Nice Smallie From Sunday

[J Francho]

I haven't been putting up reports of every trip out, mainly because although the fishing has been great the past few weeks, I haven't really figured out the big girls.  Big time numbers for May, well over 300 largemouth, over 50 smallies, many drum, brown trout, and steelhead.  The rock bass have moved up as well.

Here is a report from Sunday.  Earlier in the week, fish were still on main points, but active shallow to mid depths.  By the weekend, they'd moved to spawning flats.  Oddly, no weeds yet.

Funny bit on Port Bay this weekend.  I launch at dawn, and a few minutes later, I see bass boats file in from the big lake.  Bass season hasn't opened yet, so I'm wondering who would be running from another bay - would be less gas to simply launch at the bay you want to fish.  So, I run into one of the boats, and they tell me they're having a rock bass tournament out of Sodus.  Makes sense.  They were actually laughing that it will be a good day for bassin', and might be difficult to catch a big googly. 

Next cast, the guy on the front of the boat bangs a huge smallie that launches and shakes off.  We're all laughing about it, and he says sorry for catching my fish.  About two seconds later, I get a big hit on a jig pitched to the back pylon of a dock.  Despite the strike, fish felt smaller.  Yep, not a bass, a googly that would go every bit of 16"!!!!  I tell the guys I caught their fish, so we're even.  We all laughed, but I did feel bad about that one.  Fish was probably worth over grand to them, and a minor nuisance to me.

I put Rocky Balboa right back on its pylon, and told the guys to try for it again in a while.  I have no idea if they got it or not.  I went back in the afternoon, and found only a male guarding a fresh bed where they lost the big smallie.  He was easy pickings, a nice 2.5 lb. fish.

I spotted many large fish, but often had to fish through the rats to get to them.  I'd pitch a bait near my target, and five scrubs would come flying in out of nowhere to be the first to hit my bait.  I used this opportunity to use some baits I hadn't had success on and to see what those rats would actually eat.  They really wanted bigger...the bigger I went, the more aggressive these pre spawn/no spawn fish got.  Funny seeing a 16" rat with a 9" swimbait hanging out of its mouth, LOL.

Two fish had my attention for over an hour each.  Both were largemouth, 6 lbs. easy, maybe over 7.  Could not entice them.  I didn't see as many smallies, but they were there.  This fish took about 20 minutes to convert into a biter, unusual for a smallie on a bed.  Biggest fish of the day, a little shy of 4 lbs.  A very nice lake smallie for the area, though a little beat up.  Note the black spot.

[EastTexasBassin]

Nice fish!

[roadwarrior]

Nice fish, story & pic!

8-)

[Dwight Hottle]

Nice bass John. The rock bass are on fire over here as well.

[J Francho]

Thanks Dwight, Kent, ETX.  I think I may have tossed a state record googly back. NYS record rock bass is 1-15. This fish was close, if not bigger. Oh well, LOL.

[b.Lee]

Nice fish indeed J... and cool story must be relaxing to be on your own pace in a kayak

[firefightn15]

Thanks Dwight, Kent, ETX. I think I may have tossed a state record googly back. NYS record rock bass is 1-15. This fish was close, if not bigger. Oh well, LOL.

Nice catch J........what's a googly?

[J Francho]

Thanks Dwight, Kent, ETX. I think I may have tossed a state record googly back. NYS record rock bass is 1-15. This fish was close, if not bigger. Oh well, LOL.

Nice catch J........what's a googly?

Thanks. Local name for a Rock Bass: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_bass

Rocky Balboa, googly, google eye, goggle eye, red eye, are few others.

b.Lee, its relaxing, in its own way.  Sometimes frustrating in that you can't get away from your gear.  Just another tool to get to the fish for me.

[Paul Roberts]

Nice report. And that IS a monster rocky! 

[A-Jay]

Stud Smallie. Nice job as usual J. I've never heard of anyone holding a Rocky Tournament. I think it's cool and bet it's probably fun too. Those wacky rock bass, what they may lack size but they really try to make up for it with attitude. And a 16" red eye surely would have taken "Big Fish". I'm in the same situation up here as well, plenty of keeper smb but the "Photo Fish" have pull the old Houdini Act. I'm heading out tonight for some night ops. This week has been very hot, I hoping the night shift will produce.

A-Jay

[shimmy]

As a side note, what i like about you J Francho is that you are consistently a good fisherman and you don't lie about the weight of your fish. Why it bothers my so much when people do, i don't know. Nevertheless it is refreshing. Beautiful smallie. It's been a while since i have gone for a smallie.

Speakin of smallies, Road Warrior i am waiting for you to share some new big smallie stories. I love the story of your biggun that got away.

Nice fish, keep it up J

[J Francho]

Paul, so much for my "if I catch a record, its going on ice" theory....I totally forgot that the NYS record is 1-15.  This guy was easily over 2.  I'm a little upset at myself, but I'll be making a copy of the records list...

AJ, rocky tournaments are a long standing tradition up here, from the days when there was no catch and release season.  Since before '06 it was illegal to even target fish before the end of June, holding a rock bass tournament bent the rules a bit.  Having a few stud rockies in your livewell indicated your target species, and you'd invariably run into many, many of the pre spawn/no spawn bass maruding the shallows.

Shimmy, Great Lakes fishing offers so many opportunities for different species.  I can hit swampy, wooded, weed choked water, or great expanses of open water, all from the same launch.  The bonus is, even though the bays are in spawn mode now, the big lake will be a few more weeks, just the beds are a bit deeper.

[Paul Roberts]

PB is the place. It always was. I thought the record was 2-2? We always wanted to break it there.

[J Francho]

1-15 is what's listed on the DEC site, and its 26 years old!  Time for that one to go!