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THE RANGER APPROACH
Friday came and I was headed across Virginia, planning to hit the water first thing Saturday morning. For all practical purposes, this was a new flow for me. I’ve fished it in the past, but it’s been several years and only during summer conditions. The gauges had leveled out a few days before, the temperature was cool and the skies were clear. Not knowing what to expect, I chose a stretch of water that had everything; chunk rock, riprap, ledges, wood, springs, bends and islands.
Being ‘new’ water, plus being several weeks since I’d been on the water, I wasn’t sure where the fish would be. My approach led me straight to my confidence lures; crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, and topwaters. Regardless of conditions, I know these lures produce for me. I refer to these as cover lures because they allow me to cover water quickly, targeting active fish and looking for a pattern. Once a pattern is established, I’ll try to work it for all it’s worth. Armed with six rods, we rigged up a crank, spinnerbait, jerkbait, buzzbait, jig and tube.
THE PLAN
Everybody loves a topwater bite, and I will often start out with the buzzbait. Generally, my preferred presentation includes casting across current, hitting the banks and retrieving as slow as possible without it going underwater. I am also hitting any likely mid-river spots (push water, ledges, and large boulders) and bringing the buzzbait through any wood cover I can find. If the fish aren’t responding, I’ll speed it up as necessary. Overcast days and lowlight conditions are ideal for topwater, but don’t be afraid to throw them in the middle of a sunny day. Some of my best buzzbait bites have come on the clearest skies, you just have to give them the chance. All of my buzzbaits have two things in common; color and blades. Black, white or chartreuse skirts and metal blades. Some have clackers, some have single blades, some double blades, but they all have metal blades and basic colors. Few lures cover water like a buzzbait. They offer little resistance on the retrieve, call bass to the surface from all depths, and offer an aggravation factor that’s second to none. Don’t forget the wake of a nice smallie trailing a buzzbait before striking.
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What’s all the buzz? The double bladed buzzbaits, from Buckeye Baits on top have really been the ticket this year. Sometimes something a little bigger will call them in though. White, black and chartreuse are all I’ve ever needed.
If they aren’t coming to the surface, I’ll move down below, starting with the spinnerbait. Spinnerbaits come with a variety of blade combinations. For most water conditions, I go with a willow main blade and a small Colorado blade. I’ll throw these three-quarters of the time I am casting a spinnerbait. When facing high muddy water or looking to slow down, such as in cooler conditions, I’ll switch to single Colorado blade. The muddier or slower I want to go, the larger the blade. I’ll start working it just fast enough to keep the blades spinning, ticking the tops of rocks and ledges and, again, retrieving through in any wood cover I can find. Occasionally, I’ll speed it up and burn it back to the boat, or allow it to die. When letting the lure die, I stop all forward momentum and allow the spinnerbait to flutter to the bottom on a taut line. I do this when a previous cast did not illicit a strike from fish holding cover such as a current seam, mid-river boulder, or deep in wood cover. As the lure drops, the fish will see an opportunity to attack the injured prey. As always, I’m giving the fish an opportunity to tell me what they want. I go with a moderate action casting setup when throwing spinnerbaits, but the rods vary based on the weight of the lure.
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Spinnerbaits of all shapes, sizes and colors are available. I generally stick with the basic white, chartreuse and black. While I usually throw silicone skirts, the hare has a place in the arsenal.
Next in line is the crankbait, my personal crutch and most reliable lure. I start with a straight retrieve, moderate-slow speed, letting it float up off of ledges and snags. I like the crank to be digging in the bottom; however, I’m flexible and will go to a shallow crank if the smallies aren’t eating them down low. The versatility of crankbaits earns them a lot of time on the end of my line. They can be used to imitate shiners and chubs, perch and bluegill, or crawdads. Given multiple treble hooks and the fact they are often digging the bottom or bouncing off of cover, snags are inevitable. Superlines help to retrieve some of these, others you have to go after and some you have to sacrifice. It’s all part of the game. Knowing that smallies will hit a crankbait year round helps with this, but it hurts to lose the last of a hot lure. I always try to carry an extra of all my cranks. Crankbaits call for a moderate or slower action rod that has a strong backbone. I never go with less than medium power, and it is always a casting outfit that throws my crankbaits. I’ve come across articles and conversation that deal with line for cranks. Monofilament for more stretch, superline for smaller diameter, light monofilament for more stretch and smaller diameter; everyone has their opinions. My opinion is that it doesn’t matter in a typical river environment unless you are fishing the absolute deepest holes.
