Ugly strikes again & catch and release.

Share your fishing adventures, especially ones using antique tackle!
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Reel Geezer
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Ugly strikes again & catch and release.

Post by Reel Geezer »

Today I caught a nice 18" smallmouth in the Snake River on a spinnerbait. She was nice and fat and fought well. While fighting the fish I noticed some marks on her side and thought... whoa. Then I gently hoisted her in the boat and noted she only had one eye.

On September 6 I caught this same fish on a buzz bait about 1/4 miles below the fallen tree she was residing in today.

Catch and release works. So does fishing from a boat. No one around and 3 miles from the nearest parking spot.

To add some Reel Talk, the reel was not an old Meisselbach... It was a Japan Market Shimano Calcutta Conquest 50. A tiny baitcaster that is the modern equivilant to a Shakepeare 1740 Tournament. Tiny, smooth and light.
Jack Bright
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Old "One Eye"

Post by Jack Bright »

Hi Geez--Same thing happened to me on the Thornapple River near me mine was only about 14" but did catch it 3 times in same year using flies
never saw it again, by now if it still survived should be about 18 inches
wonder if it moved to the Snake. The only time I know if it`s a female is
in the spring and it has eggs. . . how do you tell this time of year ?
Reel Geezer
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Post by Reel Geezer »

Jack: To me any bass 18" or more is a "she". That may be incorrect, as I have read some stuff recently that says that male smallmouth are often the same size as females.
RAM
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Post by RAM »

Geezer-The fact that you can consistently catch a batch of nice smallies up to 18" and never see another soul although you are not in a wilderness area implies several possibilities: 1) The rest of the fishermen in your area are dumber than a possum. Even our rednecks here (among the dumbest) are smart enough to figure out where that kind of fishing is. As I have said, they will beat down the doors of hell to get to such fishing. 2) Your fishermen consider smallies "trash fish". 3) They all have the same attitude I do about boats (unlikely) 4) They don't like to deal with grass in the water (unlikely) 4) They are too lazy to go to the trouble (likely). Interesting that in a populated valley like that such fishing goes unnoticed. No, not interesting-amazing!
Bad Bob Keep on catchin'and releasin'!
Reel Geezer
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Post by Reel Geezer »

Bob: I think the answer to your possibilities is that everyone is fishing about 10-15 miles upstream from where I have been fishing. There is road and boat access in that area. Also, they need to have a jet boat to come up, or a drift boat to float down. The jetters are all downstream or upstream at better ramps, and the drifters are all on the Madison, Henry's Fork, S. Fork of the Snake. Here is a photo of Ugly's Lair, and you can see that this is a big river in this area, but it is only 6" in spots and 8' in other spots. Not wading water for old geezers. And this is only one run - the trees (but not the bluff) to the left is an island and there is a lot of water over on the other side. Ugly hit in the slick right next to the branches. I pulled in behind the tree and caught 5-6 other smallmouth, but all in the 12-14" range.
Image

It's not quite as picturesque as Ron's spots, but it has a certain charm.
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Brian F.
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Post by Brian F. »

Reel Geezer wrote:...It's not quite as picturesque as Ron's spots, but it has a certain charm.
If it's water and it's got fish to catch in it, it's beeeyoootiful to me! Living my freshwater fishing vicariously through Reelgeezer - keep the reports coming!
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Ron Mc
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Post by Ron Mc »

I absolutely agree catch-and-release works.
On my banner day in private water last weekend, I caught a nice bass from earlier this year - exactly where I expected to find him.

Every spring I hate watching the numbers of rainbows dwindle in our tailrace. One hole last year held several fine trout that I expected to harass every time I went out. The big ones were gone by April.

My office is always closed on Yom Kippur - this Monday. I take my dad fishing every year on that holiday - it's close enough to his birthday. Planning to put him on fish I located a few weeks ago, in some lightly hit water (the water I showed on the Milward thread).
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