Resort this weekend with the girlfriend and floating one either Huzzah or Courtois. Is it too early to bring the fly rod along? If not would one or the other of these two rivers have better fishing right now, or is it pretty much a toss up? 

[Al Agnew]

Fly rod stuff should work.  In my opinion, there is very little difference between the two, although I've probably had better luck overall on Huzzah.  On the other hand, habitat strikes me as being better on Courtois.

[DainW]

Thanks Al. I think the stretch that was suggested to me was a 6 mile float back down to the resort. Is that a decent stretch fishing wise? 

[Al Agnew]

Good as any, but it will probably be the most crowded, since that's the stretch Bass prefers to put people on because it makes it easier on them.  I do like it better than the stretch downstream from Bass, though.  And if you went below Bass, you'd have a few miles of  maybe less crowded fishing but then would reach the access where Ozark Outdoors at Onondaga puts in a lot of their floats.

[Coosa]

I just fished there last weekend. Wtd baits in calm water around wood was good. I fish that area quite a bit. When going from blunts to bass I never seem to do real well in the first mile or so but after that things usually seem to pick up.

[Eric82]

I agree with Al going from Bass downstream.  I like the Bass to Scotia.  Less crowded.  Floating on down to Onondaga is nice too since you hit up the Meramec briefly.  Actually i went down for 4 days to Huzzah Conservation a few weeks ago (Still need to post about it).  Anyway the temps were still hovering right under 60 degrees and the water was still high from a rain earlier in the week.  The fish were holding deep in this instance and the ones i caught were along the bank eddies and cover.  Most of my luck was on BH mohair leeches in crawdad color and black pistol petes.  Not much luck topwater yet.  However, this weekend that might change.  Good luck to you!!!

[DainW]

Ok thanks for the info guys. I'll post a report when I get back. Floating Friday. 

[DainW]

Ok I floated on Friday with the girlfriend, blunts to bass. We took a raft because I'm still a novice paddler and Kristine hasn't paddled at all really, and was nervous about turning over the canoe, which I think was a wise choice given how we did steering that raft. Only saw two or three other boats out. It was a beautiful day and beautiful float. I had my fly gear with me, but had to break down and rerig every time we stopped due to the size of the rod vs raft. For that reason, I didn't really fish the way I normally would, and spent most of the time trying to catch a buzz and enjoying the weather. I did manage one little smallie though. I also fished the area around our cabin at Bass quite a bit with no luck. I assume that gets hit pretty hard. 

I did have a question for those that are more knowledgeable on the subject than I am. We did see a few nicer smallmouth on the float. However, when we saw them, they weren't in areas that I would expect to see them. They weren't really relating strongly to cover for example. We'd often see them seemingly out in the middle of the river. There were also times that they were paired up. I'm not familiar with spawning behavior of smallmouth bass. Do they "pair up" like trout do? Or was it just a coincidence that two of them happened to be in the same area? Same deal when I was fishing around the cabin. I focused on areas where I usually have success in the summer time.....areas around cover like trees or root wads, moderate current and depth etc. I spooked out a couple wading but again, they were in weird spots almost in shallow water where you wouldn't expect them to be. So anyone have any thoughts on this? Have they just not gotten into their summer feeding and holding patterns yet? Am I just terrible at reading water and finding fish? Is it a combination of the two? 

[Al Agnew]

A lot of them are spawning now, but you usually won't see them spawning out in the middle of the creek away from any kind of cover.  Yes, they usually relate to cover, but you'll often see them out roaming in open water when they are active.  However, these fish seem to instinctively know they are more visible and vulnerable, and are often a lot more spooky when they are out in the open like that in clear water.  They might spawn in pretty shallow water, though, so some you spooked may have been on beds, but you should have been able to see the beds (circular areas of clean gravel 18-24 inches across).

[Gavin]

They are where they are. A straight downstream cast in the middle of nothing works more often than you think it might. Especially on creeks/rivers that see lots of traffic. Not necessary to beat the bank and fish structure all the time.