July 3 Float Trip

[The Mad Duck 0]

July 3rd was Smallmouth fishing day. We put in and strung up the rods with a variety of Bass type flies,Large Poppers, Clousers and Large Crease Flies. We worked for 2 hours throwing surface, subsurface and heavy sinking flies,but never got a single hit. At that point It was obvious that the fish were not looking up,so...plan B..Spinning gear. I've fished long enough to always have a back up plan! We started with Flukes,Ned Rigs, Chatterbaits, but nothing was working.The fish were just not biting. I went old-school and broke out a Rooster Tail in line spinner in Chartreuse. The next cast a small fish blasted the spinner and the stink was off of the boat. My buddy connected on a fish on a Panther Martin,Black with Chartreuse spots,and he hooked up again on the next cast. We both switched over to the Panther Martin. A few casts later, I hooked up, and, fortunately, had my camera out. I was fishing the fish with one hand and shooting photos with the other, no easy task.

 

We ended up with 10 fish total, none over 14 inches. It was a slow day by any measure, but we DID manage a few fish, got some good photos and had a lot of fun

[mikechell 0]

Another good report, Duck!  Loving the pictures.  Knowing you're having a hard time taking them, makes them humorous as well as good. 😉

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and make a guess.  With the inline spinners, you were retrieving fast enough to keep the lure off the bottom.

I'm also guessing you were retrieving them faster than any other presentation you'd tried.

It might not be the lure, as much as the speed of retrieve.

There was a trip I was on, fishing for Largemouth Bass.  We tried everything.  I put a Rat'LTrap on, and it got hung in a weed.  Frustrated, I jerk it free and started reeling it is as fast as I could to make another cast.  It has only moved about 4 feet when, BAM, Fish ON !!!   My partner had a worm on, and was immediately ready to change to his Rat"L Trap rod.  He was reeling in the worm as fast as he could, and again, BAM, fish on.

Turns out, it didn't matter what lure we used, as long as we were ripping it back to the boat, we'd get hits.  Ended up catching double digits each, on that day.

 

[Jacks Grampa 0]

You're right. Don't let them look at it too long.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Look at this guy, buckin' for photographer of the year or what? 😉

[The Mad Duck 0]

Mike....., We actually started off running them fast, but really didn't start hooking up with any consistency until we slowed them down and worked deeper pockets. That was a real pain keeping the baits off of the bottom. We had MORE than one snagged line to retrieve..
Also, The water was slightly higher than normal but was dropping. The water was also just a smidge more stained than normal. The fish were just off.On a regular day ,in this river,50-75 fish isnt out of the norm. It sounds like on your fishing day, you were provoking reactionary strikes with the faster speed.

Jack...I think that day, they needed to see it more. We were using gold blades on the spinners and having to run them slowly. That was the only thing they wanted and the only presentation that worked.

 

Steve...You should have seen me leaning over the side of the boat, camera in one hand and rod in the other. It was an accident waiting to happen..ha ha