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The Best Conditions for Trophy River Smallmouth
March 2006 was the driest March in recorded meteorological history in the D.C. metro area. If this trend continues into summer, float fishing the Upper Potomac, Shenandoah, or Rappahannock this summer may be more of an arduous task than a leisure activity. But those of us who are ready to drag and scrape our way downstream a bony river may be rewarded with some of the best fishing of the year. This is especially true for the first few hours of rainfall elevating river level for the first time in several weeks.
Over the last five years, 35 percent of the nearly 60 “citation” river smallmouth that I have caught came on days when two or more smallmouth 20 inches or longer were caught. For each of these days, I maintained records of the weather, water temperature, and river level. A solo float trip I took last October was a prime example of the right river level trend for a multiple big fish day: a quick rise.
For several weeks before that trip, there had been no significant rainfall. The water table was bottomed out as it was in the summer of 2002. Within the first two miles of the float, I needed to get out of the kayak and drag it across dry gravel bars in four places.
The only fish I could catch on my favorite green tube were rock bass or 13 to 14 inch smallmouth. I knew that bigger fish were in there. When I did see a big fish, it was spooked and swimming toward what little deep water was left.
I looked far down stream, trying to guess which sycamore root balls had the deeper undercuts. I approached these targets slowly, and made long casts over the low clear water. I could feel some of the red breast sunfish pecking at the tentacles of the tube, but received no signature “thump” of a 20 plus inch river smallmouth.
By mid day, the blue skies were overpowered by a haze. The air was still, but felt more humid. The bites picked up slightly with the absence of the sun. I was able to target areas other than the shady bank channels. A few 15 and 16 inch smallmouth had been lipped and released by the time the first raindrops hit the thirsty ground.
Because the bite picked up, I decided to experiment with some hand poured soft plastics that I had made. I lobbed my creation across a shallow sandbar to a submerged log in deeper water. The lure made a splat just beyond the log, and with half a turn of my reel I felt it come to rest.
I let it sit for a few moments, and then pulled it gently over the log’s edge. The bait did not drift too far toward the bottom before my line moved abruptly to the left. I leaned forward, quickly dropped the rod tip, gathered the slack, and buried the hook. My hook set did not turn the fish. The unseen smallmouth carved an arc just on the other side of the sand bar drop off. Feeling the weight of a big fish, I let her finish her first run before turning the reel handle again. She changed directions, this time finding a lane toward deeper water under a root ball. My kayak absorbed some of the force of the second run, moving in the direction of the boils of water. After one last hard run, I scooped up the 20.25 inch smallmouth that liked my hand poured creation.
While setting my camera up on the bank for a timed self photo, I noticed a few things changing on the river. The intermittent rain showers were becoming more frequent and intense. Brown algae that had been fixed to the river bottom earlier in the day had lifted off and started to float away. The sheets of floating algae produced small bubbles that kept it afloat. Leaves that had been accumulated on gravel bars started to float downstream as well. All of the birds became very noisy and active. The air became breezy and smelled differently than it did earlier in the day.
Within the twenty minutes following the catch of the citation Virginia river smallmouth, I netted two other near citation smallmouth: 19.5 inches, and 19.75 inches. Watching the remnants of Hurricane Tammy roll overhead, I decided to hurry toward the take out. But the temptation of having all of the big fish actively feeding was too much. I decided to cast something that would cover more water as I tried to finish the float trip before dusk.
I chose a ½ ounce buzzbait. This particular buzzbait design has a prop within a prop that allows you to slow down the retrieve more than any other buzzbait. But there was no need to slow it down. I was burning the buzzbait back to the kayak as fast as I could. A few mid sized smallmouth impaled themselves on the fast moving hook. I alternated between paddling several strokes down stream and whirling the buzzbait to some prime looking spot on the opposite bank.
Within sight of the take out in almost complete dark, I lined up my cast along the front side of a still exposed ledge. I could hear the buzzbait churning closer and closer, and then it went silent following a slurping sound. At the bow of my kayak, the water’s surface exploded as the fish surged across the ledge top. My drag zinged for a moment, and then my line went slack. The big fish had sawed through the line running across the ledge. Beaching the kayak at the take out, I could hear that big bass jumping to shake the buzzbait from his jaw. I hope she got it free.
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