Monday. Nothing really special happened, other than we caught 59 smallmouth, but nothing over 16 inches. We did keep 6 fish that were about 13" for a fish fry Tuesday night. In this photo, Roger shows a typical fish from our secret spot.
Tuesday. This day we fished a bit lower down the river, and had a very exciting day. We caught 60 fish, including a really nice smallmouth. Roger hooked into a decent smallie, and while fighting the fish stated that there was a big carp chasing his fish. Knowing the proclivities of smallies to chase a hooked fish and try to steal their food, I immediately threw my spinnerbait near his fish. I immediately hooked up. Luckily Roger's fish was landed quickly and he got the net. The result was this beautiful 21" smallmouth, that probably came close to 5 pounds. I felt bad that Roger didn't hook the fish on his cast, but was happy to show him what the Snake can produce.
A bit further downstream we were casting to some reed beds, picking up fish now and then, when I spotted something wiggling on the edge of the reeds. I ran us upstream and into the bank and discovered a sturgeon that was about four foot long. It was in distress, and had a softball size lump in the stomach area. The fisheries biologist in Roger came to the fore and after trying, unsuccessfully, to right the fish, we decided to puncture this very soft lump. When we did so, the lump collapsed like a punctured balloon and air bubbles came out the hole. We left the fish in an upright position against the reeds. When we came back three days later, it was no longer anywhere to be seen.
On Wednesday we fished a spot that sometimes produces big fish, but we didn't hit them. We did catch 39 fish up to 16" and decided to quit early and look over some of the reels in my collection. Here is a photo of one of the fish. You can see the Chattergrub in his mouth.
Thursday. We went back to our first day's drift and caught a bunch of nice fish on Flukes in shallow water before the sun came up over the ridge. We then ran upstream and drifted down through a shallow riffle and did well. We ended the day with 53 fish, including one that was 18".
Friday. We went back to our sturgeon drift area, but as we were running up the river, I suddenly decided to go around an island to an area I had not fished before and give it a try. This was a big flat with water ranging from 1-5 foot deep. The bottom was large gravel mixed with grass beds. You can get a good idea of the type of water from this photo of Roger working a Fluke.
We worked this area over with Flukes and caught 33 smallmouth before 9 AM. We then took a break and shared our coffee and cinnamon rolls with Fudge.
We drifted down a couple of miles catching fish all along the way, when we came to an island and decided to give Fudge some exercise. As we pulled into an opening of the reeds lining the bank we saw a fish against the bank. Holy Moly! It was another sturgeon. This one was about 2' long. It spooked as we pulled up toward it, but a few minutes later it reappeared off the stern of the boat and there was no doubt this was a small sturgeon. I guess this part of the river has some natural reproduction.
After all this excitement, we gathered up Fudge and continued our drift down the river. We caught a bunch of really nice fish up to 16" this day and ran the counter up to 90 fish. It was a really great ending to five days of quality fishing with a fine friend.
I failed to mention that Roger also caught a channel catfish and a nice 17" largemouth bass.
