This past week I spent three days fishing for smallmouth on rivers in Minnesota with Minnesotan friend John House and others.  It's a trip I've made several times, and eagerly look forward to it whenever the opportunity arises.  Compared to other summertime smallmouth fisheries, the brown bass fishing on the Upper Mississippi is pretty amazing. 

I've often remarked that river smallmouth fight harder than largemouth in most lakes, but the current-oriented smallies of Minnesota are particularly hard hitters.  Just ask Lawrence Taylor who was ramrodding this writer trip on behalf of PRADCO Fishing. 

On day two, LT and I were fishing with Eric Altena, an Area Fisheries Manager with a passion for smallmouth bass angling.  Fishing on a small flow that was no wider than PA's French Creek (but with more water flow), the bigger smallmouth were hugging the bank on outside turns.  A fast-moving swim jig was the ticket to drawing strikes.  The fish would hit the jig when it touched the water near the shore, or if the bass missed the jig, the smallmouth would chase it to the boat.    

One particularly aggressive fish swiped at LT's swim jig three times before latching onto it almost at boat side.  The brown bass hit so hard that it jerked the borrowed casting rod right out of his hands.  As I watched the rod disappear into the water, I saw LT teetering on the transom platform of Eric's River Pro.  It looked like he was going to fall in.  I dropped my rod and reached out to grab him.  But LT was already in the air - diving in after the rod. 

He comes up gasping for air, yelling "I've got the rod and fish is still on it."  So, here's LT doggie paddling with one arm as he holds the rod in the other.  I so wanted to grab my camera, but felt my duty was to help retrieve LT.  (Oh how I wanted that picture!)

Perhaps a minute passed before the boat caught up with LT who was being pulled downstream in the current; Eric and I pulled him aboard, rod still in hand.  Check out the photo with pooled water around the knee to see the smallmouth that pulled LT into the river.

In daytime temperatures that reached into the 90s with high humidity, we still managed to land 60 to 100 smallmouth a day per boat.  Many of the smallmouth in the Mississippi were extremely dark - perhaps due to the 83 degree water temperature.  Fish were taken on Houdini Shad soft jerkbaits, Yum Tubes, swim jigs, Dancin' Eel, and of course Yum Dingers.  Actually, LT had brought a few new F2 Dingers to field test.  The first morning I alternated between the standard Dinger and the new F2 Dingers with water-soluble scent - the F2 Dingers outfished the regular ones by 5 to 1!

 

As Good As Live Bait

Over the July 4th weekend, Marilyn and I spent a few hours one afternoon fishing for smallmouth on the Allegheny River.  The sky was bright blue without a cloud, the river level was as low as I had seen it in two years, and the water clearer than normal - which altogether can make catching bass a tough proposition.  Add to that the hundreds of kayaks and canoes in a never ending procession -- I have never seen so many paddlers! 

After 50 minutes of working favorite summer soft jerkbaits, swimbaits, tubes, crankbaits and topwater along normally productive areas, Marilyn was wishing we had taken time to gather live bait ahead of time for this river outing...especially after watching a father and two sons catch several bass on creek-caught minnows.

Motoring downstream a bit, in the clear water I spotted a mid-stream chunk rock ridge about 4 feet under the water in a deep current pool.  We dropped anchor in 8 feet of water above the head of the rock bar.  Frustrated with casting and not catching anything, Marilyn nose-hooked a 4-inch Yum Green Pumpkin Dinger with only a split shot for weight...looking very much like a live bait rig.  She threw into the current and let it drift down onto the rocks, where it hovered out of our sight but barely off the bottom.  Meanwhile, I continued slinging other lures to no avail.

Three minutes into deadsticking the Yum Dinger, Marilyn swept her rod  high in a hookset!  The drag squealed as she lost and then gained line, eventually netting an extremely pump 14-inch fish.  Two more minutes of deadsticking another Dinger, she had another larger smallmouth in the net.  That was my cue to switch.

After hitting two similar areas downstream, we called it quits -- officially tied at eight smallmouth each.  The two largest were just over 18 inches.  Every bass came by deadsticking a Dinger in deep current on rocks.  While most bass had one or two green crawfish protruding from their throats, they could not resist the Dinger.  One smallmouth had a slightly different taste in natural food -- it spit up a 7-inch mole!

Releasing the larger fish we had held for a photo, Marilyn felt obliged to say, "Who needs live bait when you can deadstick a Dinger?"          

7 Waterways in 6 Days

Last week Marilyn and I headed out on a six day fish-a-thon.  This was a work trip for me but a vacation from work for Marilyn.  Connecticut was our destination, but we also stopped by Pennsylvania waters on the way.  Plans included a visit with Rich Zaleski (one of my outdoor-writing mentors) of Fishing Facts and In-Fisherman fame.  Plus I was conducting interviews and shooting images for future magazine articles.  When it was all done, we had cast lines in Lakeville Lake, Husatonic River, Lake Lillinonah and Connecticut River in CT, plus Sayers Lake, Delaware River and Tom's Creek in PA.

One way to summarize such a fast-paced trip is simply identify the best experiences.  So here we go...

Best Achievement: Marilyn caught more trout than on any fishing trip before.

Biggest Disappointment: Smallmouth bass fishing in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.  With both an evening and morning wading session, we caught exactly one 11" smallie.

Best Lake For Numbers: Lakeville Lake in northwest CT. A small, deep natural lake loaded with fish.  With Rich Zaleski as our guide, we caught respectable largemouth, hefty pickerel, plump perch, big bluegills and even a rainbow trout.

Biggest Fish That Got Away: On the Connecticut River, a northern pike in the 40-inch-range cut a 50-pound fluorocarbon leader while positioning the fish at boat side for a landing photo.

Biggest Surprise: The tidal section of Connecticut River south of Hartford.  An exciting northern pike fishery plus an unexpected crappie population, in addition to beautiful shoreline scenery minus the industrial complexes common to the lower Delaware.  Thanks to pro guide Blaine Anderson for getting us on this amazing river.

Greatest Growth: Connecticut Outfitters in Wethersfield, just south of Hartford.  Under ownership of Gary Brummett for just seven years, this bait and tackle shop features some of the most innovative ideas in the tackle retail business that I've seen since doing store reviews for FTR.  Gary is a man with a plan and this economy has not stopped him.

Hottest Lures: Drop-shotting 4" worms for bass, pickerel and panfish; Hot Pink 9" soft jerkbaits for pike; Road Runner spin-jig tipped with a shiner for crappies.

No fishing trip is complete without my restaurant guide...

Worst Place to Eat: The Family Buffet on Rt. 99 in Connecticut.  Of the dozens of offerings, not a single entree or side dish was worthy of consuming...I went in hungry and left hungry.

Best Place to Eat: Plyler's Buffet at the Brookville exit of I-80 in PA.  Outstanding home-cooked food choices prepared perfectly.  Thinking about Plyler's is making me hungry!  Fortunately, it's only a little over an hour's drive from home, so I don't have to wait for another visit to Connecticut to stop by at this restaurant.

From Creek To River

The invitations had gone out in April from Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau to four outdoor writers who specialize in kayak fishing to come test the waters of French Creek.  Jeff Little, Chris Gorsuch, Juan Veruete and Walt Young -- all had heard of French Creek, but none had paddled it. 

I was coordinating their visit, acting as host, driver, grip, go-for -- anything to make their trip enjoyable and productive.  Back in early spring I was concerned whether there would be enough water in French Creek come June due to the late winter drought -- and I crossed my fingers for rain in April and May.  Won't do that again.  Rain came, and it kept coming.  Each time the Creek dropped to a decent fishing level, more rain - right up to days before our guests arrived. Their first view of French Creek was a high, muddy and dropping stream flow - three negatives in terms of having quality smallmouth bass catches.  

Our four guests geared up with individual attack plans to find and catch smallmouth on two different six-mile floats over two days.  Although each angler caught some smallmouth, it was tough fishing -- not what we had hoped for.  But that's fishing.  By Saturday evening, the water was clearing somewhat and the level beginning to stabilize in both French Creek as well as the Allegheny River. While Walt and Juan stayed to fish the Allegheny with Dale Black, Jeff and Chris had to make the drive back home late Saturday night.

Normally Dale, who specializes this time of year in fishing soft plastic stick worms called Dingers, would be all over the river bass.  But their day started slow...until Walt started firing his Little Big O crankbait.  With fish after fish coming aboard on his line, it didn't take the others long to switch from plastic to cranks.  By day's end, the trio had landed and release just over 70 smallmouth, with 1/2 dozen between 17 and 19 inches.  Plus they caught several walleye - which stayed for dinner.

