Bass before the rain

I went out this morning and hit the river a little later than I hoped.  I got there at about 8:15.  The sky was gray, the water was low and clear; I thought it would be a decent outing.  I fished down river from where I walked in.  I fished through about three quarters of the water accessible on this section of stream and I only had one fish bite.  Sadly, I lost the fish due to a dull hook point.  I had gotten hung up on a rock moments before I lost the fish and failed to inspect the hook point after I snagged.  Needless to say I had a fish on and lost it because of my negligence.  At this point I started to wonder why the fishing was so bad, cold front coming in, dropping pressure, low clear water; who knows.  Places that normally hold fish were not producing anything this morning.  I started swinging through a faster run and bam, fish on.  This fish pulled hard making it clear that this was a sizable fish. I worked the fish in and brought it to hand.  It was a very nice smallmouth, a large fish for this area.  At this point I felt like the slow morning was worth the wait.  This was the fish of the day, a picture is below.  I caught another smallie that was slight larger than average and a small rock bass to finish out the morning.  Just after releasing the rock bass, noticed a slight drizzle.  At this point I thought to myself, I need to get back to the car before it rains.  I didn't bring a rain jacket because I thought it was supposed to rain this afternoon, not this morning.  As I walked back to the car it started raining and progressively came down harder and harder.  I got my gear in the car and jumped in with my waders and boots on because had I waited a moment longer I would have gotten drenched.  Just as I closed the door it went from a rain to an out right downpour.  I made it to the car just in time to avoid getting completely soaked and I caught a good size bass; I felt like I had a lucky morning.

   

Sight casting to carp

Wednesday night after work I went down to an area I fish a lot during steelhead season, but not often during the warmer months. The water was low (about 65 CFM) and extremely clear. There was about four feet of visibility in some places, the best I’ve seen. I started catching fish as soon as I got there. I caught an average sized bass after a cast or two. I worked my way up river and caught another smallie hanging out near a rock pile. I continued to move up river and was standing in a sandy bottom pool that was three or four feet deep casting down river to a rock pile below me when I saw a carp cruising the around the bottom of the pool off to the side of where I was standing. I cast my fly to the carp and striped the fly very slowly, nothing. I decided to give it a second try before going back to the rock pile I was working before I saw the carp. I cast a little bit further out and started with the same slow stripping action and this time the carp took the fly. It was less of a smacking hit like a bass and more of a slow steady pull; but, the fish was on. The carp went on a couple of slow steady runs. Finally after a brief struggle, the fish was brought to hand. It was an average sized carp for this river. Nothing really special; but, it was the largest fish I caught that day. I have a picture below. It’s not the best picture because of how I held the fish to take the picture. I guess I should have taken the picture of the fish in the water rather than holding it. Oh well, live and learn. As I continued to fish up river, I caught another averaged size small mouth bass, and two very large shiners that were the size of an average sized bass! All together I caught six fish Wednesday night in the two and a half hours I was on the river. It was a good outing. Some strange things happened on my way out. As I was walking down river to the path that goes back to the parking lot, I heard some huge splashes in the water! It sounded like someone throwing bowling balls into the water from twenty feet up. I don’t know what made those splashes; the way it sounded was as if it were very large fish jumping out of the water. The splashing sounds were not made by ducks or anything like that and I didn’t see another person the whole time I was on the water. If those splashes were made by fish, they had to be huge! It got dark before I started walking out. The area I was at is a 15 minute walk through the woods from the river to the car. I saw several deer as I walked out through the woods in the dark. The deer were spooky looking when my head lamp lit up their eyes. The light made their eyes glow like the cat in Pet Cemetery. Needless to say I was happy to get to the car and out of the woods.

