Yak'n, Bass'n With Glass

 

Yak’n, Bass’n With Glass

9/18/22

  I assembled my 2 piece 6 weight President Glass Wonderod. My kayak was filled with all the necessities for floating the river including smallmouth poppers and Woolly Buggers if needed. I looped a new 9’ 3X tapered leader to the F6WF fly line and threaded it through the rod guides. By 9:00am I was in the water 2 miles up from my camper and ready to enjoy the day.

 

  Above me was a clear baby blue sky with streaks of white clouds. The air was already warming up. Green trees lined the river and threw shade upon the lightly stained water half way across the river. There was a slight breeze that didn’t have much effect on the surface water.

  I was casting aimlessly, as I was drifting, getting a feel for the slower action of the fiberglass rod. My first take was a gulp after I watched my popper drift after a couple of strips across the slow current. I reared back on the rod and the line tightened. The rod bowed on the hooked fish as it went deep and gave a tug. The line went limp and the rod straightened. I knew right away what happened. I didn’t yank the rod back hard enough to set the hook into the bass’s mouth. I knew better that with the slow action of the glass rod I have to set the hook with stronger authority than with a graphite rod. Lesson learned!

  It took an hour or so for my next take. I was kind of stopped in a back eddy behind a big exposed boulder casting out from the bank downriver some. My frog popper plopped in the slow current under the shade of over hanging leafy branches like a fallen acorn. I gave a couple of strips towards me and let it drift down with the slow riffles caused by a boulder of some size just below the surface water. A fish rose in a surface swirl and sucked the popper like a high power car wash vacuum cleaner on a floor dropped milk dud. This time I gave a good strong yank and I could feel the glass rod flex almost into the cork grip I held tightly. The bass dove deep and took off with my popper. The glass rod arced as the tapered leader cut through the surface water heading upriver. I lifted the cork handle high as the rod bowed towards the fleeing fish as it took out line. Fly line slipped through my tensioned fingers briefly before I threw out the anchor to try and stop my drifting kayak. My anchor caught and I held the rod steady as the fish fought the tight line and bowed rod. Slowly but surely I brought in line getting the smallmouth closer to the yak’. He stayed deep till he was a couple of yards from the yak’ before rising to the surface. He splashed water in all directions as his body struggled upon the surface. He dove deep and the rod flexed and bowed towards the escaping fish. I put the rod butt into my gut for leverage as tensioned line again slipped through my fingers. He took off downriver with the help f the undercurrent and pulled out more line. I gave an upriver tug as he slowed and he turned upriver.

  Maybe with a medium to fast action rod I may have tired him out sooner but the thrill playing a tough fighting river smallmouth is nothing compared to graphite.

  I thumbed him carefully when he got to the side of the yak’. He inhaled the frog popper which was still firmly within his mouth.

 

    After a few more casts while anchored I took out a Gilberto Oliva 6x50 and lit up the light brown cameroon stogie. Looking up the puffy clouds started to move in and dot the blue sky. The breeze picked up some now and again and riffled the water surface like a washboard.

 

  I had to put a little more oomph in my casts to get the popper out further with the soft flexing glass action.

  I was casting the popper out from the banks in deep pockets. I had hooked 2 smallies and missed one as I drifted down river. I was heading towards an exposed boulder so I dropped the anchor to slow my drift. Every so often the anchor would catch and stop my drifting. I covered the area around me as far as the breeze let me cast before lifting the anchor momentarily getting the yak’ drifting downriver closer to the bank side boulder.

  The wind was hampering my casts so after the popper hit the surface I let it drift further downriver with the current before stripping it back towards me. I was stripping it towards me, from a distance, when a smallmouth porpoised after my popper as if the temptation of a swimming frog was too much to ignore. With the eruption he completely missed my popper as I saw it fly up in the air like a popped kernel from an open lid popcorn popper over hot campfire coals. He and the popper came down upon the distorted water surface. I gave a few quick strips that gurgled and splashed waves like a dazed escaping frog. This time the bass wasn’t going to let it get away. He porpoised again and swept the popper in like a Jai Alai player catching a fast moving ball in his wicket cesta. I waited a second and yanked back the rod with authority. The rod arced instantly and I could tell I had another nice size smallie. He took off towards mid river in a flurry. I gave an extra tug to make sure the hook stuck good as he took line. The extra tug must have hit a nerve like a dentist drill hitting a live nerve not completely numb from the Novocaine shot. He exploded out of the water, fully exposed, shaking his body frantically from the pain. He dropped back into the water and exploded again out of the swirls of disturbed water. He gave a big tug in mid air before plopping back into the water surface. He took off and the line tightened again so I knew I had a good hook set.