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Yet another crankbait bronzeback
Finally we get to jerkbaits. I use both soft and hard jerkbaits, worked at a fairly quick pace in a combination of twitches, pauses, and sweeps. Often, I’ll let it hang motionless in a seam, or allow the current to pull it around a rock to pause on the downstream side, before resuming a quicker retrieve. Cadence is often the most important aspect to fishing jerkbaits, and the fishes preference can change from day to day, even from hole to hole. I’ll generally start with a few twitches followed by a pause and repeat. If this rhythm doesn’t trigger some attention, I’ll switch it up. Pay particular attention to the length of your pauses, this can trigger a strike or turn a fish off. Fish often see this as an opportunity to attack and will do so when no action is being imparted to the lure. In cooler water a longer pause is often more productive. It is critical to pay attention during the pause as a fish can hit and reject the jerkbait very quickly. Because of this, I prefer a sensitive, fast action rod for jerkbaits to help detect the bite on the pause and assist in a solid hook set. I also keep a close eye on the line and try to anticipate the bite.
At any given time these cover lures, my confidence lures, may become my pattern for the day. If I’m getting steady action on anything I’m going to stick with it and this is what I am looking for. From time to time, I’ll trade in a popper, spook, grub, prop bait, or floating minnow bait for one or more of the above.
From top (clockwise): Spook, popper, propbait, grub, and shad
More often than not, however, it seems that the fish are eating a little bit slower than I’m fishing and I have to go to something a little slower. This is when I break out my target lures. I call them target lures because I am using them to target a specific spot. Hopefully I’ve caught a few fish already and have some clues to work from.
Clues can be any number of things, but mostly I’m asking myself “Where was that fish?”, “Why was he there?”, “Was she looking up, or down?”, “What’s that sticking out of her gullet?”, or “Was he hanging out on those rocks being warmed by the sun?”. Other considerations are depth and flow, were they on the banks or mid-river, and was it a dink or a quality fish. Hopefully some similarities are coming together with each fish I catch. I’ll use this to determine which target baits I’m going to throw first and what my targets are and I’ll concentrate my efforts on similar areas.
Listening to the fish is key…ALWAYS. Just because the fish ‘should’ be here or biting that, doesn’t mean they will be. Pay attention to the clues around you and don’t be afraid to work outside of the walls of acceptance or what is “common knowledge”.
THE ROUTINE
The morning came cool and early as we headed to the put-in, but the sun broke up over the mountain tops and warmed the day up nicely. Waters started out at 53 as we pushed off and reached a high of just under 60. We started out with buzzbaits, but no takers; not even a follow. We followed up with a crankbait and spinnerbait. There were a few short strikes with the spinnerbait, but it didn’t take long to hook up with the first crankbait smallie of the day; a feisty 12” bronze that hit like a boxer and immediately went airborne. He smacked the firetiger Bomber Square A in the shade about 10 feet off the bank holding behind a large boulder. A couple more similar fish and we were tossing two cranks; a craw pattern Bandit 100 and a blue/chrome X-mart special; putting the spinnerbait away to capitalize on the crankbait bite. We switched from the Square A to get a little deeper and the action stayed steady, with some 14s and 15s thrown in the mix.
A variety of cranks for all conditions.
Bottom row (from left to right): The usual suspects, Bandit Footloose, Bandit 100, Bandit 200 and Bandit 300.
Every once in a while we would see a bass chasing baitfish, so with the hopes of stepping it up another notch, I grabbed my jerkbait rod and tossed to a shoreline eddy. A couple of fast twitches, a pause and my line took off towards the bank. I set the hook and a few moments later a gorgeous 17 incher comes to thumb. I stuck with the jerkbait for another 30 minutes with no bites. During that time my fishing buddy pulled 3 more smallies and a nice rainbow trout on the chrome crank. As we pulled around an island I was able to land two more smallies holding in a deep pocket right at the bottom of the island. That was the last of the jerkbaits smallies. I tossed it for another 15 minutes, but no hits.
