Exploring a New Creek

[WestCentralFisher]

This morning, I found myself on a creek I really knew nothing about. In an era where information is available on just about every body of water you could think to fish, it's always odd to find a publicly accessible stream that no one has much to say about. In my experience, it can mean anything from "it runs dry in the summer and has nothing except tadpoles and a few minnows" to "the fishing is so good there is an unspoken agreement to keep it quiet."

Of course, often enough, the fishing is just okay, and it doesn't get talked about much because there are a half dozen better streams within easy driving distance. The point is, you don't know until you get there. 

When I got there, the stream looked positively fishy. The water was clearly up and brown; but not muddy brown, rather the light tannin brown you'd more expect on a north Michigan trout stream than in the Ozark foothills. The water was moving quikly, but had a clasic riffle-pool-run structure, and lots of cover. Exactly what you hope to see, in other words.

I tied on a rooster tail spinner, not knowing what may be in there. That's my go-to prospecting lure; if there is anything from a green sunfish to a smallmouth bass in a creek, it'll usually get you at least a few strikes. 

After about 15 minutes of nothing, I was starting to wonder if my assessment was wrong. Then a hard strike in a little seam between two areas of fast water. The absolute hammer-blow of a strike and dogged fight screamed smallmouth bass. When it came into view, it was clear that was not correct. Instead, I was greeted by the lighter green of a Kentucky bass. 

For about a quarter second, I was mildly disappointed, but no. 20 seconds before, I was beginning to be unsure if this creek had anything north of a minnow, and now I was holding a pretty, hard fighting bass. Whether it was the right type matters in the larger sense, but on a pretty June day after a week of rain on an unknown creek, it was plenty good enough. 

I kept fishing awhile longer. Quite a few more strikes greeted me. I missed more than my share of them, but the ones I brought in looked like carbon copies of the first, all Kentuckies, all about 11 inches, and all putting up more fight than they had a right to. I look forward to exploring some more sections of the creek and seeing if I can find any smallies, but for a quick first trip I would say it went pretty well. 

[Lloyd]

I had a similar experience a few weekends ago. I explored two creeks that I'd never been to before, but which have reputations for being decent smallmouth fisheries. The first creek I visited was awful. The scenery was beautiful, but there were hardly any bass, and the few that were there were small and tight-lipped.

The second creek was completely different in terms of results. I was throwing a Shower Blows 77 WTD lure and almost immediately I caught a 14" smallie. A good start, and in stark contrast to the first creek. I made my way upstream, and continued to catch fish, but after that one smallie all I caught were 10 - 12" spots. It was definitely fun to catch these fish on topwater, and their strikes made them look a lot bigger than they were. But after a while I started to get tired of them, and wanted to catch a big smallie. I plan to try some different sections of this creek and will hopefully find some that are less crowded with spots.

[WestCentralFisher]

17 hours ago, Lloyd said:

I had a similar experience a few weekends ago. I explored two creeks that I'd never been to before, but which have reputations for being decent smallmouth fisheries. The first creek I visited was awful. The scenery was beautiful, but there were hardly any bass, and the few that were there were small and tight-lipped.

The second creek was completely different in terms of results. I was throwing a Shower Blows 77 WTD lure and almost immediately I caught a 14" smallie. A good start, and in stark contrast to the first creek. I made my way upstream, and continued to catch fish, but after that one smallie all I caught were 10 - 12" spots. It was definitely fun to catch these fish on topwater, and their strikes made them look a lot bigger than they were. But after a while I started to get tired of them, and wanted to catch a big smallie. I plan to try some different sections of this creek and will hopefully find some that are less crowded with spots.

Yeah, it's always just so hard to know based on looking at a creek, especially this time of year, if it'll be any good. There is one stream in my area that looks SUPER fishy like 80-90% of the time. Spring fed, cool, nice looking pools, looks like a classic Ozark border smallmouth stream. And it flows through super pretty country. It should be great. 

And it's pretty much a complete waste of time to fish. It has creek chubs, and an occasional green/longear sunfish, and while I cannot definitively say it has no bass in it, if they're in there, they're VERY uncommon. I hike along this creek a lot, and it's very clear, so even though I've mostly stopped bothering to fish it, I still stop and look around. And there just isn't a whole lot to see.

Why, you might ask? The springs are not consistent in major droughts, and every couple years it dries out except for a couple pools here and there, which must be what sustain the fish population such as it is. The 2023 drought in particular did a real number on it. Before then, it had enough sunfish that you could keep yourself entertained catching them on an ultralight. Now, even a green sunfish in a deep pool is an uncommon and welcome site. Even the creek chub numbers are pretty low, though they're the only thing of even remotely fishable size that seems to have persisted in any significant numbers. 

The point is, when you see a creek once or twice, you probably don't know what it looks like in August of a drought year. And that is probably what will determine if it's any good. 

[WestCentralFisher]

Visited again today. Went a little bit upstream, and found a couple smallmouth. Low quality pic as I was in a hurry to release him.

[tjm]

Looks like it'd be perfect bass fly water. 

[WestCentralFisher]

51 minutes ago, tjm said:

Looks like it'd be perfect bass fly water. 

Would guess you are correct, and intend to test that out shortly. 

[tjm]

1 hour ago, WestCentralFisher said:

intend to test that out

Be careful about that, flyrod bass can be addictive; I'd guess it's been 15-20 years since I bothered fishing with spinning tackle. Although I do keep some around. 

[WestCentralFisher]

58 minutes ago, tjm said:

Be careful about that, flyrod bass can be addictive; I'd guess it's been 15-20 years since I bothered fishing with spinning tackle. Although I do keep some around. 

Yup! I used to do it a lot. I've gotten out of practice with the fly rod, but this is the perfect creek to change that with. The fish seem pretty naive and the casting situation would be pretty easy. I can just about guarantee a olive or brown wooly bugger bounced along the bottom would kill it.