Report: Tree Bass

Had to get out and try to hook into some smallies. The Kish is running a bit high for me to try and wade, so off to the creek I went. The creek was not running as high as I thought it might be, It was stained pretty good (not chocolate milk), but stained. I headed upstream to hit 3 pools that I usually do pretty good in. Not today. I couldn't pull anything out of those pools. There was one more pool upstream that I could try, but I never really catch anything out of that pool for some reason. There's a stretch of the creek before the last pool that is really rocky (chunk rock) and kind of hard on the ankles. Great smallmouth area, right? You would think, but I never catch much out of this stretch either. Until Today.

I had been fishing a Yum tube bait in a two-tone color of pumpkin seed and lime. Nothing was happening with the tube. At some point during my outing I decided to tie on a topwater popper. The popper really wasn't doing anything, no chases, and I really didn't expect it to with the water being stained. I decided to switch back to a tube, but this time I will use a pumpkin seed Gander Mountain tube. I made a cast upstream, let it float down, and picked up a little Rock bass. Cool! No skunk. Did it again and picked up a dink smallmouth. Started working my way upstream slowly, making casts upstream towards the bank. but kind of far enough out to ride along on the current seam. Bam! 13" smallies. Bam! 16" smallie, Again and again I did this on this little rocky stretch and picked a total of 7 smallmouth and the rockie. On the way back downstream, after pulling nothing out of that fourth pool again, I picked up my smallie of the day, an 18 inch smallmouth that put up one heck of a fight. I was kind of standing mid-stream and needed a spot to snap a pic of the beast, after I brought it to hand. There was a downed tree hanging about 5 feet above the water so I managed to stick my camera and tri-pod between a couple branches a snap the pic.......

Ended the day with 8 smallies and the rockie.