Today I decided to hit a very small stream near my home to see if I could coax some of the few local smallies into biting. The stream is sparsely populated with smallmouth in the 10-12 range but I thought it would provide a nice noon time diversion.
I had collected a pair of very small 6 inch smallies wading the stream. Definitely not my idea of fun. I was thinking about heading home, when I did what many fisherman do in my situation. I decided to trudge upstream and fish one more hole before calling it a day.
I came to relatively wide area in the stream. Probably about 20 yards wide. The long slower moving hole was probably about 50 yards long. I decided to standing in the middle of the knee high water and fan cast the upstream from me to the bottom end of the hole. I knew I could easily cover the entire stretch of water wading upstream and casting.
The first cast found its way to sunken tree limb. After much jerking and fiddling around I was able to free my bait from the entanglement. I think some of my expletives helped the process along.
I regained my composure and flung a 15 yard cast directly up stream from my position at the very bottom of the hole. I was fishing a senko type bait so I just kind of let it drift back toward me on a slack line. slowing reeling up some line when necessary. About 15 seconds into the cast, I lifted the rod tip high to give the bait a check. I didn’t want it getting hung up on the bottom.
As I lifted and made contact with the bait I felt that it was solidly hung up on something again. Ok, here we go again, I thought. Then I felt the familiar thud of a fish. I reeled up on the slack and set the hook. Instantly I felt a solid connect along with the singing of my drag.
The fish was fighting hard bulldogging to the bottom of the creek. At first I’m excited, but then I see the back of a fat brown fish. I’m thinking…dang carp. I never had one eat a senko before. Then the carp jumps and clears the water by at least 10 inches. The lighting is such that all I see is a football shaped silhouette. I’m think, not only has this carp ate a senko, now it’s jumping like a bass! Now I’m really confused.
The carp jumps two more times clearing the water completely then goes back to bull dogging. I finally get the fish within a yard of me in the murky water. Crap! It’s not a carp! Its a nice smallmouth bass! After a few more tugs and runs, I bring the smallmouth to hand. It measures out at 17 inches with a belly that would put Santa Claus to shame. Not the trophy of my fishing career, but definitely a surprise in such a small flow!
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