Mammoth to Merril Horse

[Haris122]

Floated yesterday again with my fishing buddy that has the hobie drive paddleboard. We decided to try the Big River from Mammoth to Merril Horse access this time. We hit it around noon and fished until it got dark. Again we took a bit too long at first so we had to rush through the 2nd half to make it before it got too dark. We ended up at Merril Horse right as it got real dark. We both mainly fished crankbait/minnow lures. My fishing was subpar again. I mostly threw one of the jointed shallow diving (2-4ft) shad colored Rapala’s, with a few other ones thrown in from time to time but it wasn’t happening for me. I got one small smallmouth, and a 8” or so goggle eye, and that was all I got the whole float. I don’t remember exactly what my friend threw except that he had most luck on the one that was blue with orange/yellow belly. He wound up with 14 fish including maybe half of them being bluegill/other sunfish, and the other half being a variety of bass of different sizes, with biggest being a 13-14” smallmouth. Float was about 5 miles and some change so I averaged less than 1 per 2 miles, haha. Was hoping I’d at least hook into a big bass to add a silver lining to being so outfished, but no luck. I would say the 2nd half of the float actually seemed a bit better water but there was a lot of decent looking spots throughout. Just sparse on the fish for me. Plenty of really shallow spots too. Guess the dry summer really showed as we were dragging on rocks with some regularity. Hopefully I get out of the slump soon, with a nice catch out of the yak. 

[ColdWaterFshr]

Try throwing big top-waters next time . . .as close as you can to the bank and aiming specifically at logs or big rocks.  Buzzbaits or whopper-ploppers.  Those should get you the bigger fish this time of year.  There are some big fish in that section, though increasingly more spotted bass.  Also try flukes into heavy cover and deep current.  Avoid the frog water.  Don't waste too much time on any one spot.

[Haris122]

4 minutes ago, ColdWaterFshr said:

Try throwing big top-waters next time . . .as close as you can to the bank and aiming specifically at logs or big rocks.  Buzzbaits or whopper-ploppers.  Those should get you the bigger fish this time of year.  There are some big fish in that section, though increasingly more spotted bass.  Also try flukes into heavy cover and deep current.  Avoid the frog water.  Don't waste too much time on any one spot.

Yeah I need to. For some reason I just really like fishing shallower diving minnow/crankbaits. You catch any big ones with those with any frequency?

[ColdWaterFshr]

1 hour ago, Haris122 said:

Yeah I need to. For some reason I just really like fishing shallower diving minnow/crankbaits. You catch any big ones with those with any frequency?

Yes.  Caught fish like this all day long this past Saturday.  Once you experience the thrill of a bigger smallmouth blowing up on top, . . . a split second after your bait hits the water . . . . you won't ever look back.  Gotta have a good bait caster set-up though.   Spinning rod is wrong tool for throwing a big buzzbait, whopper-plopp, or walk-the-dog lure.

 

[Haris122]

Wow, nice one. I guess I didn’t explain what I meant though. I was asking if you catch any big ones with shallow diving minnow/crankbaits?

[Terrierman]

Ned.  Not joking.

[Al Agnew]

16 minutes ago, Haris122 said:

Wow, nice one. I guess I didn’t explain what I meant though. I was asking if you catch any big ones with shallow diving minnow/crankbaits?

When I was a kid and the original Rapala was still a "new" lure, I caught a pile of smallmouth, including my first 20 incher, on a 2 3/4th inch long Rapala.  I did NOT fish it as a crankbait, I fished it as a surface lure, just twitching it quickly but gently enough that it stayed on the surface.  After fishing it through the assumed strike zone, I burned it back in.  Sometimes a bass would zip out after it when I was cranking it back in and slam it.

But I found out as time went along that other lures were simply better.  I haven't used any shallow diving minnow lures for probably 40 years.  I'm sure they still catch fish, but I'm very happy with the lures I DO use.

That section of Big River was one of the original three special management areas.  I caught one of my two biggest, by weight, smallmouth on it, which was also the longest smallmouth I've ever caught (22.5 inches) long before the spotted bass invaded and it became a special management area.  It has never been a great stretch for numbers of fish, but used to produce big ones with some regularity until the spotted bass resulted in a decline of probably 70% in the smallmouth population (which also means a decline of something like 70% in the numbers of BIG smallmouth).  On a different stretch of Big River last week, I caught 80 bass, including 6 between 17 and 18 inches.  Had I been floating the stretch you floated, my numbers would have been less than half that under the same conditions, I suspect.

[ColdWaterFshr]

What Al said.  100%

And Terrierman, too.  Though the Ned and the Fluke or any soft plastics just simply are not as fun.  I'll resort to those when nothing else is working, but top water season is still in full bloom until the colder overnight temps set in.

If you're stuck on the shallow diving minnow cranks, stick with it.  Nothing wrong with them at all.  Just can't pound as many pockets with that lure and method still make reasonable travel distance while floating through.  And I hate treble hooks.

[dan hufferd]

I don't fish your water, but in the 90's I spent a lot of time on upper indian creek in McDonald county, it is clear and cold, probably similar water quality. I cannot tell you how many nice bass I caught on a 2.5" blue back and chrome belly tiny torpedo. 

I am not sure how you are supposed to work it, I always just worked it like a walking bait, but of course it doesn't walk, just kinda zip pause zip repeat.

If you didn't get them on the first pass you could pick them up on the second.

I didn't own waders, only a 17' canoe and and a pair of cut off shorts. Wading many miles catching smallies in chest deep water, was great fun ! There leaches there by the millions so that sucks but it was worth it.  

We did not have much money, so these small creeks in our area were great fun for my children and myself. If we were millionaires I'm not sure if we could have bought a good time like the ones we had. Probably too much info.

I had a tough time finding an image of these, I assume they still make them? 

 

 

 

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

2 hours ago, dan hufferd said:

I don't fish your water, but in the 90's I spent a lot of time on upper indian creek in McDonald county, it is clear and cold, probably similar water quality. I cannot tell you how many nice bass I caught on a 2.5" blue back and chrome belly tiny torpedo. 

I am not sure how you are supposed to work it, I always just worked it like a walking bait, but of course it doesn't walk, just kinda zip pause zip repeat.

If you didn't get them on the first pass you could pick them up on the second.

I didn't own waders, only a 17' canoe and and a pair of cut off shorts. Wading many miles catching smallies in chest deep water, was great fun ! There leaches there by the millions so that sucks but it was worth it.  

We did not have much money, so these small creeks in our area were great fun for my children and myself. If we were millionaires I'm not sure if we could have bought a good time like the ones we had. Probably too much info.

I had a tough time finding an image of these, I assume they still make them? 

 

 

 

A couple years ago I did well on the tiny torpedo,  brown crawdad color.  I wasn't on  Big River,  but not really far from where you were fishing  Harris.