Monday, August 27, 2018

Warming back up

Hi folks, Still chasing smallmouth bass with a reckless abandon. No rain even though it had been predicted.  Rivers and lakes really low. Never seen the water this low in my 23 years of guiding. One benefit is that I have found some mid lake structure in several lakes that I did not know existed. Also, some of the exposed cover in rivers that is generally underwater can now be marked for future fishing visits. Water temperatures have maintained the last week but will now jump up as we are in store for 3 really warm bright days. The river I guided yesterday morning was 69 degrees at 7am and warmed to 70 by time we finished up. The lake I rain the boat on the previous day 74 degrees with a stiff southwest wind. We had to use the wind to our advantage in drifting certain sections of the lake. The fishing was slow until the last hour of daylight. We found smallmouth bass crashing the surface in open water. Over 40 ' of water the bass we coming out of the water like a blue fish blitz in the ocean. I've never seen anything like it in fresh water.  No idea what they were eating but we cast a #8 blue and white foam crease fly inot the fray and had the fish crush it. Pretty entertaining. ON the river side of things, the smallie fishing was pretty good yesterday morning.  We landed 10 fish and caught several very nice ones.  We found one big rocky pool and dead drifted 3" Baby Senkos to the bass. We could sight fish a percentage of them.  The fishing really slowed once the sun got high over head. I am off to chase small stream trout this am. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. have Fun, Willy