Where was I when all the action was happening?  I had started out with them at Franklin, caught a couple smallies on spinnerbaits, then decided I needed a nap.  I ran down to East Sandy, dropped an anchor and promptly fell asleep in my boat for the entire afternoon.  Eventually the trio caught up with me, just in time for a picture with some of the larger bass before the fish were returned to the river.  

Over 40 Years In The Making

Last week four Sharon High School huntin' & fishin' buddies got together for an Outdoor Reunion.  Gary Paddock, Terry DeMaria, Bob Davis and yours truly had not been in one place at the same time since graduation day in June of 1968. 

Back in the day, we roamed the open lands and waterways of Mercer County on various hunting, fishing and camping adventures.  Our resulting escapades were the foundations for many of my early writings in regional outdoor magazines.  From close calls with firearms to encounters with possible ghostly spirits at Big Bend, if someone would suggest my stories could not possibly be true, I simply told them "I lived it." 

But for our 2010 reunion, we decided to leave the guns and poltergeists at home, and stick solely with fishing. Concluding that arthritic joints and other aliments among some of us might hamper a kayak float on the Shenango River, Terry suggested we go trout fishing on Neshannock Creek.  Terry guaranteed us there were plenty of left-over stocked trout in the stream as the result of relatively light fishing pressure due to poor weekend weather since opening day.  He was proved correct, as everyone caught rainbows and browns on fathead minnows and red worms - no fancy flies and spinners for us. 

I would like to claim my 15-inch brown was the largest trout of the day, but no one took a picture of it!  Without photographic evidence for all to see, there would likely be challenges from this "where's the proof" group!

A Mouse is A Mouse

I spent a very enjoyable Sunday on the Allegheny River with Dale Black and Chris Wolfgong as we concentrated our efforts on some river sections we had not fished before in the spring.  The day was great; catching part was good but not spectacular.  A total of 44 smallmouth came on board for a brief moment before being returned to the water.  The largest was an 18-inch Chris caught late in the day.  Every bass, plus a bonus walleye, came on tubes and 4" Yum Dingers. 

As usual, I begin each fishing trip experimenting with different baits, but it wasn't until I tied on a Yum Green Pumpkin Finesse Tube that I started catching fish.  We had about an equal number of fish come unbuttoned on the way to the boat.  It really didn't matter - we were just having fun. 

Chris is in the habit of checking the mouth of each smallmouth he catches to see what the fish might have chomped before eating his lure.  Looking down the throat of one of his bass, Chris saw something odd - dark and furry.  With a pair of needle nose pliers, he removed a mouse!  I told him that if I recall correctly, Heddon once made a Mouse lure with fuzzy finish at one time.  Now Chris wants to special order several of these discontinued lures!

Best Laid Plans

Every spring I look forward to exceptional fishing during May in NW PA.  Of course there are always a few bad weather days.  But this May we've had unusually nasty weather -- wind, cold, wind, heavy rain, wind.  Did I mention wind?  Since the first of May, I've only logged a couple evenings of fishing between storms.

Regardless of my lack of fishing success, I still need to conduct photo shoots in order to fulfill magazine assignments.  Take for example my BASSIN' assignment on swimming a jig due June 1.  For this story I needed updated photos of FLW Pro Dave Lefebre of Union City, PA, including a hero shot of Dave with a 4 to 5 pound largemouth.  For three weeks, Dave and I tried to set a date to do photos only to have wind and rain wash away the opportunity.  Finally we saw a sunny Sunday in the forecast.

We chose a small inland lake in Erie County that had the type of shoreline cover and weeds that Dave normally attacks with a swimming jig.  The lake selection was perfect for a shot at a BIG bass.  After all, this was the lake where Dave had caught his largest northern bass a few years back - an 8-pound plus monster.  Two years later, I was with him one day when he caught back to back 7 pounders.  And only last week, Dave had a photo shoot with a writer from the Erie paper on this lake; they caught and released twenty some bass from 2.5 to 5 pounds.

This would be a piece of cake.  All we needed was a single big bass for a quick photo.  Dave figured we could wrap it up in short order.  But we hadn't factored in the major cold front that hit on Saturday, dropping the lake's water temperature.

We started about 4:00 PM.  Four  hours later we called it and went to dinner.  Dave had worked his jig magic to land 4 bass from 5 to 10...inches, not pounds!  Fishing shallow and deep, it just wasn't meant to be. But Dave insisted a good photographer should be able to make even a six inch largemouth look like a six pounder...