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I finally had a couple hours to myself yesterday, so I went to the creek. I keep going back to this stretch of holes that is fairly far upstream. These holes are not the biggest holes being this far up the watershed, but there are some decent fish in them, and there is a pod of good sized suckers that lives in the one that have been tormenting me the whole time I've known about this place. Because of this, I left my fly rod at home and brought my ML spinning combo.
As soon as I stepped in the water, crayfish darted everywhere! I have never seen as many crayfish as I did yesterday. So I did something I'm not proud of... That's right. I used crayfish as bait.
Right away I got in to a decent smallmouth with bright red eyes (sorry for the blurry picture, I took it through the sandwich bag that I keep my phone in while fishing lol). I got in to some sunfish of multiple species (green, longear, and bluegill) as well. Those sucker bastards still won't touch my offerings though; they seem to get spooked by their own shadow, and proceed to run back and forth across the hole in panic every time I cast.
I moved down a few holes until I got to the one that marks the end of this stretch of the creek. It is right behind a bridge and is quite deep, and the only way to get to it is to wade through the tunnel under the bridge, and there is no way to wade around it. I struggled for a bit to catch a craw, hooked it on and tossed it out, and watched my line. It went tight, then it went slack, so I reeled in the slack and set the hook. My rod tip went DOWN.
I was in to a good fight here, but I didn't know what it was. It was going down so I thought, catfish? I haven't seen a cat this far up the creek, but this is a deep hole so I thought it is possible. I got it up where I could see it thrashing and I almost confirmed it was a 3-4 lb channel cat, until I saw its mouth. I realized that this was the biggest smallmouth bass I have seen in this watershed, and maybe one of the biggest I have seen in general, especially in this part of the world. I was standing knee deep in this tunnel trying to figure out how I was going to grab this beast without getting a hook through my hand, as he thrashed all around me, when he literally spit the hook at my feet!
Now I finally know what you guys are all talking about. This is the first time that a trophy bass has broken my heart, and I think I will remember it forever. After he spit the hook, he just swam off all lazy and slow like he didn't even care. At this point I figured that no amount of small creek fish could comfort me, so I packed it up and turned in. I'm not totally disappointed though. This creek is clearly healthy and has new surprises for me every time I go.
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As soon as I stepped in the water, crayfish darted everywhere! I have never seen as many crayfish as I did yesterday. So I did something I'm not proud of... That's right. I used crayfish as bait.
Right away I got in to a decent smallmouth with bright red eyes (sorry for the blurry picture, I took it through the sandwich bag that I keep my phone in while fishing lol). I got in to some sunfish of multiple species (green, longear, and bluegill) as well. Those sucker bastards still won't touch my offerings though; they seem to get spooked by their own shadow, and proceed to run back and forth across the hole in panic every time I cast.
I moved down a few holes until I got to the one that marks the end of this stretch of the creek. It is right behind a bridge and is quite deep, and the only way to get to it is to wade through the tunnel under the bridge, and there is no way to wade around it. I struggled for a bit to catch a craw, hooked it on and tossed it out, and watched my line. It went tight, then it went slack, so I reeled in the slack and set the hook. My rod tip went DOWN.
I was in to a good fight here, but I didn't know what it was. It was going down so I thought, catfish? I haven't seen a cat this far up the creek, but this is a deep hole so I thought it is possible. I got it up where I could see it thrashing and I almost confirmed it was a 3-4 lb channel cat, until I saw its mouth. I realized that this was the biggest smallmouth bass I have seen in this watershed, and maybe one of the biggest I have seen in general, especially in this part of the world. I was standing knee deep in this tunnel trying to figure out how I was going to grab this beast without getting a hook through my hand, as he thrashed all around me, when he literally spit the hook at my feet!
Now I finally know what you guys are all talking about. This is the first time that a trophy bass has broken my heart, and I think I will remember it forever. After he spit the hook, he just swam off all lazy and slow like he didn't even care. At this point I figured that no amount of small creek fish could comfort me, so I packed it up and turned in. I'm not totally disappointed though. This creek is clearly healthy and has new surprises for me every time I go.
