I hit the Columbia on Saturday the 16th. I was totally stoked because I just knew I was going to have a monster day. When I got to the ramp I was a little dismayed by the amount of wind. Usually the day at least starts off calm but the wind was whipping it was spitting rain. I was not too unhappy though because I knew that rain would have the smallmouth chomping big time.
I started the day off tossing a whopper plopper and within a few casts missed what looked to be a good fish. That really had me thinking that it was going to be a day where I had to knock off early because my arms were so tired from fighting big smallmouth. I was really tense on my next cast, but, huh, I did not get a bite. Nor on the next cast or the one after that.
After about 15 minutes of peppering this point with casts I had not had another bite. That's OK, some days they just don't want to hit topwater and maybe that makes sense with the wind and the rain. That's OK, I love a good Jackhammer stealthblade bite. As I made my first cast a fish swirled chasing something about 10' in front of me and right in the line of retrieve.
This is going to be an epic bite I thought as I reeled my lure towards and through the spot where the fish had swirled, but no bite! I figured maybe the fish had moved a little left or right but a thorough fan-casting yielded only the occasional weed. I thought to myself that maybe they want something else. So I picked up my swimbait rod.
Second cast with the swimbait and WHAM! I hooked a nice smallmouth that immediately started tail-walking across the surface. It jumped a total of 5 times before I was able to get in my net. It was a nice, but skinny, 18" 2lb 5oz bass. I was now fired up since I was sure I had figured out what they wanted.
However, cast after cast laid bare the truth that I had in fact not figured out anything. After tiring of tossing the swimbait I tried a Ned rig, then the wobblehead, then the drop shot but it was like I had caught the only bass in the river. Man, I hate that feeling.
I decided to move spots and worked towards one of my favorite shallow shelfs. As soon as I caught past the small weedbed on that shelf I had another bass smack the swimbait. This spot is usually loaded if they are there so I was ready to just start wailing on them but all I could manage was one more fish off of that spot.
I decided to move to another spot, then another spot, then a surefire spot that all turned out to be duds. Eventually I made my way pretty far downstream to one of my favorite humps and fished it fruitlessly with a full complement of moving baits. At that point I was pretty frustrated!! I thought the bass have to be somewhere so I started fishing in the deeper water beside the hump. I finally found a small group of fish and managed a few between the Ned and the drop shot.
I felt like that was a pretty good clue so I moved to another spot and tried to fish a similar deeper flat that is close to shore. First cast I felt a pop on the drop shot and landed another fish. All right, I know what to do now. Of course, I did not get another sniff off of that spot. However, I at least felt that fishing deep and painfully slow would at least get me some bites.
I went back out to the hump and picked up another fish or two and then decided that since I had figured them out I would hit another spot that is just ideal for this type of fishing. The only thing that spot was lacking was fish. Finally out of frustration I thought maybe they are suspended around this beautiful structure so I picked up the stealthblade and on the first cast, POW! I had a violent strike and landed a 1lb 13oz bass (which felt pretty good after the string of smaller bass). OK, I have got them now!
Of course that was just another liar fish. I tossed that stealthblade for quite a while but only had one other hit so then it was back to trying to scrape them off the bottom. The next hump I fished yielded two bass, the one after that zero bass.
Finally, it had been 7 hours on the water and I had I think 14 bass at that point. I decided to try one last spot and that turned out pretty well. I ended up catching 7 or 8 bass off that last spot in 45 minutes before deciding to call it a day. The reason I packed it in was that once again most of those bass were dinks with the "big" ones going a pound and a half or so.
On the day I ended up with 21 bass but they were mostly dinks. I am still not sure why the fishing was so tough. A cold front did pass through in the early morning so maybe that was it. The shad smolt are starting their out-migration to the ocean so maybe that was it. Or the most likely explanation is that I just sucked
Oh well, it is good to get humbled every now and again. Anyway, here a couple of pics and a video (more fishing and less catching in this one!).
I started the day off tossing a whopper plopper and within a few casts missed what looked to be a good fish. That really had me thinking that it was going to be a day where I had to knock off early because my arms were so tired from fighting big smallmouth. I was really tense on my next cast, but, huh, I did not get a bite. Nor on the next cast or the one after that.
After about 15 minutes of peppering this point with casts I had not had another bite. That's OK, some days they just don't want to hit topwater and maybe that makes sense with the wind and the rain. That's OK, I love a good Jackhammer stealthblade bite. As I made my first cast a fish swirled chasing something about 10' in front of me and right in the line of retrieve.
This is going to be an epic bite I thought as I reeled my lure towards and through the spot where the fish had swirled, but no bite! I figured maybe the fish had moved a little left or right but a thorough fan-casting yielded only the occasional weed. I thought to myself that maybe they want something else. So I picked up my swimbait rod.
Second cast with the swimbait and WHAM! I hooked a nice smallmouth that immediately started tail-walking across the surface. It jumped a total of 5 times before I was able to get in my net. It was a nice, but skinny, 18" 2lb 5oz bass. I was now fired up since I was sure I had figured out what they wanted.
However, cast after cast laid bare the truth that I had in fact not figured out anything. After tiring of tossing the swimbait I tried a Ned rig, then the wobblehead, then the drop shot but it was like I had caught the only bass in the river. Man, I hate that feeling.
I decided to move spots and worked towards one of my favorite shallow shelfs. As soon as I caught past the small weedbed on that shelf I had another bass smack the swimbait. This spot is usually loaded if they are there so I was ready to just start wailing on them but all I could manage was one more fish off of that spot.
I decided to move to another spot, then another spot, then a surefire spot that all turned out to be duds. Eventually I made my way pretty far downstream to one of my favorite humps and fished it fruitlessly with a full complement of moving baits. At that point I was pretty frustrated!! I thought the bass have to be somewhere so I started fishing in the deeper water beside the hump. I finally found a small group of fish and managed a few between the Ned and the drop shot.
I felt like that was a pretty good clue so I moved to another spot and tried to fish a similar deeper flat that is close to shore. First cast I felt a pop on the drop shot and landed another fish. All right, I know what to do now. Of course, I did not get another sniff off of that spot. However, I at least felt that fishing deep and painfully slow would at least get me some bites.
I went back out to the hump and picked up another fish or two and then decided that since I had figured them out I would hit another spot that is just ideal for this type of fishing. The only thing that spot was lacking was fish. Finally out of frustration I thought maybe they are suspended around this beautiful structure so I picked up the stealthblade and on the first cast, POW! I had a violent strike and landed a 1lb 13oz bass (which felt pretty good after the string of smaller bass). OK, I have got them now!
Of course that was just another liar fish. I tossed that stealthblade for quite a while but only had one other hit so then it was back to trying to scrape them off the bottom. The next hump I fished yielded two bass, the one after that zero bass.
Finally, it had been 7 hours on the water and I had I think 14 bass at that point. I decided to try one last spot and that turned out pretty well. I ended up catching 7 or 8 bass off that last spot in 45 minutes before deciding to call it a day. The reason I packed it in was that once again most of those bass were dinks with the "big" ones going a pound and a half or so.
On the day I ended up with 21 bass but they were mostly dinks. I am still not sure why the fishing was so tough. A cold front did pass through in the early morning so maybe that was it. The shad smolt are starting their out-migration to the ocean so maybe that was it. Or the most likely explanation is that I just sucked
Oh well, it is good to get humbled every now and again. Anyway, here a couple of pics and a video (more fishing and less catching in this one!).