Jerkbaits can bring many fish to the boat and unlike some lures, that become less effective in cooler water, continue to work throughout the year.
Just downstream of the island, we found a spring fed stream running into the river, sheltered from the current and full of chunk rock. We landed one a piece on the crankbaits and then they stopped biting. We tossed the spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and jerkbaits again, but still nothing; not even a look. We tried grubs and a couple floating minnow baits as well, but still no takers. We decided to slow it down and grabbed the jig and tube – there had to be more fish holding here and they weren’t chasing baitfish. Several casts later, we finally coaxed one to bite holding right in the mouth of the feeder stream. We camped out there for a while and after a few smaller fish, it paid off with a chunky 18 for my partner on a jig with small chunk trailer. We hung around another 15 minutes, and managed a few more bites, but with plenty of water ahead and seconds ticking away we had to move on.
Through the next bend the flow slowed considerably, gained some depth and appeared featureless from the surface. I tied on a Bandit 300 in search of the bottom and some unseen cover. I found a snag with the crank, worked it free and dropped the drag chain to slow our drift and work the area thoroughly. A couple of casts with jigs and we pinpointed the structure and managed another small fish and then moved on. I tied on a deep diving crankbait and started covering water again as we drifted downstream. A dozen or so casts later I snagged again. As I reach to drop the drag chains, I felt a head shake and set the hook. Immediately the fish headed up river and all I could do was hang on as she steadily takes line. After what seemed like half an hour, the hooks pulled free and the mysterious creature of the depths was never seen.
On Target: Tubes, Hula grubs, Jigs and stickbaits allow me to get the lure in the fishes face and keep it there.
THE COMMON DENOMINATOR
With the exception of the spring fish, three-quarter of the smallies caught were within 20 feet of the shore holding on isolated structure where it transitioned from shallow to deep – the majority of those hit cranks. They didn’t have a preference for color but it had to be on or near the bottom and a slow retrieve. A painfully slow and creeping retrieve was not necessary, just a slow retrieve. Very few fish came out of dead calm water, even fewer came out of the really moving water either, a light current with some heavy or large structure to provide a break from the flow was key.
Floaters (from the top): Jointed, classic Rapala, Thunderstick, and a lure that proves that smallies will smash these baits when the time is right.
Most of the hits came from a single stretch where the river necked down with shallow water and a pebble bottom on the right that transitioned to a deeper “channel”, ranging from about 6 to 8’ deep with large chunk rock and a rip rap bank on the right. The current was a little faster in this area, but by tossing the cranks to the shoreline, giving them a few cranks to get them started and letting the current take care of the rest we were able to maintain action with the lure, but keep it almost stationary to elicit strikes with most of these fish hitting the 12 inch mark and a few better.
As the day wore on, it was obvious the fish were holding on or near the bottom; however, they weren’t generally feeding off the bottom. They were occasionally busting baitfish and hitting jerkbaits, striking at spinnerbaits and hitting crankbaits at a fair pace for a cool fall day. Had the fish been looking down, as they were at the feeder creek, I would have switched to a deep crank, even in water with less depth, and slowed the retrieve to a crawl to better imitate a crawdad or other bottom dweller. I would have also thrown more target lures, varying the speed of the retrieve, dependant on whether I was trying to cover water or focusing on a particular area.
WRAPPING UP
The last quarter of the trip I was mostly on the oars, hitting some prime spots and picking up a few fish here and there. Time was running short and I didn’t want to take out in the dark. As we came around the final bend, we dropped off a small ledge, with a bluff on the right and steep bank on the left. Mid-river, a ledge rose above the surface forming a small island, with several more ledges running both with and across the flow. The water slowed and got deeper as far as I could see. As my mind took mental pictures, I rowed along and dreamed of what the depths held for the winter knowing it would be an easy access from the takeout and was likely un-pressured.
Another day on the river draws to close.
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