So I was able to get fishing twice over the last few days in search of some Smallies!! Being unfamiliar with the area I just drove around and looked for any place with public access to the White river. The first park I tried had a special receptacle for disposing of mono-filament line near the parking lot so I knew that water must be nearby. Unfortunately I apparently selected the wrong path and wound up hiking through a narrow little used path for what felt like forever until I finally reached some water. Unfortunately it was a stank overflow portion of the river which stunk like poop and was infested with mosquitoes. Not interested in getting eaten alive by bugs I quickly tried to move down the overflow area and over to the main system of the river. Unfortunately as I began my voyage through the thick brush I came across some thistles which immediately made my legs feel like they were on fire. After just a few moments the intense burning and itching sensation drove me to quickly hike all the way back to car and abandon fishing at this location. Not wanting to give up so easily I continued my quest for an accessible portion of the river and was rewarded by finding a nice biking trail that ran parallel to the river. At this point it was mid afternoon with an oppressive sun and temps in the 90's and I had little expectation of landing any fish. I began my hunt with a baby bass original rattletrap and began fan casting the river. After a few dozen casts I noticed a downed tree upstream that was only a few yards out of my casting radius. Once within casting range it only took a few casts to finally bump into a log and BAM fish on!!!!
It was not a biggie by any means but I so much missed the hard fight of these bronzebacks. A few casts later and off of the same submerged tree I landed this guy.
I continued working my way up the river and took a few casts everytime I found a clearing big enough to cast out of. Unfortunately most of the clearings did not occur in prime waters. After receiving no more hits on the rattletrap I decided I would try to throw an itsy bitsy tube (1.5") in a baby bass color on a small jig. I cast behind a submerged tree limb and wound of landing this guy after a very nice fight on my ultralight setup.
This morning I again hit the White but in a different spot and was greeted by a large water snake and some young ducklings. There was very little fish activity at the surface and my baby bass superfluke didn't seem to be drawing any interest. Finally after nearly an hour of no hits I flipped my fluke under an overhanging tree near a rocky shore line and had a smallie short strike the bait. I quickly picked up my ultralight and flipped the itsy bitsy tube into the area and sure enough I landed a very nice smallie in the 1.5lb range. Unfortunately due to the difficult and unstable footing I had when I landed her I was unable to snap any photos. I then proceeded to land three more, but very small Smallmouths from the same pool and then even managed a 7" White crappie and about an 8" Largemouth that was round like a football.
Unfortunately the wadable water at this location was minimal and so I called it a day. Man do I wish I owned a Kayak!!!
