The smallmouth bass fishing has been so good this month I can not stop. Despite getting home late last night from yesterdays fishing I got right back on the saddle this morning. At 5 AM, college pal Paul Cavanaugh of Colorado, pulled in the driveway under the first glimmer of daylight to help load up my Outcast Striker raft. Two hours later we had the inflatable blown up and ready to go on my favorite remote Wisconsin river.
Paul was tired too. He’s out visiting several buddies that live in the area and he’s been here a week. He’s been fishing hard and staying up late the whole time. But we haven’t fished together since last year so we had to make it happen. Once he started throwing the fly around the adrenalin kicked in and sleepiness was replaced with excitement to catch some big bass.
I could have chose an easier day of fishing. One with a late start, my hard bottom boat and a float near home. A fishing day better for a couple tired dudes. But Paul is one of my most hardcore friends. We not only fished and played relentlessly together in our college youth, but he’s tagged along on a few of my international expeditions such as camping in the Amazon and Nile Perch fishing in Lake Nasser in Egypt. He and I once floated a river in Mongolia that had never been fished before by raft. The float took 22 days. Today was a piece of cake no matter how you slice it. We took some breaks and enjoyed a few cold ones in order to pace ourselves between numerous impressive catches.
It was a beautiful day. It was a comfortable 62° at push off. There was hardly a cloud in the sky. The wind kicked up fairly strong and normally that would be a downfall. But we welcomed it because it kept the mosquitoes and horseflies in check. Paul only fly fishes with me so its once a year or so. He was rusty at first but he had his first “chunker” of a smallie 30 minutes in. A bass of this caliber shakes off most the cobwebs.
The first bass was a catch of a lifetime for Paul. It turns out it was Paul’s first ever smallie on fly and also his largest. Ten minutes later he had his first pike on the fly. Not one to write home about but a northern nonetheless.
Two hours into the float there’s a slow moving section of river – its more like a lake for a ¼ mile. I talked about this section in a post last year. Lacking wind protection it was a challenging row across. I pushed through the best I could while Paul hucked away unsuccessfully.
As mentioned yesterday, its mid-summer and too hot now to target muskies. Paul continued with a big white streamer I’ve been using for a week on the smallies. However, I’ll return to this section this fall for musky. I spotted a lower jaw piece of a musky on the rivers edge. If I wasn’t afraid the razor daggers of teeth might pop my raft, I’d have taken this home for the shelf!
After the lake, the gradient of this river steepens and rowing becomes much easier. My Striker raft can easily clear 4” deep water. Small boulder sections like you see here are easy to navigate. The boulders held a few more smallmouth for Paul.
There’s another lake after the boulder section. Its tiny and there’s good current dumping into the head of it. Last year, Granny hopped out and landed a handful of pike. Today was different. As we approached I spotted a speeding wake. The fish came from the deep up onto the shelf, obviously chasing a baitfish. The attack was more like what you expect from a charging barracuda on a saltwater flat. I could see this was a huge smallie by the spines on the dorsal breaking the surface and the dash of bronze color. I yelled for Paul to cast.
Paul was mesmerize for a second. Rightfully so. When he finally threw, he was short five feet. In this situation it doesn’t matter. A fish feeding this aggressively usually hears the plunk. But Paul picked up and cast again. “Leave it! Leave it!”, I yelled. In a blur he was hooked up!
I like my 6-weight for smallies. Some like a 7-weight but once you learn to fight fish with the whole rod and not only the tip, a 6 is fine. My Winston bent deep as Paul raised up to do battle.
The big smallmouth earlier worked Paul over more than it should have, but this time Paul heaved back. I’ve been fishing straight 20lb Scientific Anglers Absolute Saltwater Fluoro and plain and simple, its strong. This time Paul landed an even bigger smallmouth bass and did it in less than two minutes. We measured the handsome colored fish at 17.5”. Paul’s previous best smallie record only lasted an hour.
Paul walked back to the raft after releasing his beautiful fish. I laughed and asked what he was doing. He said, “I need a beer”. I would have none of it and sent him back. Rarely do smallies hunt alone. On the next four casts Paul caught three more and lost one. I only measure the best fish of the day but estimated another at 16”, a 15” and this 13”. Paul was stunned!
Once he wore out his welcome I let Paul reach into my Yeti. I joined him and we relished back to back cold ones. Things were good. As good as it gets to be honest. Here we were, after more than 35 years as friends, sharing another amazing time together. When we were in college we never could have imagined.
Not far from this place is another drop into deep water with lots of huge boulders. Some of the biggest stones of the day. I let Paul take the oars for a while. Sure enough the fish were there. Upon arrival I nailed two quick dandies. We cracked a few pics but kept moving.
At the deepest part of the pool you can barely see the top of a huge boulder. By the looks, a hook up is a guarantee. I made my cast and on the first strip went tight. “Big one!”, I bellowed.
This boy pulled so viciously my line crackled. But he didn’t jump. When a smallie doesn’t jump and feels huge, get ready for a shock. Sometimes they are so large and fat they’d rather not expend the energy to explode from the water. Instead this one used all his dirty underwater tricks. He found a sunken stick. He went around his rock several times. Then he avoided the net by diving under the boat.
In the end, we got him. Paul and I both stared into the net in awe. I’d guess 19” but it could be 20”. Unless I thought it was going to be my first 21”, no need to measure. But the girth stood out. This was probably a 5lb river smallie. A few speedy pics and he was gone.
Paul and I finished our float around 5:30 PM. The day legitimately calls for one of the most abused adjectives in fly fishing, “epic”. Today was EPIC! Not only was the smallmouth bass fishing probably the best Paul has ever seen, it was pretty damn high on my ladder as well.
Paul and I had this fishing day planned going back to when we had dinner together when I was working the Denver Fly Fishing Show. Paul undoubtedly knew we’d get into something good. I always do my best. But hands down, this will be a day that rates right up there with some of our best around the world. That says a lot about Wisconsin.
That’s all for WI fishing for more than a week. Tomorrow I’m catching up on things at home. I fished hard this week. All summer for that matter and I keep falling behind. I’ll also be packing. Sunday I head for Texas for a few days in the salt. Keep the pedal to the medal!
Da.mir..my best is a 3 lbs from the south branch of the Raritan. But we got that Shoal bass down hete if your game …
Hi Ron, a 3lb smallie is a nice fish. And I’m very familiar with your shoals. I’ve been fortunate to fish them a few times. Most recently when I spoke to Atlanta Fly Fishers last November – https://www.jeffcurrier.com/privileged-to-fish-a-sneaky-georgia-haunt/
Dang, Jeff! I’m catching up on the blog and didn’t realize until now smallmouth fishing in rivers could be so awesome. Sounds like a blast. As always, I love reading your blog
Lane, it is incredible! I had to leave WI this week and I am missing it bad. Thanks for reading the blog!