7/24/16 Smallmouthapalooza

Larry, Mike, and I fished the Elkhart river on Sunday. the Three Rivers Fly Fishers was holding an outing at Island Park and our plan was to float the lower river and fish for Smallmouth and Pike. We would float the river and then meet up with the fly fishers for lunch. We met up around 7 to run a shuttle and get the day started early before the inevitable hot weather returned. I began the day by throwing the crayfish imitation fly that I had luck with the previous week during the tournament. Only 3 casts in, I hooked my first Smallmouth. From there, it never let up all day. I would estimate that I caught between 30 and 40 Smallmouth on the day. I never did land any big fish but I did have chances at several. Most of my fish fell between 10 and 14 inches. The fish were absolutely ravenous. If you hooked one, several more fish would be chasing it, trying to steal whatever it had eaten. I had several times where my fly popped out of a fishes mouth only to be immediately taken by another nearby fish. By 11 o'clock the crayfish fly was on it's last leg and didn't look good in the water anymore. It is absolutely destroyed and doesn't look anything what it did at the start of the day. In the lower river, I switched to a streamer and continued to catch fish. I was even using a two handed strip to move the streamer as fast as possible and still catching fish! I've never seen fish so willing to chase and smash fast moving flies. It was incredible! Some of the close up shots I took turned out really well. For whatever reason, Smallmouth seem to be one of the more photogenic fish around.

7/16/16 By the $kin of My Leader

On Saturday, I fished the Indiana Kayak Anglers 3rd Tournament of the season. The event was held on the three rivers in Fort Wayne (The St. Joe, St. Marys, and the Maumee). You could choose from 7 different launch points and fish wherever you wanted for the day. It was a bass tournament by length only. 3 longest bass (Smallmouth and/or Largemouth) would win. They also had an optional $5 buy-in for a 'River Monster' pot. Biggest fish of the day (any species) would win the 'River Monster' pot. It sounded like a large chunk of the field was going to fish the St. Joe so fellow WCO fishing team member Jameson and I opted to fish the Maumee instead. We met up at registration. From there we set our shuttle for a 4-mile float and we were on the water by about 6:30. There were only 3 other participants that chose to fish the Maumee to start the day. Less than five minutes into our trip, Mike (one of the other anglers) hooked and landed a nice 25" Flathead Catfish. He was understandably pretty excited. He had a nice fish and a crack at the 'River Monster' pot straight out of the gate. Before long I was into my first fish, a small drum. The next fish I caught was a very nice 20" Drum. It hit like a freight train and fought like hell. This fish deserves a better reputation. After that we were scratching to catch any fish for a while. I was fishing this neat little spot where a small stream of clear, cool water was coming into the river. I felt a strike and set the hook. Within seconds I got my first look at the fish. It was a Northern Pike and a nice one to boot. It had my crankbait entirely in it's mouth and my 12lb fluorocarbon leader was right through its jaws and teeth. I thought for sure that the fish was going to break me off on it's first run. When it did run, it somehow miraculously stayed on. I decided not to put any pressure on the fish and land it as quickly as possible if I had the chance. The fish took a few more runs and a big jump nearly completely out of the water. At this point I was in shock that the fish had not broken my line. Before long, It let me pull it to the kayak and with one quick motion I had it on my Lucid fish grips. It thrashed and thrashed but to no avail. I pulled it out of the water, got it unhooked, and got some pictures. The fish measured out at 28.5" and gave me hope that just maybe I would win the 'River Monster' pot. After releasing the Pike, I checked my leader. It was at this point that I realized just how incredibly lucky I was to even land this fish. There was a huge gouge in my leader just in front of the crankbait and my 12lb leader had a 1lb strand left holding it together. I grabbed onto both ends of my line and pulled my line apart with almost no pressure at all. I would almost call it miraculous that I landed that fish. Before long we were fishing the treated waste-water discharge channel and I managed to put a limit of smallish Bass on the board thanks in no small part to my fly rod and a small crayfish pattern I had tied up earlier in the week. After that we fished the rest of the day with minimal luck and only an occasional fish. I finished the day with 9 Bass, 2 Drum, and the Pike. The rivers in town continue to amaze me! The Pike was certainly the highlight of the day for me. Now to see how I would stack up to the other anglers! I think that Jameson and I were some of the last few anglers to arrive at the 'weigh-in'. My three biggest Bass only totaled up to 34 1/4" (12", 11 1/4", and 11") Surprisingly though, this put me into 8th place out of 32 anglers. Only 9 people had caught their 3 fish limit. The big question in my mind though was: How would the Pike stack up? I thought that surely someone had caught a big Flathead and the Pike would be a nice story and not a whole lot else. Jason asked for my 'River Monster' and I told him that I got a 28.5" Pike and much to my surprise, the next closest fish was the 25" Flathead I had seen caught earlier that morning. In addition to those fish, there was also a 24" Saugeye, a 23.5" Pike, quite a few Drum, and several other fish I can't remember caught during the course of the day. I won the $155 pot with a fish that by all rights should have broken my line. Fishing really can be rewarding some times but can just as easily be heartbreaking. Sometimes all that makes the difference between catching and losing a nice fish is one small sliver of fluorocarbon and a little bit of luck.

7/10/16 Mike Gets a Good One

A quick update today and some nice pictures from Sunday. We got out for a morning float. The weather was amazing but the fishing was somewhat lacking. Kelly and I both caught a few Smallmouth apiece. Kelly got a pretty nice one at around 15 inches. Congratulations go out to Mike on boating an awesome 19 1/2" Smallmouth. That's a very nice fish in anyone's book! Keep going and you'll get that 20 that you are looking for!

Video - 7/4/16 Smallmouth Bass on the Fly

A quick trip for Smallmouth yielded some awesome results. Nothing like getting big Smallies on a 6 weight!

7/3/16 This River is Like a Box of Chocolates

You never know what you are going to get. Larry, Mike, and I met up in the afternoon to float a new river. I had scouted it out this Spring and was waiting for the right time to give it a try. I was extremely impressed with this river. It starts out quite small with tons of twists and turns. It has pretty fast moving water and even had a small man made drop with a small wave train. I have dubbed the picture of Larry going through that drop "Larry, King of White Water" because of his paddle over his head pose. As the trip went on, the river widened and got deeper. Throughout the entire trip we were absolutely surrounded by nature with very few signs of other people. I saw tons of deer, birds, and other wildlife. The fishing was a little crazy in that I caught 7 different species all on the same lure! I ended up catching a few Sunfish, several Largemouth Bass, quite a few Smallmouth Bass (including a few nice fish), A small Pike, a Rock Bass, a Walleye (and missed another one to boot), and even a small Muskie!  It couldn't believe it was a Muskie at first, but if you see the picture below it is pretty clear that it is not a small Pike. It made it very entertaining never knowing what was going to be on the other end of your line. It was a beautiful evening and the weather was absolutely perfect for our trip. I can't wait to get back.

Video - Pigeon River Rising

Our trip to the East Race last weekend got me in the mood to finally edit some of my footage from our Spring white water trip. Enjoy!