Sploosh!

[Will Wetline]

I was seriously jonesing for a smallmouth. Usually I'm done the first week of July because I can't find these fish in the vastness of Quabbin's open water where the majority roam until next spring. Too, I find the heat and humidity oppressive and don't want to be out there broiling all day.

 

That said, let's start on the Big Bass Breakline at 7:00, July 13. This is an uncommonly steep drop off sand flats and can produce smallmouth perhaps at any time of year. It's the spot in which I have the most confidence this day, and to fish it, I've got Carolina rigging on my mind. The game plan was to work back and forth and drag a variety of soft plastics through the sand grass covered bottom, deep.

 

But first let's try out a bait I had acquired during a short spending spree last March. ( I now regularly attend meetings of Bait Buyers Anonymous to help me keep these urges in check.) I tied a Super Spook Jr. on a 6 1/2' medium power, fast action casting rod with 10 lb. copolymer. Length of cast is far enough and the Spook goes swish, swish, swish when I get the several aspects of the retrieve coordinated. I thought it likely this early in the day to intercept a fish cruising the line between the sand and the weeds.

 

 

Here's one now, a modest-sized smallie with a good appetite. Good to get the skunk off at 7:10. Fifteen minutes later another decent fish busts the Spook but . . . Would someone explain to me how a bass can charge up through the water column, whip the surface into froth yet avoid six honed hooks?

 

Time to dredge the depths. I reposition several times in this area which has produced for me for twenty years. Tried softbaits of different lengths, shapes and colors - even pink. Action? Nada. Not even a tap from a dink. Nothing on a T-rigged hula grub! Wacky Senko ignored!! My confidence has diminished significantly.

 

Then, at about 11:00, a boat sets up about 150 yards away from me. It appears to be anchored more than a cast length away from the sand, over a dark, "nothing" bottom. Their rods appeared to be stationary. Were they fishing live bait? They certainly weren't throwing reaction baits.

 

It wasn't long before they were whooping it up, the net in the water again and again. Friends in another boat pulled up about 1/2 hour into this frenzy and I heard a report of "Smallmouth. 3 1/2 - 4 lbs."  Really? There? At this time of year?  Yup.  

 

 

It was looking bleak and raining lightly. The smallmouth slayers fired up their craft and headed, at speed, toward Gate 43. I thought I'd putt-putt over to the area they were fishing and make a coupla casts. Positioned well off the flats as they were, I stopped the outboard and thought that conditions were good  for a drift. Picked up the Spook rod and figured at least I'd stay amused by watching the bait work.

 

Swish, swish, swish . . . Sploosh!

 

 

 

This smallmouth came out of maybe 15' of 78.8º water.

 

Not long after the photo op the clouds parted, the sun came out and it got breezy. That was enough of a change, apparently, to shut down any remaining big smallies in the neighborhood. I did drift outside edges around other areas of this extensive flat but the topwater bite was over.

 

There was one just-legal, extra-feisty smallie that ate the Spook on the Bass Magnet but that was it on top. I expected more from the Magnet so I reworked the area with a 5" wacky rigged Senko with a slow reel-and-twitch retrieve, keeping it off the slimy bottom.

 

 

Moving down to the Bald Head Ridge, I caught a couple of dinks on the Senko and, on my last last cast, landed a 1 1/2 lber. that must have followed the wiggling wonder right back to the boat.

 

Reviewing this day I have to chuckle: I was certain that I'd find fish deep and could coax them to bite with a slow, steady retrieve. Turned out that all the fish came from 0' - 5' and the best on a hardbait that behaved like a squirrel in traffic. It pays to be observant and to change presentation accordingly. And it probably helps to be a little bit crazy too.

[A-Jay]

^{A most excellent report ~ Thank you for sharing it.}

 

^{Find & catching smallies (during the heat of summer) is always a challenge and one most guys aren't willing to take on.  Good for you.  It's interesting & typical at the same time, that so often they just are not where we might expect them to be.  But you were willing and able to adapt and you were rewarded for that. Nice Job.}

 

^A-Jay

[Darren.]

Agree with A-Jay! Well done!

[Tuckahoe Joe]

Nice fish!

[EvanT123]

Detailed, informative, and nice fish. Great Report. Nice job.

[Bankbeater]

Good job!

[senile1]

^{A most excellent report ~ Thank you for sharing it.}

 

^{Find & catching smallies (during the heat of summer) is always a challenge and one most guys aren't willing to take on.  Good for you.  It's interesting & typical at the same time, that so often they just are not where we might expect them to be.  But you were willing and able to adapt and you were rewarded for that. Nice Job.}

 

^A-Jay

 

And I would add that I like the fact that you were humble enough to describe the other group of anglers who were catching fish while you hit a drought.  I get tired of the stories where the angler pulls up to a spot where someone else isn't catching fish and then proceeds to slay them.  Funny that we rarely hear the story the other way around. 

[Dwight Hottle]

Great read.

[roadwarrior]

Excellent!

 

 

 

[jtharris3]

Excellent report!