The smallies must have liked the warmer weather, warmer water and perfect creek levels and in the past few days have been moving up quickly.
Friday after work it took a good hour and a half to get to a spot on a creek that normally takes under an hour. Traffic has sucked all week as stupid people dropped from the sky onto the roads to screw things up for everybody else.
About an hour and a half of fishing and went 9/4 on smallies. Foul hooked a couple of carp/suckers and thought I had another one foul hooked when it went airborne. A gar nearly 3 feet long with my little lure in the edge of it’s snout. A twist as it came down and the lure flew back at me. That was pretty cool to watch. Makes me wonder about those other two that I thought I foul hooked.
Fished the first quarter mile of a creek for those. Heard that a couple of stray smallies and a bunch of catfish were caught further up. They’re all moving up faster than I thought they would. They must have liked this weeks weather too.
Tomorrow I think I’ll go check another creek two miles in to see if they’ve got that far.
I’m also eternally grateful that the average fisherman will never figure out how to fish small flowing water.
More for me.
JustinCarf
19 Apr 2015Very interesting. So, you never got to see those other foul hooked fish. That happened to me on the Illinois River, I thought I was hitting carp, but I eventually got a hook up and to my surprise, it was a gar. A very nice outing for you none the less. Beautiful smallies. I don’t think I’ll ever grow tried of them and their markings.
Ken G
20 Apr 2015Normally Justin I can tell the difference on a foul hooked carp or sucker by the way it feels. At least in this stretch of the Fox, I’m starting to wonder. Still can’t decide whether to target gar. Bass thumb on a good day is bad enough, but I’d like to keep my thumbs and I’ve seen all those teeth on a gar.
Gramps (Mel)
19 Apr 2015I wish I was in your shoes, or, in your water about right now. I love me some Smallmouth Bass when I can. Sadly, that is not very often…..
Pound for pound the best fighting fish I have ever caught.
Ken G
20 Apr 2015On the small creeks I fish Mel, even a 12 inch smallie is big for the water it lives in and it behaves that way. If you’re lucky to get the occasional 16-18 inch, all hell breaks loose. I like that kind of hell.
Gramps (Mel)
20 Apr 2015Hey, Ken, I hear you on that statement. The largest “Smallie” I have ever caught was from a small lake. I caught a few on that particular day that all ran about 15″.
What a set of shoulders on those dudes!