# The great "smallmouth run" of 2013!



## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

I couldn't find a fishing buddy yesterday, so I hit the river by myself. Usually when this happens, one of two things happens: I either get skunked and don't have to worry about any witnesses, or I have something huge happen and wish I had a few witnesses! Yesterday was one of those amazing days where I wish my friends could have been there to share in the fun. I'm going to call it the great "Smallmouth Run of 2013".

*Weather*:
High of 59 degrees. A cold front moved in after a week of 70+ degree weather. It was mostly cloudy, with occasional 30minute sunny streaks. The wind was high from the WSW at 20 mph gusting to 29 mph. Water temps were reading 53 degrees. Water clarity was terrible-muddy, with 2-3inches of visibility. 

*Report*:
I woke up knowing that all the rivers were blown out. That's a bad feeling when you want to go fishing. The weather was much colder than earlier in the week and it was windy, so I considered not going out at all. I have a fishing problem, however, and since I didn't get to go fishing all week during the nice weather, I decided to go out and put my skills to the test. 

I found the river very unwelcoming. The water looked like chocolate milk and there were white caps from all of the wind. I decided to paddle upstream to a bend that would be protected by the wind and my fishfinder was completely blank...ghost town. Farther upstream I started marking fish holding very tightly to the bottom of the river. (If there is anything to be said about these new DSI units, they sure are great at picking up the slightest bump on the bottom.) I tied on a small Chinese blade bait and soon found out what most of the bumps were. Stinky, slimy drum:









Farther upstream, I paddled across a solid wall of fish arches that turned out to be my #2 most hated fish on the river...stinky, slimy gar. You can see them in my fishfinder here if you look closely:









I paddled another half mile upstream hoping to escape the slime and didn't see any more activity on my fishfinder. I contemplated going back and just spending the afternoon snagging gar, but something told me to keep going upstream. I finally came to a large pool that was 10 feet deep surrounded by submerged trees from the high water. I didn't have many weedless lures in my tacklebox, so I tied on a white Matzuo spinner bait with 2 small willowblades. It's a good small 1/4ounce spinner for the river that rarely gets any use, but I'm sure glad I had it. I cast the lure upstream into the main river channel and reeled it back right through the tree tops. On the first cast, it gets smoked by this guy:








He only measured 13 inches, but on a ML rod he sure put up a heck of a fight!

His friends just couldn't resist the lure banging off of the trees and they started pummeling the thing. Every time I hit a branch with one of the blades they would blast it. I was using 10# braid which came in handy as they kept pulling me into the trees. I actually had to dig a few of them out. It's been a long time since I've caught any good smallies so I'd forgotten how strong they were. Jump after jump and run after run, they put a hurting on my light tackle. They also started ripping the skirt to pieces and I had to break off a piece of a stick and ram it up the spinner just to keep the skirt from falling off.

I was amazed at how different each one looked:

























Once I figured out where they were holding and how they wanted the lure, I started smoking them. I went 12 for 12 on casts, lost # 13 to an amazing hook-throwing triple jump, and then caught 7 more in a row. I made it all the way up to 38 fish, mostly smallies with a few spotted bass taking their best shot at the spinner before #39 finally got the best of it and ripped the skirt completely off. I continued to fish with some other lures like a Little George, a Kastmaster spoon, and a jig, but with the trees there it just wasn't the same. I did my best to replace the skirt on the spinner with random lures in my tacklebox, but it ended up looking like a 1st grade art project so I called it a day and paddled back.

Here's the spotted bass and some of the other lures:









On the trip back to the car I thought it would be funny to troll the Frankenstein spinner that I had made just to see what happened. It made a pretty good trolling lure, but I didn't think it would catch anything with no skirt and all of the sticks poking out of it. Wrong! 20feet from my takeout I get hit by a freight train...BOOM! kayak spins around and my rod doubles over as a river monster hit the spinner and pulled me downstream. I thought it was a gar, but this thing never rolled on me and it never wore out. 10 minutes go by and my rod is still doubled over and I haven't budged the thing. 20 minutes go by and now I'm 100 feet downstream. 30 minutes go by and I finally get a glimpse of the fish and all I can see is a fat blue blob. The sun had gone down completely and I was left to haul this beast up on shore in the dark. A new personal best for blue cats. This one weighed in just over 30 pounds:


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## FishDoctor (Aug 9, 2012)

Nice fish house!

