A little river trip

[mike bat]

Today I had a few hours to walk the river .. my buddy and I got into a few river smallmouth .. some bed fish !! 

[smr913]

Nice fish! My absolute favorite kind of fishing. What were you catching them on? I've just now got enough free time to hit the river a couple times this Spring, but haven't caught more than a few dinks. 

[mike bat]

A zoom trick worm the smaller one Texas rigged on a 2 ot ewg with a quarter oz tungsten bullet .. they were crushing that worm .. 

[MNGeorge]

What spinning reel is that in the picture? It appears to have a larger diameter spool than most spinning reels I've seen.

[mike bat]

Daiwa balistic 3000 . It's a amazing reel .. I love the wide spool .. I use suffix 832 10lb braid .. the casting is awesome,, no wind knots and killer distance on my cast ..

[MNGeorge]

Thanks, I'll look at one.

[Spankey]

I live and die for river smallies. Nice fish. Looks like a great day. I've been getting into dinks and runts. I struggle with the spawn. Not worried or sweating it. I'll be into some nice ones. Been throwing cranks and jerkbaits, can't pull myself away from them yet. Nice fish Mike. 

[Crestliner2008]

Some very respectable smallies. Must have given you a heck of a battle in such confined waters.

[mike bat]

Spankey try slowing down with a small trick worm or tube or even a small jig .. remember pre spawn fish tend to be slower . Work the shallows really good and slow.. any banks with pebbles or small rocks mixed with big rock are always my first targets.. you don't have to see a bed to catch a bedding bass .. not to mention you may catch em before they even reach a bed .. if u need to catch em on a crank try a jerk bait but again slow that thing down .. long pauses .. hang in there .: it's all water time .. learning and learning and learning .. tight lines get on em 

Crest .. yes they fight like hell .. best bite going .. it was a blast but now I'm antisapting that summer smallmouth bite ,, you know the one .. wen they jerk the rod outta ur hand ?.. that one can't wait .. I love fishing Wisconsin we have so many good smallmouth waters and largemouth too .: 

[Turkey sandwich]

Spankey - if you're catching dink's pre-spawn into the spawn, you're fishing the wrong water, typically.  Move towards spawning areas or the first change in depth or solid piece of cover near them.  Juvenile fish may already be feeding pretty aggressively in faster current, but larger females are going to be sitting in or near the spawn.  I'll also second the above suggestion about fishing jigs and tubes.  You want something you can keep bottom contact with and fish slowly that imitates something likely to pick off eggs/fry.  Depending upon depth and current, for me, this means jigs ranging from Bitsy Bugs to 3/8oz football jigs tipped with a small craw. 

 

Good luck!

[JodyaEly]

Took a float trip this weekend and absolutely killed them on the river.Fished a Texas rig with a Zoom 4 inch Watermelon crawfish.Always fished crank bait on this part of the  river but no more.Water was up and running fast so didnt get to fish but one side of the river plus had the girl friend with me.Caught 12 super nice small mouths and she caught the big fish of the trip on a floated live minnow.She was happy but she made her first and last trip this spring.If she wasnt with me i would have caught at least forty keepers.I had never caught over four or five fish on this float but they loved that zoom crawfish.

Edited June 7, 2017 by JodyaEly
spelling

[Spankey]

Fished tubes and grubs this past weekend. Fish got a bit nicer. Been getting a lot of rain here in eastern PA. Gonna do some river fishing Saturday. Hope to get a few days of sun prior. Seems to clear the water faster. But that might just be a coincidence. Not sure if you guys are familiar with road kill or camo works pretty consistent spring, summer or fall. But I know everyone is into their own thing. 

 

I'm not a true Musky fisherman but I take a bit of time to fish for them in a few areas I fish for smallies. I've caught a few by accident while smallies fishing over the years and they are a pretty cool fish also. It's crazy though. I bought a few spinnerbaits for them over the years but have only caught them on my Smallie baits. 

 

Good of luck if you get out. 

[king fisher]

I fished a small river last week with the water temp. in the low 60.s.  I normally catch lots of nice small mouth in this river on inline spinners, floating rapalas, and crayfish colored crank baits.   A friend and I fished our normal holes, and riffles with every spinner, jerk bait, top water, and crank bait in our boxes landing only a few small bass, and a couple of rainbow trout for our efforts.  I decided to try a green pumpkin Hula grub on a quarter ounce round jig head in my favorite whole.  I caught a fish almost every cast.  The bass were between 2 and 3 pounds.  Also landed a dozen rainbow and brown trout.  Biggest bow was pushing five pounds.  I guess the fish were feeding on crayfish and wanted a slow presentation.  Firs time I ever fished a Hula Grub.  Wish I would have had more time to try other plastic craws and other colors to see if they worked as well.  I did try an inline spinner before  I quit, just to see if it was the lure or the time of day.  No fish on the spinner, put the hula grub back on and landed two more nice bass.  I was shocked.  Until then I would have bet any amount of money, that I  could always catch a fish on a spinner in that hole if fished properly.  My friend was to stubborn to borrow a Hula Grub from me, but I'm sure he has his own now.  I guess what I'm trying to say in way to many words, is if you only catch small fish, try fishing slower in less current.