Friday, June 12, 2015

Figuring it out

Hi Folks,  Ran the boat again yesterday with a spin client for smallouth bass.  Big rivers Lamoille and Winooski are still too high and dirty to trout fish.  The small tribs. are in decent shape though the flow is higher than average.  That could change as the forecast is calling for heavy rain tonight.  I knew the precipitation would catch up with us!  So, surface temperature was 69 degrees to 70 degrees with sunny skies and a steady southwest wind.  We got on the water at 5:30am to enjoy some low light.  The water is still very high and clarity was okay.  We chased smallies with poppers, a tiny torpedo, and floating perch rapala n the early morning and the bite was fairly slow.  We landed one small bass and a 2lb smallie off a downed birch.  We decided that slowing down our approach was the way to go.  So, the 4" green with red flake Senko on a #2 Red worm hook changed the day.  We proceeded to land 15 smallmouth with the soft plastic rig.  We went after several large bass that I had spotted on a earlier trip and were able to catch them.  One of the fish was beautiful 18" smallmouth that had a worm hook in its mouth from being previously caught and I removed it.  It was interesting detecting some of the takes because the wind was making it tough to control the fishing line.  The fish were picking up the worm and swimming to the boat every time so it made it challenging to detect the subtle takes.  All about rod positioning and line control.  Fishing often requires adjusting tactics to catch fish in varying conditions.  Attempting to run the boat this afternoon.  See what the weather brings.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy