Golden day for the Retreiver

Love these guys

When Henry and I last fished the North Fork we turned around at the end of the straightaway down-stream of the low-water bridge off South Hollingsworth Road and the bend of the 180 degree horseshoe teased us.  I was determined to fish all the way to the next low-water bridge on my next visit and found a willing partner in Bryan. 

Bryan & Brookie

We got on the river at 0740 and planned to fish this section in 4.5 hours, but as they say the plan didn't survive contact with reality as the fish started hitting quickly.  The air was cool at 70, the water clear and low, the clouds thick and heavy sending tendrils to the surface of the water.  There was an amazing hatch all day and clusters of juvenile smallies were rising to feed on the surface.  About an hour in we wished that we had brought a few dries to temp the bronzebacks rising from the cobble, but we continued to swing tandem streamers with good success.

Rt 33 Feather Golden Retriever

 By far the most effective streamer today was a #10 golden-retriever trailing a heavier streamer.  Scott taught me how to tie these goldens so it was with alot of pleasure that they were so productive. The smallies were, well, smallish today, none exceeding a foot, but what they lacked in size they made up for in exuberance many tail-dancing across the river to our delight.  While I expected the bronzebacks to be concentrated in the deeper runs on the shoulders of the riffles and in the pools at the bottom of the runs they were actually very much spread out wherever the cobble bottom was three or more feet deep.

Bronzeback

When we completed the bend of the horseshoe, 2/3 of the way to our destination, we were both pooped and sore from the rock bottom and began to move more quickly downstream.  If we had fished more slowly there's no doubt I could have caught 100+ smallies today.  As it was, we ended up climbing out of the river, skirting corn and soy bean fields and climbing a ridge to the back of an old-timers house (don't shoot -- hands-up).  I ended the day with 63 smalmouth, 1 large chub and 4 sunfish.   Bryan didn't count, caught a few less, but caught the biggest smallie of the day, an acrobat that etched a smile that's still on my face.

One of the few today on a crayfish pattern from Murray's