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3. Smallie Season

This is one of my favorite times of year to target things besides trout-and smallmouth are my favorite of those. Right now on the trout waters around here (southern Missouri) some of the best hatches and the best fishing of the years is going on every morning and evening... The only problem is that everyone and their brother knows that and the rivers are really crowded. Elbow to elbow in some places (I may be exaggerating just a little bit, but not by much). And like pretty much any right-minded fly fisherman, I hate crowds and I love solitude.

So, despite the pretty good fishing, July and August are the months that I back off from the trout water and search the remote, unpressured waters, and that usually means smallmouth fishing around here. While trout are my first love, it's hard to say that there is anything more exciting than a big native smallmouth on a fly-rod, you've got to love the way they hit streamers. As a matter of fact I'll be floating a river Monday and Tuesday that flows totally through national forest land- great smallie fishing and just a few locals fish it. Really that's primarily why I like going after smallmouth, because they don't attract nearly the crowd that trout do.

Anyone else going after the smallmouth this summer?

Mo-Trout,

Now you are talking!!! Once we get Matt back here from Paradise I'm sure he will chime in here, but Small-Mouth Bass have kept me sane...Ok! Maybe not sane, sane, but at least prevented me from going completely over the edge...

Like most of us I'm a "wage-slave" and can only visit my beloved Au Sable and its trout, if I'm lucky, twice a year. I use to live there, it seemed to my long suffering wife, back in the early-mid 90's...This is no longer the case.

I was laid off and my loving wife said that she would support me no matter what but I needed to "find myself". I had been nominated for a graduate fellowship from the Poli-Sci department at Wayne State here in Detroit and the German department wanted to send me to Germany for a year...She basically was telling me to "shit-or-get-off-the-pot" and get on with it! I loaded the Jeep with fishing gear and headed north to figure it all out...This has nothing to do with Smallies other than to explain that at one time I was spoiled and got a little use to it...

There are some really nice oppotunities, not too far from where I'm sitting now, where the small-mouth fishing is very good. In a minute here already we will be seeing "White-Flies" there...But there are late-season Hex & Iso's and the smallies will smack the dry fly and put a smile on my face...

For many, many years my local fishing stream was mine-all-mine. I fished it nearly alone for 15-20 years...Then someone wrote a book about it and now I'm no longer alone...It was funny, back-in-the-day as they say, when I fished it with the local fisheries guys from U of M who sat it up as a catch-and-release stretch...They put this forth as an experiment and research area for the states small-mouth bass regs, but between you and I there may have been a little bit of self-serving taking place...It was their fishing hole after all. You didn't hear this here from me :)...

Back in the early 90's I was sitting there alone just before dark when I heard some crashing through the brush. It was one of these bio-boys and he was stunned to see me sitting in his fishing hole first off and that I was carrying a fly rod! He explained to me the no-kill thing and then asked me if I had any lead...He was tossing something his son called the "Bloodied Butt Fly"...

He couldn't believe I was fishing dries! He actually said to me that he thought I was going a little small to get the attention of the predator small-mouth. I had on a nigh on perfect imitation of the Ephoron that was spitting off as we spoke and I was trying to distract his attention from. I wouldn't be that bad would I??? There was a period in my life, I'm not too proud of it, where I was as territorial as a chained-to-the-fence pit-bull.

You haven't caught on yet, have you, that your post has got me pumped? I am putting the finishing touches on the holes in my boxes for the "White Fly" hatch, but I will also admit that, over the years, I've learned to toss them something that is bigger and sinks...I bump them right on their snouts and I love it when their mad! I can't quite remember what the "Bloodied-Butt Fly" looked like, but I think I've more than made up for the gap in my memory...

After 20+ years I have the Iso thing down and I'm not telling, but let me tell you something...Once the sun gets below the tree line and you see your first spinner you better get prepared. In late summer, when it's nice and warm still, they don't fool around with courting pleasantries...They get it on and over with and are on the water in no time! And Mr. Small-Mouth isn't shy either!

