Epic Day on The River

[Scott F]

I’m on a fishing trip on a river in the UP of Michigan. The water levels were high when we arrived on Tuesday morning and have steadily gone up. High, fast water usually pushes bass tight to the bank, out of the current. Tuesday afternoon, and this (Wednesday) morning, fishing was slow. The water was cloudy and even making casts to slack water along the shore didn’t produce much. One here, one there on wacky rigs, Senkos, and the Whopper Plopper.  

We took a break for lunch and to rest, and went back out for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Somebody threw the switch that turned the smallies on. The only real change that was apparent, was the cloud cover that came in advance of some storms due later tonight into tomorrow. The Whopper Plopper bite was on fire. The number of fish wasn’t remarkable, but the average size was. In the 50 plus years of chasing smallmouth, I’ve never had such a day. The biggest was “only” 19 inches, but only 1 of the 30 smallmouth was less than 16 inches. Almost every one was 17 inches. Getting them to the boat through the fast current gave us everything we could handle. A fish would turn sideways in the current and was nearly impossible to move. We never would have guessed after the previous sessions of the last day that such a change was coming. 

 

[TnRiver46]

Awesome!!! Glad they turned on 

[BassNJake]

I agree AWESOME!!

30 smallies after lunch- on topwater- fighting current, I'd take that anyday!!

[roadwarrior]

[senile1]

What fun!  Those are some nice looking smallies.

[Scott F]

Can’t beat catching nice smallmouth in just a couple feet of water in the middle of the summer. 

[bowhunter63]

Awesome day there