Looking for silver, I got bronze

I fished Friday after work and Saturday morning (yesterday). I caught a few really nice river smallies on these last outings. The first one bass came from way up river on Friday, where the fish are usually a lot smaller. The other two I caught on Saturday were from much lower down, about a mile from the lake. When I got to the river on Friday, the water was as low and clear as I have ever seen. I could clearly see the bottom in place where it is normally not visible. Friday’s big bass was one of several fish caught that day, but the large bass was the only noteworthy fish. I caught this bass on a small crayfish fly that was dead drifted through a run next to the bank that had under cut the bank just below a tree exposing its roots. This was a prime place for a bass to call home. I have fished this spot before without much success because of the overhanging tree. It is very difficult to cast the fly to the proper place without getting hung up in the trees. I think I’ve tried so many times and failed, that I gained enough experience to make the perfect cast this time around. On the second or third drift I hooked up and this fish fought a very sporting fight. The overhanging tree again became a problem as I was fighting the fish. With my rod high, the tip and line got caught up in the tree again giving the bass an unfair advantage. Eventually I untangled the rod tip, and used side pressure by positioning the rod parallel to the stream, keeping the tip low, to fight the fish and bring it to hand. I did get a picture with my cell phone camera which is posted below. The way the fish is lying in my hand its head and tail hang lower than its body making it look smaller in the picture than it really was. Regardless, you can tell by the picture that it was a chunky bass!

 

Saturday’s outing was an attempt to get into some early season steelhead.  I drove North (down river) to the location closest to the mouth of the river where you can actually wade.  I got there and there were a handful of other fisherman, no one had caught anything.  I started out by drifting an egg pattern with a stone fly trailer.  That was worthless.  I next attempted to swing a streamer.  I figured that I could catch bass or steelhead this way.  Sure enough I was right.  I didn’t catch the steelhead I was after.  I did catch a broad shouldered bass shortly after I started swing the streamer fly.  I moved down river continuing to pursue the elusive steelhead.  I didn’t catch anything as I moved down.  I waded back up a bit and eventually hooked into another nice bass.  The bass lower down are always larger than their counterparts up river, so the fish I caught near the moth were of average size for where I was at.  As they were average fish, I didn’t take a picture.

While I was fishing on Saturday, I talked to a guy who said he has seen steelhead chasing shad around in the area where we were fishing.  I have also heard and read reports of the rare chromer being caught here or there.  I do believe there are a couple of early arrivals that have made it into the river systems.  I personally have not seen anyone catch a steelhead, nor have I caught one myself yet this season.  We need rain and some cooler weather to bring in the first real run of steelhead.  The next week or two should bring in the first run of fish.  I have been tying up egg and stonefly patterns getting ready for the run!     

Scouting Trip

Monday night I was out scouting a section of river for steelhead season.  I’ve fished this area before, but only once.  I was surprised by how much of the bottom was flat solid rock in this stretch of river.  I thought this section offered more gravel bottom than it has.  I managed to catch a handful of fish while I was out.  The first fish I caught was a good size creek chub that hit a fly that was being stripped through a fast run.  This fish hit like a bass, I was really surprised to find a chub on the end of my leader.  I also caught a rock bass and a couple of smallies too. One of the smallies was a decent size, a picture of that fish is below.  The larger smallie was caught along side a downed tree in faster current.  The other smallmouth was caught just behind a long stone pillar that was stuck in the stream bed on its side.  I cast to the end of the pillar that was deeper and as soon as the fly hit the water the bass crushed it.  If I had to judge the fish by its strike, I would have told you this was a 3 pounder.  I covered a lot of water in a short time since I was really out to scout. I would have liked to spend more time fishing some of these spots.  I guess that will have to wait till later when steelhead season gets into full swing.

  

Leaky waders...

I went out fishing early this morning. The air temp was about 60 degrees at my house, it's usually a little cooler on the river at the bottom of the valley.  I decided to wear waders to be comfortable.  My old pair of waders have been repaired several times, and I found out this morning they are still taking on water.  I already bought a new pair of Simms waders.  I haven't worn them yet because I was saving them for Steelhead season to start.  Basically, I've been trying to get as much wear out of the old pair as possible before I break out the new pair.  Needless to say, the old pair still leak despite several repairs.  I explored a new part of river today and was pretty dissapointed.  I walked about a mile up river from the access point and I found some beautiful looking water, after several casts through a run that should have produced something, I walked down into the run and came to find that the bottom was solid and flat, all shale with no structure of any kind.  There was a lot of this water in the new section I explored today, I found one riffell, run and pool that was littered with bolders on the bottom and caught two smallmouth, one was small and the other was an average sise fish for a resident river fish. The average fish was the big fish of the day.  There is a pic of the of that fish above.  Other than those bass, I also caught a few other smallies, and a blue gill.  It was a decent morning on the river.     