  I’ve fought hooked largemouth in pond water and steelhead in shallow slow current on my 8 weight glass rod. They don’t compare to the thrill and fight of a struggling smallmouth in river current.

  I got him near and he decided to try and swim under the yak’. I extended my arm out as far as I could holding the line tight in my left hand. The rod bowed in a full arc like a horseshoe magnet. I could feel him rise as the force of the arced rod kept him from getting under the yak’. The bowed rod lessened and the fish swam outward. He than gave a burst of energy across river strong enough I let him take line through my fingers. When he turned down river I tightened the line between my fingers not giving him any more leeway. He turned and swam towards the yak’ again as I took inline. Near the yak’ he rose to the surface splashing water in all directions. It took a few tries to lip him not wanting to get stuck with the sharp hook of the popper that hung from his mouth.

 

  After that the wind picked up drastically. It was blowing upriver most of the time into my face. It was around 3:00 when I got the yak’ and gear out of the water and back up to my camper. I didn’t hook many but the two big’ns made for another excited time on the river. Catching and fighting them on glass was an extra thrill.

 

~doubletaper

 

 

A Frog Popper Kind of Day

 

A Frog Popper Kind of Day

8/26/22

  This was one of my best days on the river catching smallmouth. Maybe not the biggest during the day but the action was quick, fast and seemed continuous. From within a ½ hour after I launched the float tube at 9:30 am. I was hooking smallmouth with a frog popper. The smallmouth were hungry for frogs all day so I stuck with them and was just rewarded.

  It was an overcast morning and looked to continue throughout the day. Green trees lined the banks of the Clarion River for as far as the eye could see. Heavy clouds covered the blue sky above like a kids foaming bubble bath. For now the water was calm. Maybe too calm like a calm before the storm. There was barely a breeze which is pleasant for fly rod fishing. I launched the float tube with my smallmouth assortment, fly rod, a few cigars, water, trail mix, and a rain jacket. The water was a tad on the cloudy side still clearing up from the past rains. I found this might be the best time to fish the river. I suppose when the water is real muddy the bigger fish can’t see baitfish to eat. Just as the water becomes clearer they must be hungry enough to go after anything they see beneath or rise to any commotion on top.

 

  It was around 9:30 when I pushed off for the days adventure. Looking down river along the bank looked deep enough to maybe hold some fish. I kicked off and finned my way just out within casting distance from the bank. With the higher water and clearing up I figured the bass might not be holding along the banks and out in not too deep of water looking for an early meal. As I slowly drifted down river I made a few casts into the slow water along the bank away from the main stem of the river. A fish rose to the surface at my popper with a gulping splash. I reared back on the rod and my first taker was on. Not a big smallmouth by any means but one that came up sooner than I expected.

  

 Well, that deserved my first cigar. I took out an AB sun grown and lit up the dark cigar. I was ready to relax and enjoy myself.

 

  Within about 5 minutes after lighting up the stogie I casted out and hooked into another hungry smallmouth.

 

  I looked at my frog popper and chuckled a bit. I see all kinds of beautiful painted and constructed poppers that people create on Face Book fishing forums. I couldn’t imagine how much time and effort they put into making them,

  Besides the cost of the supplies. I know the simple ones I make take some time and effort but I’m sure not as much as the beauties I’ve seen. Being that mine catch smallmouth and largemouth I have no need to make them look glamorous. I don’t sell them and I’m not in a contest for best of show. I let the smallmouth decide whether my poppers fit their menu. So far, they have been doing an exceptional job.

