Stymied by a Winnebago

Well, our attempt to fish smallies on the Mississippi didn't happen. No, it wasn't my whimpering about the cold that brought our attempt to a halt. My buddy Gregg is the boat owner and guide for this venture. He has been as busy as I have recently, and hasn't had much time to prepare for this trip. But it doesn't really need much prep time - pull the boat, buy some minnows, and catch smalies.

I was set to leave the hotel at 8 am and meet Gregg when the phone rang - never a good thing. It was Gregg, sounding apologetic. To make a long story short - he went down the storage facility where he keeps his jonboat, and it was blocked in by 2 Winnebago's! Couldn't get it out for at least a day or 2.

(Before anyone asks - he has a larger boat for fishing the lakes in MN, but on the shallow upper Missisippi, he uses a small jonboat. It doesn't come out of storage until the Fall season gets here, so this was the first time he went to get it from the storage facility this year)

I've lost days of fishing when MY vehicles have decided to quit working, but never because I was blocked by a Winnebago. Until now.

Wolfy

The little ones count, too

My quest to remove the 2009 Smallmouth Bass Skunk has come to its conclusion - I actually caught a few smallies on Sunday evening. 4, to be exact. I went down to the Fox River - only a couple of miles from my house - and started wading with a light action spinning rod and a couple of lures in my shirt pocket. Pretty basic assortment of lures - Rebel Teeny Craw, 1/16 oz. jigheads, 2" grub bodies. I started fishing with the craw - it usually is good for something on any shallow river.


Little smallmouth on a Rebel Wee Craw

The Fox, in my area, is relatively featureless. A noticeable riffle, or change in current, may be a series of rocks that goes from 2' deep to 1-1/2' deep. After a fruitless 1/2 hour, I got 2 hits in a "riffle" - hooked one and lost it on the jump, and missed the other hit. Both on the craw. Over the next hour, I landed my 4 smallies, the largest going a whopping 10"!!


Smallmouth on a little grub

Sometimes, the small fish are just as rewarding as the big ones. I look at the small fish, and see a healthy population, and possibly future big ones. They can't all be big!


A future river trophy??


It seems like all my posts have a "story within a story", and this one is no exception. This was a very short, unplanned trip, so I grabbed a rod/ reel from the garage and drove down to the river. Half way through my little excursion, I noticed the tip-top of the rod was not aligned with the rest of the guides. I immediately knew what I had done - grabbed a broken-tipped rod. Months ago, I had tried to glue the tip back on the rod (I had broken a tip earlier in the spring) but didn't really succeed. Now, after 3 small bass, the tip was spinning around the rod. I got one more fish before the tip came completely off on a cast. This really isn't a big deal, except when you stop to consider that, at last count, I have 52 spinning and/or baitcast rods in my rod racks in the garage - St. Croix, Loomis, Kistler, Fenwick, Falcon, ...

Why in the world I even had this broken-tipped rod at all is beyond me.

It was thrown out last nite, with the rest of the garbage.

A Man on a Mission

Some missions in life take years to accomplish - some can never be accomplished in a lifetime. And others, like this one, are ridiculously simple and easy.

I just realized, after perusing some notes in my fishing diary from this year, that I have not caught a smallmouth bass this year. I haven't even tried (I DO realize that it's sort of tough to catch a fish that you haven't even tried to catch). I have NEVER gone a year without catching a smallmouth bass, and I can't let it happen this year. I don't care how small, it is now a matter of pride. I WILL get this done this Fall.

The smallmouth is a matter of personal pride for me. It's the fish I grew up catching, and the fish I used to Guide for in the mid 80's. I've fished for them from TN to Quebec. I have a local river that has smallmouth in it and I have not wet a line in the river this year. Shame on me.

