This creek is beautiful. I won't name it, because it doesn't need anymore pressure and I prefer to have solitude when I fish it. When it comes to smallmouth, trust no one and keep your spots to yourself. It saddens me to see more and more two track leading to these gravel bars, as I know there is probably a good deal of poaching going on here.
The rain threatened most of the day, with thunder and lightning to the south. Around lunch time a buck came barreling down a steep hillside and crossed in a riffle about 30 yards upstream of me. Where are these when I am in my treestand?
The heavy rain started again around 4 pm. I had to paddle about a half hour in some VERY heavy rain to get to my campsite, and the rain would continue until morning. About 1:30 in the morning I left the tent to move my canoe up the gravel bar because I knew that the river would be rising overnight. When I went back to the tent, the zipper became stuck in the rainfly. As I tried to free it, the zipper ripped completely off of my tent. What a way to start my birthday. I was able to MacGuyver the door shut with some bungee cords to keep the door somewhat closed, but it was a very wet night.
I was ready to go at daylight the next morning since I slept very little through the night.What a way to start my birthday. About 50 yards downstream from my camp the next morning, I caught a very good smallmouth. I always have great luck when I go fishing on my birthday, and this day would be no exception. The fish were slamming my homemade spinnerbaits, along with buzzbaits and WTD topwater lures. I must have caught over 80 fish that day, and my thumb was worn absolutely raw by lunch time. I caught 5 smallies over 17 inches, and the biggest was an even 18". It was a great day, no rain and even some periods of sunshine.
I spent one more night on the river and drifted out to my car the next morning, catching around 30 fish on the way. The largest fish of the trip was hooked this morning, but it threw the hooks on the LC sammy right at boatside. This one was easily 19 inches and might have been 20. Oh well, I will get it next time.
I then made the2 hour drive over to meet some friends in Van Buren. They graciously allowed me to stay at a relatives cabin. My wife made the trip over and they served us some incredible ribeyes and potatoes. We had some drinks around the campfire and I met some longtime current river rats. We were up early the next morning and made the long shuttle up to our put in. We hadn't floated long, but it was apparent that the lures I had been using the previous few days were not going to work this day. The fish would follow them but not take. Crankbaits seem to be working well, and shortly my friends canoe had a double hook up. Rita with an 18.5 and Kevin with a 16.5.
No more than 100 yards downstream I hooked into a really good fish in swift water flowing over some large chunk rock. This one was big, and measured 19.5 inches. If I would have pinched the tail it may have stretched to 20". It's tail was huge compared to a lot of smallmouth that I catch.
Everyone was catching fish, and we had multiple doubles between the canoes, including a triple. I managed to catch two fish on the same crankbait at one point. My wife picked up a solid 15" fish. We saw no other floaters and only a single boat. It was a great day.
We overnighted on a gravel bar and the full moon was beautiful. The mist the next morning did not burn off until nearly noon. It stayed overcast and cool most of the day. We floated the rest of the way down to van buren and saw very few people.
'I can't wait to get back.
