The Bronze Age 05/08/12

I went in search of some prespawn smallmouth.  I was surprised at how clear the water was compared to usual.  I put in at my usual spot right as a boat went over and plopped down where I normally fish.  I was weighing my options when he left.  I paddled over to a nice flat before my usual dropoff.  As I arrived a shore fisherman waddled down the steep bank and parked himself at the end of this stretch.  I still had a good buffer between the two of us, so I began fishing the flat.  I immediately hooked and lost a good fish on a chartreuse spinnerbait.  A few casts later I hooked this nice chunk.

These little rascals certainly fight like a much larger fish.

A moment later, I caught another.

I caught a couple of smaller ones on a jerkbait before moving down the bank.  I caught a few more here, but  the action was slower.  I love the color on this wee devil though.

The shore fisherman was still hunkered down on the point and blocking off access to the next stretch. I went back over to the flat and scored a couple more on a Spro Aruku Shad Jr. in Magic Tiger.  I also pestered some little guys in the shallows with a pink Twitchy Minnow.

The boat fisherman returned with a friend in a second boat, and they camped out between me and the shore fisherman.  I was sick of all the crowding, so I kicked my tube out wide and went around everybody.  I got to a promising stretch, and had a follow right away.  Then I heard talking, and before I knew it, there was another boat full of people coming down the bank the other way.  I had had enough and decided to get in my car and drive down the reservoir to a new area.  It's kind of annoying when people have boats and can quickly and easily go anywhere they want, but they still choose to crowd me out.  I'm not sure why there were so many people out on a Tuesday afternoon anyway.

I drove further than I had ever driving along the rocky, pothole riddled road before finding a likely spot.  There was a flat adjacent to a steep rocky bank here, it looked prime.  And it was.  I didn't find much on the flat, but the steeper section was on.  The fish were holding on the drop and baits worked tight to the bank would elicit violent strikes as they would shoot up from the depths to intercept it.  I immediately got a nice fish on the spinnerbait.

I only had a couple of feet of line out when I watched him annihilate my bait.  I worked down the bank and continued catching fish.  I caught some more on the spinnerbait and on the lipless crank as well.  I tried a little Rebel Crawfish crank and a good fish nabbed it on the first pass.  He got down in the rocks and came loose, leaving my lure stranded in the depths.  I was able to get it loose and caught a smaller fish.  I liked it, but it was a bit too shallow of a runner for this place.  I switched to a Koppers crayfish lipless crank and caught an obese little bugger off a point.

 I went back over the area I had fished with a little Crazy Craw that I had made, and they ate it up.

After they had chewed up a few of those, I decided to try a Keitech Little Spider.  They liked that too.

I realized it was time to go so I started heading back.  I did manage a few more, including a pretty nice one on the spinnerbait.  She was hooked kind of weird, so I released her without a pic.

Despite the annoyances with crowding early on, I discovered a new area that was very productive.  I ended up with 26 smallmouth for the day.  Not too shabby.

Total fish for trip:  26 Smallmouth

Total for year:  315 fish