So, now I've put it out there for all to see. I WILL get my smallmouth this year - I have to! I'll let you know when this event occurs. [Actually, there s a decent chance that I'll get to fish the Mississippi River in MN with my friend Gregg in October, and that is always a smallmouth bonanza. But it's not a 100% done deal that I'll be able to make it]

I'll keep you posted

Wolfy

Blustery day on Lake Oneida

The flat water belies the conditions - it was this dark at 10 AM!

Well, the weather forecasts were right. When I WANT them to be wrong, they're not!I met Rob Goffredo at Lake Oneida around 10 AM, and the dark clouds that define fall weather were already pouring in from the west. The heavy rain held off, though, and gave us a 3-1/2 hour window to chase smallmouth. I've mentioned in previous posts that I really enjoy fishing with local talent when I get out on water that I'm not very familiar with. I'd fished Lake Oneida back in the mid 90's, but I really needed to be with a local on this trip. Rob filled the bill perfectly. I first met Rob in the early 90's, when he was working the fishing dept. at one of the Dick's S.G. in Syracuse. Since then, he has fished tournaments from National level to Red Man trail to local club tournies. Oneida is one of his "home waters", so I knew I was in good hands. I was right.

A smallie that fell for a tube

We fished out of Oneida Shores on the extreme SW corner of the lake. It was really the only part of the lake to fish - the SW -W wind made the rest of this 30 mile long lake unfishable. Oneida is only 50' deep at its deepest, and mostly runs 10 - 30' deep. This lake gets very rough with west winds, and that's what we had on Tuesday.

Rob with a swimbait bass

We started trying to locate fish in a nearby channel. They weren't as concentrated as we had hoped, and left that area after taking about 4 or 5 on tubes. The water temp wasn't quite cold enough to concentrate them in that area. Instead, we spent the remaining time drifting weed flats that were 8-15" deep and fan casting swimbaits at first, then some spinnerbaits. The fish were scattered over this structure, but there were enough of them to keep things interesting for the rest of the day. We ended up boating 19 smallmouth, with 15 of them over 14", and 3 were estimated over 4 pounds. ALL were fat and getting fatter for the looming winter months. I LOVE football sized fall smallmouth!

Author's Swimbait smallmouths

The baits of choice on this day were from Strike King. More than half of our fish were taken on Strike King Shadalicious swim baits (4-1/2") in Sexy Shad color. Rob got on a spinnerbait bite toward the end of our trip. Within a half hour of the time we pulled the boat out, the skies opened up, the wind picked up, and all hell broke loose. We were glad to be watching it from a restaurant rather than fighting it in the boat. Even though it didn't rain much while we were on the water, the wind was very heavy. the only way we could fish effectively was by deploying a 60" drift sock, which slowed us down to a comfortable speed. Drift socks are indispensable in situations like these, and are greatly under utilized. I was very glad Rob had his along.

Rob with a big spinnerbait smallie

Another great day to be on the water. And, as I anticipated, thank God for good raingear! I love Fall smallmouths.

Stock market tanks, but do the fish care?

Market dropped 777 points today. Unbelievable. Know who doesn't care? Fish.

I've added my list of states I need to catch a fish in to complete my "Fish per state" goal - might be able to knock off Iowa next week. I'll update that list in red as I progress.

Just a quick note about the blog - all the pictures posted were taken by me, or are pictures of fish I've caught. As the blog goes on, you'll see some trophies, and some that might have you wondering "Huh?" They're all good memories for me. I've caught a lot of pretty big fish - some very big, in fact. But I've never really considered myself a trophy fisherman. I'd rather catch a bunch of small brookies, for example, that 1 or 2 trophy fish. I've always leaned that way - don't really know why. I also prefer smaller streams to big, roiling waters. I think I feel like I have a better chance to catch the proverbial big fish in the small pond, and the guy at the top of the food chain always presents a challenge, no matter how small the water.

I have a few fishing opportunities coming up in the coming weeks - trout in Iowa, smallmouth on the upper Mississippi, smallmouth on Lake Oneida in NY, smallmouth on the Connecticut River. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I'll be able to share some pics . If not, you can commiserate though the words.

Tight lines!