My goal has been to catch a smallmouth on a popper for the
first time this season. I have not
fished a popper much yet this season because I have not seen any surface
activity and when I’ve been out I haven’t had a whole lot of time to fish so I’ve
been fishing flies that I knew would have the highest chance of catching a
fish.
Yesterday evening I went out for a couple of hours before my
wife got home for dinner. It was 94
degrees and humid. The river was low and
cloudy and over 85 degrees. I decided I
was going to fish a popper until I caught a fish. Nothing in the first pool I fished, on to the
next pool. I worked the rocky bank where
there is a drop off pretty hard. The
first few casts didn’t get any kind of reaction. On the sixth or seventh cast through this
pool, a large dark shadow emerged below the popper. As the shadow emerged, it become clear that
it was a very large smallmouth, it hovered below the popper inspecting it. I gave the popper a twitch. The huge fish could not resist and ate the
fly. I struck to set the hook. I felt a slight tug and lost the
connection. The fish quickly disappeared
into the deep. I switched flies out of desperation
because I couldn’t get a fish to eat the popper. I caught a rock bass on a crayfish fly on the
last cast to avoid the skunk.
I went out again today.
It was 93 degrees and humid today.
The water was over 85 degrees.
The water was still low and cloudy, but had cleared some with about two
feet if limited visibility. I began
fishing a crayfish fly because it was still rigged from last night and I wanted
to get the skunk off before I switched to a popper. I quickly caught a beautifully colored
sunfish, and then a crappie. I decided
to switch to the popper for the rest of the evening.
I cast across a slow pool and gave the fly one good pop
after it hit the water near the far bank.
A big smallmouth crushed the fly!
The fish leaped two feet out of the water, shook its head and threw the
fly. I was disgusted when I lost this
fish. It was a “f*cking damn it” moment! Two big smallmouth lost on the popper. Was I striking too soon? Was the hook point dull? What was I doing wrong? Why was I losing these big fish? Why couldn’t I land a bass on a popper?
I shook it off and kept fishing the popper. I was determined to land a smallmouth on a
popper today. I worked my way around the
bend and began working some rip rap on the far bank. BAM! Fish on!! I finally landed a big
smallmouth on the popper for the first time this season. It was a nice feeling to finally have some
success with the popper after some big disappointments. I kept working the rip rap and caught another
smallmouth, a big rock bass with some kind of parasite, and another good sized
smallmouth. I had worked my way to some
posted property and had one small pool left to fish. This pool had an eddy at the head of the pool
and a downed tree on the far side of the pool.
I worked the eddy without a response and moved on to the downed
tree. First cast near the tree was a déjà
vu moment. A big dark shadow appeared
from the depths below the fly; it hovered below the fly for a moment and sipped
it in. A brief tug and the fish was
gone. I saw it turn and swim away. This was one of the biggest bass I have ever
seen in this river. It was literally the
size of a carp; I could not believe I lost another big fish. F*ck!
On the way back to the car I made a little friend, a squirrel
that kept following me in a playful kind of way. He was pretty cute so I took some pictures of
him.
