Flint River 9/14

[bigbassin']

Waded about a 1 mile stretch on the Flint today. Shoal bass were the target.

Water temp was probably upper 70s/very low 80s. I don’t have anything to officially check with but it was very comfortable to be in.

Visibility was about 2’ foot with a very silty tinge to it.

Started the day at 8:00 AM throwing a chrome spook around a set of shoals I’ve had luck on in the past. Nothing for about 30 minutes, switched to a green pumpkin rage swimmer. No success with this either so I moved up to the next set of shoals, fan casting along the way with no hits.

Quickly changed from the swim bait over to a jig. Tried both swimming it and dragging it but neither technique produced. Tried a spinner bait briefly, nothing there and I went back to the jig.

I think I almost had a deer walk out of the woods next to me while I was at that second set of shoals. About 75’ down river was a bedding area, bank was covered with deer tracks, and I heard quite a bit of movement in the brush. When the movement sounded like it was right on the other side of the bushes, I could strongly smell some kind of animal there.

Reached a third set of shoals around 11:00 AM that I’d never fished before. Worked the shoals for a bit with no luck. This patch was located on the inside bend, with no rocks/visible cover or structure along the outer river bend. For no particular reason I launched a cast to the outer bend and immediately hooked a shoal bass as my jig sank. Proceeded to miss fish on two back to back casts to the same spot, switched trailers and that landed me a 2nd shoal bass.

I thought I had them figured after this, but it would be 3 hours until my next hit...

After making it up to the 5th set of shoals with nothing since those previous two, I figured I’d call it a day. 

On my way back, I noticed a sand-bottom trough that was roughly 6’ wide by 15’ long, current flowing through it, and grass on either side, I figured one cast with my jig couldn’t hurt. Got a short strike that took off my trailer’s claws. Switched colors and got another short strike. Went to a t-rig with a zoom speed craw, nothing. Switched to a custom pour craw, nothing. Put on a zoom Z-Hawg (last one I had of course) and caught 6 consecutive shoal bass with the biggest at about 16”.

I believe I saw a sturgeon in that trough, not sure if the flint has them. If not, that was one thick ~30” gar. Whatever it was hit the z-hawg when I casted to it and gave me a good fight for about a minute before getting off. After this hit I didn’t get anything else on my next 5 casts.

Moved down to the next similar trough and caught 2 shoal bass on ~10 casts.

Continued to the next trough and got 1 shoal bass, at which point I lost my craw during the fight.

I tried to replicate the trough pattern with a few soft plastics but didn’t get touched again. For whatever reason that z-hawg seemed to be the ticket for the day. Decided to wrap up for good at this point.

Total for the day was 11 fish, with 9 coming between 2:30 PM and 3:15 PM.

Average fish was about 12” like the one in the picture.

[Mbirdsley]

27 minutes ago, bigbassin' said:

Waded about a 1 mile stretch on the Flint today. Shoal bass were the target.

Water temp was probably upper 70s/very low 80s. I don’t have anything to officially check with but it was very comfortable to be in.

Visibility was about 2’ foot with a very silty tinge to it.

Started the day at 8:00 AM throwing a chrome spook around a set of shoals I’ve had luck on in the past. Nothing for about 30 minutes, switched to a green pumpkin rage swimmer. No success with this either so I moved up to the next set of shoals, fan casting along the way with no hits.

Quickly changed from the swim bait over to a jig. Tried both swimming it and dragging it but neither technique produced. Tried a spinner bait briefly, nothing there and I went back to the jig.

I think I almost had a deer walk out of the woods next to me while I was at that second set of shoals. About 75’ down river was a bedding area, bank was covered with deer tracks, and I heard quite a bit of movement in the brush. When the movement sounded like it was right on the other side of the bushes, I could strongly smell some kind of animal there.

Reached a third set of shoals around 11:00 AM that I’d never fished before. Worked the shoals for a bit with no luck. This patch was located on the inside bend, with no rocks/visible cover or structure along the outer river bend. For no particular reason I launched a cast to the outer bend and immediately hooked a shoal bass as my jig sank. Proceeded to miss fish on two back to back casts to the same spot, switched trailers and that landed me a 2nd shoal bass.

I thought I had them figured after this, but it would be 3 hours until my next hit...

After making it up to the 5th set of shoals with nothing since those previous two, I figured I’d call it a day. 

On my way back, I noticed a sand-bottom trough that was roughly 6’ wide by 15’ long, current flowing through it, and grass on either side, I figured one cast with my jig couldn’t hurt. Got a short strike that took off my trailer’s claws. Switched colors and got another short strike. Went to a t-rig with a zoom speed craw, nothing. Switched to a custom pour craw, nothing. Put on a zoom Z-Hawg (last one I had of course) and caught 6 consecutive shoal bass with the biggest at about 16”.

I believe I saw a sturgeon in that trough, not sure if the flint has them. If not, that was one thick ~30” gar. Whatever it was hit the z-hawg when I casted to it and gave me a good fight for about a minute before getting off. After this hit I didn’t get anything else on my next 5 casts.

Moved down to the next similar trough and caught 2 shoal bass on ~10 casts.

Continued to the next trough and got 1 shoal bass, at which point I lost my craw during the fight.

I tried to replicate the trough pattern with a few soft plastics but didn’t get touched again. For whatever reason that z-hawg seemed to be the ticket for the day. Decided to wrap up for good at this point.

Total for the day was 11 fish, with 9 coming between 2:30 PM and 3:15 PM.

Average fish was about 12” like the one in the picture.

Flint river in Michigan ? Could have been a sturgeon if in Michigan.  The Saginaw river has them.  I have herd reports of stergeon In the Shiawassee near Chesaning in the fall. 

[bigbassin']

10 minutes ago, Mbirdsley said:

Flint river in Michigan ? Could have been a sturgeon if in Michigan.  The Saginaw river has them.  I have herd reports of stergeon In the Shiawassee near Chesaning in the fall. 

Flint River in Georgia.

[soflabasser]

Nice shoal bass they are fun to catch.