Ripped Off!!!

Last night I went out to the river at about 6:30, sun set is at 7:50 now. It get’s completely dark by 8:35. The water was stained and running a little higher than it has in the last few weeks. I saw a lot of fish feeding on the surface, mostly baitfish I think. I tried casting streamers and poppers to the areas where I saw surface activity with no success. I worked my way across the river to a deep spot near the far bank and stripped a popper across the pool; this effort produced a little smallmouth, nothing exciting. I worked my way down river with no hits. It was dark by this time; I already had the headlamp on. I decided this was going to be the last pool I’d fish before heading back to the car, on the second cast I felt something that felt like a tug and went to set the hook, when I did this my fly was ripped right off. I don’t know if I had hooked a fish or a log or what. I don’t think it was a small mouth, if it was a fish it was probably a carp. Either way my fly got ripped off! I felt robbed. At least I caught the little bass earlier and wasn’t skunked.

Just before the rain

I hit the river just before it started to rain this evening. On the very first cast I caught a small rock bass. Much better than my last few trips to the river. I started to walk down river to the next hole. When I got there, there was some lady and her kids. The kids were swimming in the spot I wanted to fish. I moved on to the next spot. Things slowed down a bit; I fished through around the bend and started to cast at a log jam. A couple of casts at this log jam and I hooked into what I thought was a small mouth. I brought to hand a crappie; it was a beautiful fish, sort of rainbow of colors. The picture of that fish is above. I moved on down and started to strip a tube jig fly through some fast water and caught a small mouth. It was an average sized fish about 12 inches and on the skinny side, not really picture worthy. I worked my way up and around the next bend and started working a deep pocket between boulders in slow moving water. I caught another small rock bass. I gave this pool another effort and hooked a decent sized creek chub, not the bass I was looking for. I continued down river as it was starting to drizzle a little bit. I decided to drift a small crayfish pattern through a pool that has a huge downed tree with the roots facing up river. I drifted the pool a couple of times and got nothing. I thought I'd give it one or two more drifts before heading back to the car to avoid the rain. On the next drift through, I saw a slight hesitation in the drift, I struck to set the hook and felt a nice hard tug on the other end of the line. Fish On!! I could tell by the way this fish was fighting it was of respectable size. I brought the fish to hand and was really surprised by the size of this small mouth relative to the feeling of the take. I would expect a much more vicious take from a bass this size, it was almost undetectable. A picture of the fish is below.

   

After work action...

I left work yesterday and went down to the river for about two hours.  I was way up river from where I fished on Wednesday.  The water was not as muddy as it was the day before, but it was stained with only about 12" of visibility.  Maybe the water was all muddy on Wednesday from the rain not road construction?  At this point I'm not sure.  It was a nice afternoon to be out on the river, it was about 73 degrees, and was sunny.  I fished an area that I fish pretty frequently and found the fishing to be slow.  I only caught two smallies, and one creek chub.  One of the smallies was average size, the other was small, the creek chub was tiny.  The larger smallie was taken on a popper.  I saw a fish break the surface near where I was dead drifting a crayfish so I tied on the popper and cast just above where I saw the disturbance in the water a moment before.  It took a few casts but the bass could not resist the tasty looking popper.  I caught this bass on the same blue gill popper I had great success with a little while back, there is a photo of the fly in the entry titled Top Water Action.  A picture of the bass I caught yesterday is below.    

Muddy muddy water

I went down the river today, not too far from the lake.  I heard some guys are starting to catch steelhead off the breakwalls and near the mouth of the river.  I was too far up river for steelhead. I figured I'd scout out some of the areas I like to fish for steelhead.  When I got near the water I was shocked at out how muddy the water was.  It rained really hard for a few days, but the last two or three days have been without rain.  There is some construction on a bridge just up river from where I was, maybe that was the cause.  I moved up river and again, the water was really muddy.  Again, there was a construction just up river from where I was at.  I did manage to catch one small mouth, it was about 10", a small fish.  I hope the finish the brdge work soon.  Muddy water ruins the fishing.