That fight with the blue must have been epic.


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## TRAILGATOR (Jul 3, 2011)

Persistence wears down Resistance.
That is the way of the water.

Nice Job! Great Fish.


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## fisherFL (Oct 23, 2012)

Way to go house, seems like you have great luck on the water so far this year! Would you say the kayak with ML tackle acts almost like a drag when they pull you around on it?


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## master of none (Mar 26, 2013)

nice day.what river was you on? hitting farm pond today.with my new yak.cant wait


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## blindcop204 (Apr 25, 2012)

Nice fish glad your catching a lot of fish!


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## GrnvlJIM (Jan 12, 2013)

Great report all around. Congrats on the catches.

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## Matulemj (May 29, 2012)

That catfish is so tiny. Bro, do you even fish? 










Congrats on your new "PB", if ya know what I mean.

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## BassAddict83 (Sep 21, 2010)

Dude, that catfish is sloppy fat! Nice job man!


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## Ajax (May 16, 2008)

That is a nice catch.


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## JimmyMac (Feb 18, 2011)

What river was that?

I've been dying to hit the gmr but the thing is raging right now. Awesome blue cat btw, especially on light tackle.


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## Britam05 (Jun 16, 2012)

Wow. I was under the impression rivers were up to high. Dang I should have at least tempted. Some great fish! And the blue whale you caught has to be the biggest I've seen on here in awhile


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## GasFish26 (Aug 15, 2012)

What kinda fish finder was that?


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Nice fat blue! I didn't think they ventured far from the big river.


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

So....where were you? Haven't you heard, the pop trend is to tell every crawler around exactly where you caught your fish because it's ok now. Nobody will ruin your spot and your fish will be safe.
Can you believe that there is that mentality on this board?
Yeah, me too.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

That Mr House is a massive fish. Reminds me of those pictures of BA83's momma you showed me...

Its obvious from the pictures he's fishing huckelberry creek right up from the mouth by the old trojan factory.
Another great trip and post BTW


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## dstiner86 (Jun 5, 2012)

Dang those are some nice catches! especially the blue! 

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## JimmyMac (Feb 18, 2011)

co-angler said:


> So....where were you? Haven't you heard, the pop trend is to tell every crawler around exactly where you caught your fish because it's ok now. Nobody will ruin your spot and your fish will be safe.
> Can you believe that there is that mentality on this board?
> Yeah, me too.
> 
> ...


Nobody asked for exact locations, simply what river. Given the size of most rivers, its like asking what haystack he found the needle in... 

Again, that blue is very impressive... Especially on light tackle.


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## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

GasFish26 said:


> What kinda fish finder was that?


That FF is a Lowrance Elite5 DSI. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. The downscan is pretty ridunculous with the bottom imaging, but it's a little different than a 2D view. I just paddle around until I see big blobs on my screen, then I stop and try to catch them. 

OSG that was in fact Huckleberry Creek...my cover is blown. That mom joke just made my night. BA's mom has a lot more whiskers though


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## BassAddict83 (Sep 21, 2010)

oldstinkyguy said:


> Reminds me of those pictures of BA83's momma you showed me...


Stinky- I'm going to poke tiny little holes all over your waders next time I see you! 

HOUSE- I'm telling my mom you showed Stinky those pictures!


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

JimmyMac said:


> Nobody asked for exact locations, simply what river. Given the size of most rivers, its like asking what haystack he found the needle in...
> .


You're out of your element....


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## deltaoscar (Apr 4, 2009)

Awesome fish House. I bet that was a blast getting pulled around by that blue cat. Right as you was about to pull out too.

My uncle has a farm on Huckleberry Creek, but he won't let me fish there.


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## landarcjedi (Mar 20, 2011)

Great info and post, thx for sharing


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## E_Lin (Jun 30, 2011)

Dang that cat was a brute!
I can't imagine having a truck like that pulling me around on the water. That must have been awesome!



oldstinkyguy said:


> Its obvious from the pictures he's fishing huckelberry creek right up from the mouth by the old trojan factory.


Since the trend now is to post where you fish, I decided I was going to hit Huckelberry Creek tomorrow, but I had trouble finding it on Google maps. Then I remembered it being near the old Trojan factory. Yikes! Is that where the story about the LMR trouser snake originated??? I'm not going anywhere near there! You can have that spot to yourself, House.