A few years back I hooked a hog that has burned his way in to my brain...He had to be close to 20"...I have the habit of using my left over Brown Drakes etc from earlier in the season...These are bass here...Well, back to our other thread, they were probably used and de-barbed...He made his first head shaking leap that was nearly chest/shoulder high and I stood there stunned! Smash!! He hit the water and took off and leaped again...This time hip high and shook his head violently twice and threw my fly right back at me! If he had been in trout water that hole would of been wasted for the evening because he flat out tore-it-up!

My heart was pounding and I let out a wail, "You little shit, you shit, you shit!" This was prior to getting my back problems fixed and I sat down on a log and had to gather myself back together...

Nah! Not Spence...:)

Spence

Great story, as usual, Spence. You have me pumped to go out and hunt down some smallies!

Spence,

You mention how you had this stream all yours until someone wrote a book, right? Well, why don't you teach all of us a lesson on how books should be written on fishing, for whatever, without giving away those local fishing streams? Everyone here loves your posts because you tell your stories very well. Maybe Molson would put in a few bucks for your fly fishing, I mean book, tour.

Eric

Eric,

May be back then I was just a little too selfish...re-read my junk-yard dog line in my post...I'm reformed...I think if you read between the lines in my posts you might find that I would be more inclined, these days, to enjoy a little stream-side company.

Now when it comes to canoes & drifting beer-hall tubists I can still work up a pretty ugly growl. I have never had any trouble with folks that love the river and treat it with some respect...It's just the folks that are only thinking of themselves and are oblivious to just about anything else that may cause me to bite their hands...:)

I have heard from the Molson boys from time to time...It's usually right after my wife puts us on another diet and I stop drinking them and their stocks' value takes a plunge...

Spence

One of these days, maybe, you could show me the Driftless and we could help the Molson Brewery out a bit together. :) I'll leave Mr. Mueller's book at home and I promise not to show him or anyone else where your trout live...Deal?

I haven't found my "growl" yet for the canoes and kayaks, but I have learned to tell them, "hey, I think it's shallower over there and if you're real quiet there's a fawn drinking around that there bend."

I am finally going to fish the part of the old Miss a few miles North for Smallies this weekend. 93 degrees today. Trout will be around in September.

Anytime for Molsons in the Driftless. I'm finally going beyond my library card (and ya'll) for instruction and I'm hiring a guide for a Fall trip.

I can't imagine what kind of diet a vegetarian endures.

Eric,

I think a guide is a great idea. The guides I float with on the Au Sable are friends and it may not be the same (I consider myself very lucky in this regard), but on my first trip out west I did a three day "Montana Sampler" type thing and it was a great introduction to the place and helped me get my bearings.

A guide is on the river nearly every day during the season and you can learn a great deal from them.

Endure? It's not that bad...really. I started when I was 16 in 1970 and it was a little rough in the early years...If it wasn't for Chinese & Italian restaurants I'd of never survived...I wasn't always a good vegetarian in that I wasn't a health food one...I loved vego-pizza & beer, bean & cheese burritos & beer, pasta & beer...I actually became a better vegetarian when I married my wife. Even though she's a meat eater herself, she's of Italian desent, and an excellent cook and makes sure I eat my zuccini. She actually introduced me to vegetables...:)

Spence

OK folks, how's this for a vegetarian diet:

Chunky vegetable pasta sauce over whole wheat pasta
Vegetarian chili
Lentil chili
Vegetable stir fry over brown rice
Hungarian mushroom soup
Pesto over pasta
Potatoes with broccoli, carrots, cheese
Veggie lasagna
Tofu & sweet potatoes with sweet & pungent peanut sauce
Refried beans over nacho chips with salsa and cheese
Veggie burgers
Veggie pizza
Black bean chili
Tempeh cacciatore

Etc. etc. etc...

My ex-wife got me into this diet about 22 years ago and it suits me just fine! And I just love it when non-vegetarians assume we eat some horribly bland, tasteless, unexciting meals made with meat substitutes...How about INDIAN CUISINE??? Chinese? Thai? Spicy enough for ya???

Jonathon

P.S. With regards to smallies, I have only made it to the Huron River in Ann Arbor twice this year, both times during the Art Fairs. I caught a few on my new Cabelas 7 1/2' 3-wt., including a nice tiger-striped 12-incher on an original silver KBF...

