River Smallmouth Hunting

I finally managed to find a new bike. It's not a men's bike, but that's OK. I always thought men's bikes were unfair. They make it rather easy to damage the family jewels if you hit a bump too hard. It's purple though, and I'm not into that so much so I'm paining it black as soon as I can. But it's a good bike and I got it at the price I was looking for, plus I was so desperately tired of having to walk in to streams and ponds that are much more easily reached by mountain bike.

To test the bike I took it on one of my favorite circus: down the valley and across the river, up the dirt access road to a stretch of river good for bass and white sucker in the summer. Then down to the tidal water and back up the other side.

The river was low and clear. No good for trout but it made for the perfect sight fishing, and I was into smallmouth, fallfish, and sunfish immediately.

Even a small smallmouth bass puts a crazy bend in a 3 weight.

Downstream in a pool with boulders and solid bedrock bottom, I spotted some sucker fish. I tied on an egg pattern and started meticulously presenting the fly to the biggest fish. Eventually it more or less ate. The fly floated under his face and his mouth extended out. Either the fly was an annoyance or he thought it was food.  I set the hook and the reel sang. I've caught big sucker on an 8 weight before and the fought plenty hard on that. This was a battle and a half!

The tidal water was not as kind to me as it was last time, but it still gave up some fish. I got caught by the incoming tide though and had to leave early.

On the way home I stopped to double check a stream that I was sure had to have brookies. I was wrong. I didn't find any last time, and I didn't find any this time. And to seal the deal the water was warm to the touch. I discovered why on a stroll up stream. I discovered a big weedy pond. Right smack in the middle of the woods. There were some big pickerel pummeling bait-fish and leaping around in the lily pads, but I was unable to reach them. I'll figure out how to fish this one soon.

It was good to kick up some dust on the dirt roads again, and plenty fun fishing for smallmouth. I might get a shot at pike tomorrow. If not, I'm going for brook trout.