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## Fisherman 3234 (Sep 8, 2008)

Awesome job, Congrats!


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## Bostonwhaler10 (Apr 30, 2012)

Everytime I think I had a good fishing trip. House posts his and I get depressed again lol.


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## AngelofDeath (Apr 12, 2013)

Beatuful blue...congrats on the new PB....


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Bostonwhaler10 said:


> Everytime I think I had a good fishing trip. House posts his and I get depressed again lol.


I feel the exact same way. Lol.

Congrats House....glad you found the smallies, that blue was just the icing on the cake. 

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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

Holy cow!! The blue whale took a spinner?! &#8230;holy cow again! Congratulations! 
I target flatheads with artificial bait, I also catch occasional channel cat that way but I&#8217;m pretty sure that&#8217;s the first blue I&#8217;ve heard of chasing a lure. Obviously it happens, it&#8217;s just the first time I&#8217;ve heard of it. Hmmmmmmmmmmm, might get some company down there; blue cat on artificial bait&#8217;s on my list. I need to get a kayak first though. Actually, a blue cat any way I can get it is on my list&#8230; anyway except a pay-lake.

I&#8217;m pretty sure that&#8217;s a Fish Ohio/Fish OGF sized fish. You ought to be able to get a Fish Ohio/Fish OGF catfish trifecta, a 35&#8221; flathead and a 28&#8221; channel cat are a little easier to come by.


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Dandrews said:


> Holy cow!! The blue whale took a spinner?! &#8230;holy cow again! Congratulations!
> I target flatheads with artificial bait, I also catch occasional channel cat that way but I&#8217;m pretty sure that&#8217;s the first blue I&#8217;ve heard of chasing a lure. Obviously it happens, it&#8217;s just the first time I&#8217;ve heard of it. Hmmmmmmmmmmm, might get some company down there; blue cat on artificial bait&#8217;s on my list. I need to get a kayak first though. Actually, a blue cat any way I can get it is on my list&#8230; anyway except a pay-lake.
> 
> I&#8217;m pretty sure that&#8217;s a Fish Ohio/Fish OGF sized fish. You ought to be able to get a Fish Ohio/Fish OGF catfish trifecta, a 35&#8221; flathead and a 28&#8221; channel cat are a little easier to come by.


I read an article published in an in-fisherman magazine where guys were trolling and drifting cutbait (shad and skipjack) with blades and and beads just before the cutbait. They said the added vibration and flash caught more fish. (Blues and flathead. Never tried it though.

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## fishing247 (May 12, 2007)

i guess i have not made "friend" status since i didn't a call. good job man. that's a brute.


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## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

2X 

That's saweeeet!!! Catching that BEAST from a yak must of been crazy fun!! Very nice work House!


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## Nubes (Dec 3, 2012)

that's a good day! I should have tried to get a hold of you. I didn't fish the river because it looked blown out and opted to fish Kincaid down in Falmouth hoping to land one of the trophies that are known to reside there. I ended up with 2 small largemouth in about 5 hrs of fishing! LOL. Everyone I spoke to wasn't killing it except one boat and the biggest one they got yesterday was a 4lber. I threw spinner baits, shaky heads, wacky rig, crank baits, swim baits but the fire tiger crank bait seemed to be the ticket and the guys in the boat who did good said most of their catches came on the fire tiger crank bait. You ever want someone to hit the water with on the weekend hit me up, those are typically my only days to fish unless I bring my yak to work with me and hit Sharon....


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## whodeynati (Mar 12, 2012)

I'll be your fishing buddy anyday! I got a boat and a yak.lol.
For real awesome Catfish. That's mainly all I target and I consider myself lucky when I get one over 25lbs. Nice report. 

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## inrll (Apr 6, 2012)

Dude! Nicely done! You really know how to experiment and throw what *is working* not what *should be* working. (taking notes and awaiting next post)


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## LittleMiamiJeff (Oct 1, 2005)

Love IT! Nice Smallies and that Blue is awesome!


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

OK so a little clarity here (as it seems needed)
I was not "Flaming" anybody for asking where they were fishing. It was a silly comment that I was goofing with HOUSE about.
Later JimmyMac made a comment that sounded as though he thought I was referring to him when truth be told, I _only_ read HOUSE's report, hit reply without reading another single reply and the goofing ensued. Later, I responded to JimmyMac with a Big Lebowski quote.

This is all.....as you were.


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