No offense intended, vegetarians. I'm 70-80% vegetarian myself. It just sounds funny to me that a full-time vegetarian would go on a diet. Although, I'm pretty healthy and I still feel the need to "detoxify" once a year. That's mostly for the beer I consume the rest of the year though.

Eric

Sorry to get off-topic. My wife just informed me that she's taking everyone but me home to her folks a couple hours West this weekend. Look out Smallies, here I come.

Ha! I like that, Eric. I can't quite tell you why it made me smile, but it's probably something like the idea of vegetarians going on a diet--just not what you expect. Does that mean you only eat 20-30% of the steak on your plate? :)

Have fun with the smallies!

I just got back from that smallmouth paddling trip that I was saying I was going to go on. It was very interesting, but a lot of it had to do with things other than fishing.

Fishing wise it was great, we caught smallies out of every decent hole, and some good fish up up to 17", mostly on crayfish patterns, but I also did well on an Elk Hair during an evening Caddis hatch.

But now for the rest of the story..

My friend who I was paddling with forgot to bring his truck keys along, and so we had no way to get back to my truck at the put in point- finally we found a lodge that offered to give us a ride up to our put in- I would say it was nice of them, but we soon learned the guy who drove us was drunk off his ass, and nearly drove of the road several times (I was probably stupid not to expect that. We were deep in the Ozarks and it was 7:00 PM, of course he would be drunk). He also charged us 50 bucks to drive us 10 miles. But despite that we had an awesome time.

Sorry for getting so far off the topic, but I had to share a funny story.

Speaking of being off-topic: No Gonzo, I eat 100% of the steak on my plate, but steak is only 20-30% of what my plate contains. You know, like a 70% chance of rain means only 70% of your grass will be watered.

Thanks for clearing that up, Eric. I feel much better now. (Cow is too tasty to waste.) :)

agreed.

Boys, boys, boys! How is it that Trout Nut has become the Food Channel?! :)



This is both very funny and a drag! You should of offered him a six pack up front and maybe he would of went for it...Somewhere here I told the story of old Dr. Hofmann helping me off the river one night. He wouldn't take any dough, I interrupted his fishing, he introduced me to the wife, it was somewhere after midnight, he had never met me before,and drove me down to the bridge so slowly I thought we would never get there so he could tell me all about the good-old-days on the river! Old timey anglers are cut from a very rare and wonderful cloth!

Spence (He's an Ovo-Lacto veg-o and thats 100% there mister) Over the last 40 years I've heard just about everything about the "odd" diet, some so off color they would require a PM, but I never thought I'd start such a flood here on the Fishing Channel!

Ovo-lacto sounds like some kind of tropical disease caused by some horrid little parasite... ;oD

Then again, to go completely off-topic, whenever I hear of, how shall I say, non-heterosexual people (against whom, I must state very clearly, I have no prejudices whatsoever) referred to as the "Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender community, which, being cumbersome to say, is usually abreviated to "LGBT", it sets off the long-buried, how shall I say, "military acronym center" of my brain. I decided recently that this acronym could well apply to the "Light Gun, Bombardment, Tracked"...Is this like the "Landing Ship, Dock" from WWII, which had the acronym LSD??????

What this has to do with fishing, well, actually, it has NOTHING to do with fishing. I'm just feeling a bit wacky right now - must be the two glasses of wine, because when I'm typically drinking vodka, I can't write for sh*t without making so many mistakes I just give up in disgust...

A (slightly) intoxicated Jonathon (Oh, heaven forbid!)

Jonathan, I certainly hope you aren't offended by this observation, but I may (actually) prefer reading your posts written when you're in the condition described above. LOL.

Why, you SOB, I'm so horribly offended I'm going to have to go drink some more!!!!!!!

;oD

JMD

P.S. Taxon, I hope you're not encouraging alcoholism on my part...I have enough trouble with being unemployed & living with a couple of 77-year-olds that's driving me to drink already (hence the vodka reference)... :oO

JMD

Jonathan-

Certainly not, just a sip before posting. Think mellow.