Hit the river around 7am east of Harvard bridge. Had a couple friends tell me they were hitting decent sized smallies and thought it would be fun to try my luck with some ultra light tackle and barbless spinner baits.

Hooked into around 6 fish between 7:30 and 1pm. Then the afternoon sun killed the action. All fish were pretty small, as is expected for river bass, but I did hook into one that was in the 2-2.5lb range on a tube jig. All fish released unharmed. Only the big fish was lifted out of the water.

I wish there was a way to lift the tackle regulations for specific species lol. I know that if I could of thrown a couple X-Raps or Jerk baits in the water that it would of been pay dirt on the account I saw multiple pigs going after small bait fish in the calmer pools...little frustrating to watch haha.

All in all it was a fun morning on the river, and fighting the fish on ultra light is a lot of fun. I did run into a disgruntled fly fisherman who was angry because all he was catching was bass. I told him to try his luck further west in the cooler water and he just yelled at me about there only being bass there too. I know a lot of people are against the smallies in the river, and I agree from what I saw that they are probably eating up some of the red band babies, but they aren't going anywhere. It is a full blown invasion. So we mine as well embrace and catch 'em, cause we aren't going to beat 'em. I am also convinced from what I saw that there are some real nice sized smallies in the river to catch, so go out and have some fun!

CCTMark

8/13/2013 6:58:00 AM

Have you considered something like a soft plastic jerkbait rigged weightless with an exposed hook? You can bend the barb down to meet the barbless requirement. This is a technique I have used often for smallies, I especially like using a pearl white zoom fluke on a straight shank worm hook. You can twitch it along the surface or let it sink slowly and then occasionally twitch. It also works well in current, just throw it upstream of your target, let it drift down, and start twitching it when it gets to where you think the fish are holding.

Branzig

8/13/2013 10:48:00 AM

I like tube jigs and plastic worms, I've never had much luck with plastic minnows or other plastic bait fish. Judging by the size of some of those fish I saw though, it might be time I get more familiar with them lol.

casey belarde

8/28/2013 12:45:00 PM

I too am a switched over fly fisherman, just been having more fun this summer on the fly rod, I say who realy cares what you catch as long as your catching fish right lol
I hit harvard road a few days before you, catching bass about every other cast on the fly rod, was a blast...
years past i've found if you pull the trebble hooks off crank baits and install just a single point 1/0 or 2/0 hook on the front postion it will hook up just as well.. thats what I was using :-)

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