Marny Bluff Smallies

I took Luke and Rodney Efferson smallmouth fishing this evening for a couple of hours after work. We got bait in the Center Farm Cove within the first 3 or 4 throws of the Cracker. And we didn't just get bait, we got the most absolutely perfect heavenly threadfins you've ever seen! This is God's finest smallmouth bait ever (with the possible addition of crawdads and hellgrammites). We armed ourselves with the usual rig: Shimano Stradic 3000 FJ on a 7' medium light GLoomis rod spooled up with 20lb PowerPro and a 4-5' 8lb Seaguar fluorocarbon leader and a Gamakatsu or Owner circle hook size matched to our bait. We started our search by fishing the gravelly transition flat just immediately up river from Eagle Bluff. The very first minnow in the water scored Luke a gorgeous 4# bronzeback! I quickly followed suit and boated a scrappy 1.5 pound smallie. Both of these fish were working the flat in about 6' of water adjacent to good deep water.

Late Evening Flatheads

Crystal, Kate, Kimberly and I went out cat fishing this evening for a couple hours. We got mediocre sized gizzards in the Center Farm cove with one throw of the net. Because we short on time I settled for these. We ran to the mouth of the ole Rebel cove and anchored up. Kimbo caught a nice flathead (10 lbs) soon into the trip. Crystal was next with blue and Kate wrapped up the evening with another smaller flathead. All the fish came in about 25' of water on cut shad. The weather was nice - air temp was in the low to mid 70s. Surface water temp was in the low 80s.

Hot Water

Luke and I launched on the Clinch this afternoon behind Food City to see if we could find some smallmouth. The surface water temperature right at the launch was 94°F! Just a few hundred yards up the river and the temperature was 77°F. There was an abundance of very small threadfin shad all over the river out in the main channel. We got a nice batch of bait and proceeded to start working the bluff just on the right as you head upstream under the bridge. I fished a live minnow under a floating cork and Luke fished a finesse rig on the bottom to see if the fish had a preference. We lost five fish within the first 10 casts. I don't know what the heck was wrong with us unless it was the fact that I haven't been fishing and over four weeks! Luke finally got the hang of it again and boated three nice bass but I never did seem to get my head on straight. His biggest smallmouth was 19 inches long but was very thin. It probably weighed 2 1/2 pounds but had the frame of a 4 pounder. His other smallmouth was a football shaped pound and a half to 2 pound scrappy fish. He also added a nice 2 pound largemouth to his catch. He got one other small small mouth while I stood there and spectated. There were large groups of fish breaking on the surface periodically but you could never really get to them in time to catch anything. They looked like schools of bass more than likely. Overall it was a fantastic evening I always love spending time with Luke.

Long Island White Bass

Kate and I went fishing with Bryan Terrill tonight. We caught about 12 white bass (Morone chrysops) and BT caught his first catfish and his first double. We had a beautiful night to enjoy.

Schooling White Bass

I've been getting reports of schooling white bass on the upper end of Long Island. So tuesday evening (7/3/12) I had about an hour so I ran and launched the boat and raced to the island. Fish were breaking as I arrived (~8:20 p.m.) and I caught several fish on a Heddon Zara puppy and a silver Castmaster spoon.

Poplar Creek Stripers

 

I decided to make an exploratory trip this evening to see if the rockfish were pushing minnows up on the shallow flats up the clinch turning into a subsequent surface bite.  I called on my comrades Ethan and Ian to check it out with me.  We launched at Food City and ran up to Dead Mans cove to get bait - one or two throws and we were in business. We graphed a couple of spots along the way heading up stream, but didn't find any fish.  I thought that it might be worth a look at the mouth of Poplar Creek since its always a good idea to check major thoroughfares (areas where moving baitfish have the possibility of getting corralled).  We stopped outside the mouth of Poplar Creek and the first drop resulted in a beast.  From then on it was on like Donkey Kong! We boated several nice fish all in the 10 to 15 pound range, the best being Ian's. He really mopped up tonight - I think he had 5 by himself.

Stripers & New Friends

Stuart Row brought a friend of his along today as we headed out and attempted to get him hooked up with a nice striper, a fish he had never caught before. Dave is quite the accomplished fly fisherman, but apparently has done much lake fishing for stripers. We started at the barge tie up on the southwest side of Long Island. Stuart caught a pair of nice rockfish right off the bat, and missed another - but then the bite shut down.  We moved up to the top of the island to try the southern most drop off near the Osprey nest, but no stripers were showing up on the graph.  Earlier, when we were getting bait, I got a nice batch of threadfins that I just could stand to throw out, and man am I ever glad I didn't.  Since we were up near the Osprey nest I decided to rig up my Stradic 3000/7' St. Croix rig with a live bait Carolina rig - 1st pitch laid a perfect 3" yellow tail up on the shallow flat next to the big stump that sits at the base of the Osprey next and no sooner had it entered the water and wham! a beautiful 4.5# smallmouth crushed it.  It was a fantastic fight on that lighter tackle.  I caught another smaller smallmouth (~1.5#) on the very next cast. We then moved down around the east side of the island and Dave finally got to experience the ferocious fight of a rockfish.

Dualin' Stripers

A first for Dave

4.5# Bronzeback