Preoccupied

                                                                   Preoccupied 

7/22/25 

 

When I walked outside in the morning the temperature was 57º. I was planning on float fishing the river for smallmouth so I hoped the water temperature would be warmer than the outside temperature.

 I got to the river launch area around 9:00. I had my float tube already fish supplied and assembled my 6 weight 9’ Compass fly rod. I noticed there were a few wind knots in the leader so I looped on a new 9.5’ tapered leader. 

 I find a stiff butt and supple tippet is a good mix casting poppers I use for smallmouth. I feel the stiff butt section give the forward loop a stronger pull of the following thinner taper leader. The supple tip lays down the line and popper with a smooth landing on the water. For smallies I usually use 3X or 2X tapered leader. For largemouth I’ll use a heavier butt section and a stiffer tippet leader casting heavier poppers. Bass aren’t line shy so heavy line doesn’t scare the fish.

 To this I knotted on a fas-snap so I can change popper quicker without cutting the leader. I grabbed 3 stogies and at the river put on my flippers. The air temperature read 59º in my truck but the water didn’t seem that cold when I sat down in the float tube ready to fish.

 It wasn’t long that I caught my first smallmouth on a popper. He had me putting my fly rod butt in my gut for leverage because of his strength and the long battle. I knew he was a biggie. He wasn’t coming in easily and I started to chase him downstream to get nearer to him and bring in line. It was like a cat and mouse chase. Enough was enough and I got him to the net safely. He was a big ole’ river smallie on my account. 

  It was still early, not even 10:00, but that was worth my first rewarding cigar. 

 I took time to look around. With the sun up over the tree line I felt its warmth in the cool air. The water was practically gin clear and the lowest water level so far that I had fished this year. The thing about fishing the shallower water is that there is deep pockets here and there so you don’t really know where the big ones are. A lot of times they are in back eddies near the banks where boulders are surfaced or along the banks under the shade of trees. The gentle gusts of winds were in my favor coming from behind me. This helped with good long casts down and across the waters. The puffy clouds above moved slowly and at times covered the sun throwing shadows upon the surface water. I wasn’t sure this was helpful or not? The river was quiet without human interruptions. I suppose because it was a Tuesday. The past weekends there were so many people floating in colored tubes and kayaks, from an airplanes point of view, it probably looked like a bowl of fruit loops on the river. I took a couple more puffs of the cigar and continued on my way.  

 After a couple smallies and misses of small fish I got a real challenging competitor.

I was far enough from the bank but near enough to throw a good looping cast near it. I had a good foothold on the rocky river bed and was slowly stripping and stopping the popper my way. When it got practically straight down from me the water erupted with a smallie rising at my popper. I waited a second, after he went under, and yanked the rod back while holding the line tight. 

 There’s that second of doubt when you feel the rod sections bend and the slack line flings up from the surface. It’s that second of, did I, or didn’t I, that the line appears to straighten. You don’t know if the hook set or the popper will float back up to the surface? This time the line tightened and the surface water swirled. 

 The fish took off down river in haste taking line from the reel. He swam near the bank as if he was looking for an escape route. He quickly turned, after a bit, and headed back up towards my direction. I took in line readily. All of a sudden his momentum stopped but I could still feel him tugging the line. I couldn’t bring him towards me any more. I slowly flippered my way towards him to see what he may of got caught on. Sure enough, in about 2 1/2 feet of water, there was a sunken limb and he got the leader caught around a short branch. He was tugging at the line and branch. I was able to see the mishap and began to maneuver the rod tip in an attempt to free the leader from the branch. With him constantly tugging didn’t make it any easier. This took place about 12 feet from the bank. I got the line freed and the smallmouth swam over towards the bank before I was able to tighten the line on him. That warrior ended up tangling the line again in some branched twigs along the bank. Again I tugged on the line trying to free my leader but it didn’t work. Still the smallmouth was tugging furiously to free itself. I don’t know how the hook didn’t separate from his mouth? The water was shallower so I was able to feel my way along the bottom of the river bed to the twigs. I had the rod tip up as I reached down to untangle the leader and snapped the dried twigs from my line. The smallie swam down along the bank when I got the line free. I let him swim and just about pulled me down river away from the snags with him. Once I got down from the snags enough I got a foot hold and was able to reel him in without any further obstructions. It was as if he tried to outfox me by finding a place to get out of trouble. I was a little more patient and won out in the end. He was a hefty smallie about 16” or so and it looked like he had war paint on along his body. 

 Sometimes I wonder if any of these smallmouth have ever been caught before? If so or not, some of them seem to know how to try to get themselves out of trouble by looking for cover.

 Later on I was fishing the other side of the river. I stationed myself just upstream from a large boulder the was embedded in the bank that stuck out under the water. It jutted out enough that it was if it was a peninsula out into a big pool of lazy water from the main body of the river. I had caught smallmouth here before so I knew there had to be some smallies lurking about. The water pretty deep so when the popper hit the water I’d make off with a big splashing gurgle to draw attention and than gurgle it towards me a little bit easier. I made a cast around the jutting boulder, to my left, and the popper fell to the surface where I was just able to see it. I gave it a big gurgle and started to swim it my way. A fish swooped at it from the side as if he had talons grabbing a fish just below the surface. I quickly pulled the rod and line back.

  I found I was more successful with hook ups on fish that grab the popper from the side to quickly pull back for the set than from below it waiting a second or two. I think when I waited, when a smallie took the popper from the side, the line would actually pull the popper out of his mouth before he closed it. Unless I had a lot of slack in the line a quick hook set was more productive in this case.

 Immediately the line tightened and the smallie took It under. I thought at first he wasn’t a big fish so I held the line tight. After he took off quickly I found out he wasn’t small at all. Line zipped through my fingers so fast that the line cut a small gash in my finger like a paper cut. This was a deep slow pool with very little current for him to use to his advantage but he fought like he had some underwater super powers. After a good quarrel he started to swim towards me staying pretty deep. The rod was bowed down towards him and wouldn’t you know he made it under the jutting boulder below the surface water. The leader may have scraped the boulder before I was able to push off the boulder into the deep bay like pool. This put me downriver from the jutting boulder and smallie. I pulled the rod back and just above the surface to tug him out below the boulder. He swam out reluctantly towards me and then swam towards the bank. He was out of obstructing options and I wasn’t giving him anymore line. He fought deep for a while as I kept reeling in line inches at a time. Near the float tube I was able to lip him. Another nice smallie took a good picture despite his anger. 

 

 I caught one more in the same area before moving on. 

 After some turbulent wavy water it calmed into a wide section of water. I usually get some smaller smallies going for my popper near the stony bank side and under shade trees. I missed a few and caught a few before I reached my exit point.   

 I looked at my cell phone and it was a little after 5:00.

 On the drive home I figured I was floating around 7 hours. That meant I was sitting down for that many hours without standing. I hadn’t sat that long in my life without getting up for something to eat or drink. I guess it didn’t bother me though, I must have been preoccupied!

~doubletaper