Topwater smallies

[splashhopper]

Last week I participated in a thread here( that I can't remember the title of) where I mentioned I wasn't getting much action for smallies on topwater lures.

 

Well Saturday was a bust for me for pike action but I did get to hook up with some "friends of Bill W" and have a bonfire at one of their farms.

What a great group of people.

 

I stayed at the fire till midnight and was starting to drive home because the weather forecast called for rain turning to thunder showers over night. I was driving 15 minutes and I knew I would be having difficulty staying awake for the 90 minute drive home.

 

No worries, I had my bedding in the van and pulled in to a used car parking lot in one of the small towns on the way home.

 

I might do that again, as it was waaay quieter than the grocery stores and timmies lots that i usually use.

 

Sunday morning I awoke to the sound of TORRENTIAL rain coming down and one persistent mosquito that somehow found its way in to my van.

Oh well, I was awake and headed to the next town to get my morning java and a bagel.

 

The rain wasn't letting up but i still wanted to fish.

 

I know of two or three holes that I can fish under bridges for bass and trout and stay relatively dry so I headed for them.

 

The first one I got to was very surprising as to how low the water level was. On a positive note though, I put the picture of the structure in my "trout bank" for this fall and will definately be fishing 25 yards further UPSTREAM than I usually do.

 

As the clouds parted for a brief few minutes, I walked to a bridge and just got down to the hole when it started raining again.

 

Oh well, I have my rubber raincoat and and my rubber boots on.

 

Let's fish.

 

I tied on a Matzuo top water popping bait and tossed it up stream.

 

With a slooooow retrieve so that I would not hook into any of the MANY large flat rocks just scratching the surface i was pleasantly surprised by this fat rock bass.

 

Hmmmmm.... I don't use that lure very often but just might switch it up a bit more.

 

These rock bass were VICIOUS with their strikes and I caught about 5-6 of them within 15-20 minutes there.

 

 

The really fat ones seemed to be right in the middle of the river near a log jam and bigger ridges of flat rock.

 

They were a lot of fun in this very shallow water and I learned another technique for fishing my top water baits in the process. Slow, slower, asleeeeep seemed to be the ticket.

 

As the rain let up, I moved down to where I usually drift for trout in the spring and fall and hooked in to this "smallie on the top water"

 

 

Come to think of it, I caught one at this same place last year on a top water with my buddy Dutchy that I forgot about.

 

After this hole seemed to peter out, I drove a little further south towards home and stopped in under one more bridge.

 

The Matzuo lure seemed to be the ticket this am for this little chubb too.

 

And for this smallie too.

 

All in all it was a good weekend with friends, fresh air and a memorable sunset on the rails Saturday night.

 

 

Splashhopper

 

PS.

All pics taken on my new Blackberry (I think it has a better camera in it than the one I drowned last week!)

[jjcanoe]

your new waterproof Blackberry? LOL

 

Nice job!

 

jjcanoe

[ironstone74]

Nice looking fish!

[splashhopper]

your new waterproof Blackberry? LOL

 

Nice job!

 

jjcanoe

 

not waterproof.... but it does have TWO ziploc bags over it "just in case"

[10point]

It can be done. My buddy got a 15 1/2 smallie on a buzzbait early Saturday morning.