Fishing really fast

[Al Agnew]

My wife Mary is a wonderful woman.  I told her I was going to float the river today, and she asked me where.  Knowing that she would be the one to shuttle me, I said that I'd probably float the stretch that's the closest to our house so she wouldn't have to drive too far to pick me up.  But she suggested I float my absolute favorite float, which I didn't do at all last year and usually only do once or maybe twice a year because it's a long float and a really long shuttle.  I love that woman!  

So I was on the water at 7:30 AM for a float that's somewhere around 14 miles (because there aren't any convenient accesses in between).  I usually float this stretch in the middle of the summer, when it's fairly low, and it usually takes 12-13 hours and I still have to paddle through some of the long, dead pools.  Well, I knew it wasn't going to take that long this time.  I'd told Mary to pick me up at 6:30 PM, and I could see pretty quickly that I could make it in that time frame, because the river was really moving.  The first pool showed what the story would be--it's usually a very slow pool, but I was working just to slow myself down enough to fish.  But I caught a 15 inch largemouth on a spinnerbait.

I had tied on the spinnerbait on one rod, a topwater, a shallow running crankbait, and a deep running crankbait.  The river was beautiful as far as visibility, about three feet, but I quickly established that the topwater was going to be tough to fish.  I tried the crankbaits and caught a couple on them, but the spinnerbait was working best, and it was the most no-brainer lure to fish under those conditions anyway.

I caught 12 bass in the first mile and a half, as usual a mixture of smallmouth, spotted, and largemouth, though only a couple of smallies.  Then I reached a spot that really doesn't look like much, just a log along a low mud bank in 4 feet or so of water, but I've caught good fish there before, and this time the big smallmouth hit just as the lure came over the log.  18 inches; not a beast, but anything over 17 inches is worth mentioning, and an 18 incher deserved a picture.  Not only that, but there was another one the same size following it around.  After I netted it and released it, I tried to catch that other one with an HD Craw, but only got a nice 14 inch spotted bass.  

The fishing slowed.  The next three miles I only caught about 10 more bass, though one of them was an 18 inch largemouth.  And it seemed the smallies were the most inactive; I was catching mostly spots and largemouth.  But then I put on a bigger spinnerbait with bigger blades, and bingo, I started catching more smallies.  A 17 incher.  A 17.5.  

Then I reached a long, rocky pool that was just lined with smallmouth.  I got another 18, along with several other nice smallmouth.  I was sorry to reach the end of that pool.

I had just been fishing whatever I came to and pretty much letting the canoe drift with the current, just paddle strokes to keep it more or less parallel the banks.  But now I slowed down and started fishing a little more carefully and thoroughly.  I came to a short stretch of bank that always seems to hold a good fish, and sure enough, hooked one in the 18-19 inch class.  It was a hot fish, leaping and swimming all over the river...and then it broke my line.  There went that magical spinnerbait.  I watched as it leaped three times trying to throw it.  I hate it when I leave a lure in a fish.

I went through a long stretch of fast, shallow water, catching small fish, mostly spotted bass.  Came to a long, rocky pool, caught more small fish; not feeling real confident in my replacement spinnerbait.  Fished it down one more good pool, with only a couple little ones.  So I switched to a different one.

The river split at a big island.  Most of the water was going down the left, but the right had enough water to float, barely, and I'd never taken that channel.  Near the lower end, it opened up into a short, fairly deep pool against a vertical mud bank.  The other channel was coming over a shoal and sweeping along a huge log on the other side of this pool.  It wasn't a spot that just shouted how good it was.  But I quickly hooked a big one along the mud bank.  18 inches.  Got it in, paddled to get into an eddy where I could take pictures without going downstream and messing up the rest of that 50 foot stretch of bank.  Released the fish, got back into position, made another cast 10 feet farther along the bank, and hooked another big one.  This one was the best fish of the day, a beautiful 19 incher.  Got it in while paddling over toward the other side, got into another eddy, took pictures, released it, and made a cast along that big log.  Three casts, three big fish.  This one was "only" 17.5.  Next cast to the log, a 15 inch spotted bass that had another big smallmouth following it around.    I didn't get that one, but I got another 16 incher when I got back over to the mud bank.  That was terrific little pool!

I got back into the main current, went down the pool catching small to medium fish, then hooked and lost a huge spotted bass, looked to be at least 18 inches.  Went through the riffle below, made a cast to a little eddy along the riffle...another big fish.  This one was 18.5.  

I caught a 16.5 in the next pool, along with a few other decent fish.  Then another 18 inch largemouth.  I looked at the time...4:30 PM, and I still had nearly four miles to go.  Checked my cell reception, good enough.  Called Mary, asked if she could pick me up an hour later than planned, since I was having a terrific day.  She agreed.  I love that woman.

Well, the fishing slowed after that.  I hooked two more big fish and lost them.  Caught several more 15-16 inchers.  I had been keeping count of the fish I caught and wanted to reach 100.  I made it with two fish to spare...37 smallmouth, 37 spotted bass, 28 largemouth.  Eight smallies from 17-19 inches, plus two 18 inch largemouth.  What a great day.  Wind was a pain at times, and it was a bad pollen day and I could tell it.  Stuff was coming off the trees and covering the surface in places and getting tangled in my spinnerbait now and then.  But the bluebells are in full bloom, and I saw a big tom turkey on a gravel bar; it flew across the river in front of me.

And I timed it just right.  I'd just unloaded the canoe when Mary pulled up to pick me up.

By the way, the pictures are on my phone and I'm too tired to download them now.  May post them tomorrow.

[MOsmallies]

Great read as always Al! Can't wait to see the pics! What a day!