Smallmouth on the Winter Solstice

[WestCentralFisher]

Good day on the river today, not that I have a whole lot of bad ones. Trout fishing was about as slow as ever I've seen it here (only a couple 11 inch rainbows caught all day, a few more hooked and lost) but the smallmouth fishing was positively decent and filled in the gaps nicely.

Overall, very nice day on the river with slightly slow fishing for most of it. No complaints here. The smallies fought hard and really were a good deal of fun on the ultra-light trout setup. 

 

 

 

[Quillback]

A great day to be out, a bit brisk however.  I caught a few of your fishes' brethren on Beaver lake.  

 

[WestCentralFisher]

3 hours ago, Quillback said:

A great day to be out, a bit brisk however.  I caught a few of your fishes' brethren on Beaver lake.  

 

That one's bigger, lol. I did catch a couple ~14 inchers, but I happened to have my phone out of the dry box when I caught the one in the picture. Likely story, I know. 

I did lose a bigger one....maybe 17-18 inches. I'll blame the two pound line (again I went there to fish for trout...lol). It didn't actually break off, but I was real worried it would, so I didn't play it as confidently as I normally would, and eventually he shook the little marabou jig hook.

[WestCentralFisher]

Also, funny story I forgot to share. After I got done fishing for the day, I drove over to Bennett Spring State Park just to look around/take pictures/relax for a bit. I was sitting down on a bench not far from the banks when a young fisherman, maybe 20/21 years old started fishing nearby. We said hello, talked about how our respective days of fishing went, etc. He seemed to know what he was doing from a fishing standpoint, but he made one fatal error. He yelled at me "holy crap, there's a 4 or 5 pounder right there!" quite loudly. I wasn't fishing at that point, so I suppose he felt safe saying that, but I saw the only other fisherman in the vicinity visibly perk up when he said that.

After a few minutes, he was going back to his nearby car to get his other fly box having apparently exhausted the options in his vest, and the second he stepped away, the other gentleman I just referenced walked up, and dang near immediately hooked this kid's fish on a marabou jig. I felt a little bad for the young man, and it was definitely a bit of poor form on the other guy's part, but you have to account for the human dimension.

[Quillback]

Did the hole jumper land the fish?  

[WestCentralFisher]

14 minutes ago, Quillback said:

Did the hole jumper land the fish?  

He did not. So there is some justice in the world, I suppose. 

[tjm]

So, it's been decades since I used anything but a fly rod for bass of trout, and I don't recall ever using less than 4# on a spinning rig,, 6# Stren was my standard trout line, back then; my usual tippet on fly is ~5# test, so explain to me the the need for 2#? Not trying to say that it's not needed, just that I don't understand why it would be.

[WestCentralFisher]

5 minutes ago, tjm said:

So, it's been decades since I used anything but a fly rod for bass of trout, and I don't recall ever using less than 4# on a spinning rig,, 6# Stren was my standard trout line, back then; my usual tippet on fly is ~5# test, so explain to me the the need for 2#? Not trying to say that it's not needed, just that I don't understand why it would be.

Anecdotally, I just seem to catch about ~1/3 (very rough estimate, of course) fewer trout on 4# on average compared to 2. And for trout fishing on most streams it rarely costs me lost fish. Obviously, would never intentionally choose 2 pound for smallmouth fishing, but that was a happy accident.

It only really matters if water is crystal clear, but nonetheless it's my default for trout fishing.

[WestCentralFisher]

I'll also say it greatly depends on what you're using. For spinners/crankbaits, 4# vs. 2# will likely not matter a whole lot except in the clearest conditions. For marabou jigs I find it matters more since fish have much more time to inspect

[tjm]

I did fairly extensive line testing once long ago, every  nylon mono weight from 20# down to 3/4# test, using small baits and very large nightcrawers in very clear still water and stocked RBT, my conclusion was that the fish don't associate the line with the bait at all. But stiffer lines do restrict bait movement and that can affect the fish's perception  of it as live food. At the time I was using lots of <2# test, the 9X was ~1/2#, 8X 3/4#, 7X 1#  and those have more than double the strength now. After a full summer of spending several hours a couple times a week with those fish, I convinced myself to use stronger leaders.

But I'm also convinced that if someone has confidence in a system that that system will always seem to perform better for them. It works for you and that's what matters.