ChrisK Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 Well its been a busy couple days for me this weekeknd. First the St. Clair muskie trip and when I got home a call from a good freind of mine John who was interested in fishing the north branch of the Thames River in London. John came by at 7.15am this morning and picked me up and off we went. The river was in prime condition. John is big on fly fishing so he was armed with a 7ft 4 weight and I a 7ft 8 pound test spinning outfit.... The days started well as we walked the river to the more procuctive holes. John was consistantly catching smaller sized smallmouth and I nothing.....I was busy trying to find a pattern to which the fish would respond. I tied on a count down rapala(original)and caught my first smallmouth...Its was a little larger than the ones John was catching but we figured this was due to the size of the flies he was offereing up so he upscaled to larger flies...I then changed up again to a different colour pattern(perch) but same sized count down. Again I hooked up and landed another smallmouth..Once again slightly larger than the fish John was catching...Must of been the rapala's size again ??? We approached the last pool of the day...best for last.. It was the clay bank hole. The far side of the river had a clay bank with a deep cut in front of it where the river had been wearing it away.....From the past years I've learned in this run the fish were generaly bigger due to the deep water so I tied one size larger countdown in the perch pattern. I casted it out and imediately hooked up with what I thought was a nice smallie...As it got closer I noticed a silvery colour to the fish....It was a silver bass. Nice looking fish to say the least. John piped in and said that these silver bass have been migrating up the river since the Sprinbank Dam has been open. Well,I'm thinkin now that if the Silver bass can make it up this far so can all the rest of the migration type fish like Rainbow,Salmon and Walleye...If thats the case they can leave Springbank Dam open as long as they like....Anyhow we proceed to catch more of these Silver Bass...Good fighters and great looking fish. They took Johns fly's and my perch count downs redily until it was time for us to call it a day and head home. All in all a great day on the north branch for sure.. Only thing that really is of concern to me is the size of the Smallmouth in the Thames River these days. They are generally smaller than the ones we caught back in the 70's and 80's but still fun to catch. The silverbass on the other hand are lake run fish and are pretty much all the same size..... Heres a veiw of the last whole less the clay bank just up river a bit... These are about the average size of the smallmouth all day Starting to get into the Silvers Let me introduce to you John Makaran..Fly fisherman extrodinare soon to be a OFC member These Silvers are beautiful fish and I hope since the Springbank Dam is open they take up residency in the Thames River branches...Look familiar GCD Since John is going to become a member shortly I'd like to say one thing about this guy that I find incredible and then I'll leave the rest to him in his introduction. John is an amazing when it comes to fly tieing....Sure there are alot of good fly tieing folks out there but John is unique and stands above the rest of all I know. Reason being is when John ties he doesn't use a vise but has instead developed a tecnique where he holds the hook with his bare hands and ties the fly...Don't ask me how he does this but I'm sure if you ask him he will be glad to share with you all... Cheers !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beats Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 Nice report and great shots. I fished the N branch this morning as well and caught 3 white bass. Went out again and got skunked but my 2 friends each caught a couple pickerel and there were white bass being caught all over. Not as impressive as catching them on flies though I'd say those are above average sm bass for the London area. I fished all over last summer and the biggest one I caught by far was 1.5 lbs. Delaware area has some hovering around the 3lb mark still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbayboy Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 Nice pics and hey - size doesn't matter when you're having run right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snag Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 Sweet! (Now can I make a Randy Quinn look alike joke?, Uncanny really) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowPoke Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 (Now can I make a Randy Quinn look alike joke?, Uncanny really) Are you thinking about Randy Quaid? Nice report Chris, that looks a lot nicer than the swamp we were talking about! Hey, are you flossing for baby bass with 80lb mono? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisK Posted September 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 Are you thinking about Randy Quaid? Or John Goodman ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snag Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 YES!!! Sorry, that's who it was! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiel Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 ....All the time I've spent fishing with you and didn't know you had curly hair....LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Pike Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 Great report and pics, Studd. River sure looks nice out your way. Nice job on the Smallies and Silvers too! Must be nice to to be able to hook into those beauty Silvers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 Definately more like Randy Quaid than John Goodman Good to see you got out all weekend fishing Chris. Way to go Joey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leecher Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 Great report and pics Muskiestudd Looks like you guys had a ton of fun. Thanks for sharing Leechman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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