  Drifting down river I use a longer frog popper in the more wavy water for better visual effect and pop/gurgle it more noisily on deeper sections than in slower current. Today the smallmouth appear to be everywhere looking for food and just not along the banks.

 

  I’ll try another color when rises slow up but go back to the frog popper. Sometimes I think it’s the commotion on the water that causes a curios take but there are times, after popping it a few times, I just let it rest and a smallmouth will grab it. Kind of tells me my creations must look enough like food that the smallmouth are willing to grab it upon investigation.

 

 Around noon I was ready for cigar #2. I took out a Don Tomas Robusto Clasico Natural. The mild cigar was smooth and burned evenly throughout.

 

  The sun shown through the clouds for a moment and brightened the day some. I figured the smallmouth might head for the shady areas along the bank and concentrated on casting that way most of the time. Every once in a while I’d still catch one out mid-river.

There was a lengthy boulder along the bank that looked like it ledged just below the surface. The water along the bank didn’t look very deep but I found you never know how deceiving the shallow water my look than what really is beneath in pockets of deeper water among a rocky bank line. My first cast was just out form the ledge where the water began to flow into it. A smallmouth splashed at the moving popper and I reared back for the hook set. The line tightened. I could tell it wasn’t a big one but it was a frisky one at that. I steadied myself and brought him to the float tube successfully. 

 

  I was steady with my booted fins holding beneath on the rocky river bed. I made another cast near half the length of the boulder ledge and a fish surfaced almost as soon as my popper hit the water like it was trying to take it before another hungry fish did. I reared back and another smallmouth was hooked. I got him to the apron also. I actually caught 2 more along that boulder and missed one hook up. It was if I was catering to a training seminar of a small group of hungry repair technicians!

 

  Further down river there was a tree down, stripped of its bark, top siding the surface with branches extending in the air. It looked real fishy. I was able to stop just upriver from it and gave a few casts onto the water along the bank. One cast I laid the popper onto the surface of the water that flowed right into the downed tree limbs. I gurgled it a few times the closer it got to the limbs and a bass exploded up at it. I waited a second or two after he took it under and yanked back hard. The line shot up and tightened and I could feel I had a good smallie. I had to keep him from swimming back into the tree limbs so I gave him no line and had to really test my knots and rod strength. I got him to swim upriver away from the tree hazard. The rod arced deep as I drew him closer. He hurriedly swam between the bank and I upriver a piece. I could see big submerged boulders in the shallow water between me and the bank where the smallmouth was swimming through. I held the rod high and gave him some line as I turned the rod trying to guide him out away from the boulder strewn shallows and into the main stem. He followed with some forceful hesitation. Once in the main stem of the river I felt more positive about the situation ad carefully got him to the float tube. 

 

  I was tying another frog popper on do to the fact the recent smallies loosened the popper around the hook besides ripping the eyes off of it. As I was doing this I had a visitor stop by. I’m not sure if he was interested in what I was doing or just looking for a place to land and take a rest. He didn’t seem too worried about parking his butt on the float tube.

 

  There was kind of a lull in the action for an hour or so. The water was pretty shallow as I floated so I didn’t cast many times and just put my fins up in front of me and drifted. When I got into deeper water I was ready for more action. I was pretty far from the bank. Down river I could see a big long fallen log just out from the bank aligned with the flow of the water. I kind of walked my way on the shallow bedrocks within casting distance. Being the water was shallow I didn’t want to get too close to it and cause a water disturbance. ‘Just maybe’ I thought ‘there were a few smallies underneath or near the log in the shade of it.’ I hauled off a strong cast towards the log that fell well short. I gave a couple of hard noisy gurgles to draw attention and then started swimming the frog popper back towards me. The commotion did the trick. A fish surfaced with an audible gulp and took it under. I reared back and the line tightened. I could feel this was a weighty smallmouth also. He made for a good time battling before I got him close enough to lip him. Nice one!

 

  ‘Just maybe’ I thought there might be another close by. I gave another long cast towards the log. I didn’t make much of a commotion this time but hesitantly popped it towards me with short pauses. A smallmouth exploded on the popper as if he thought it was hurriedly escaping from him. Again I reared back after he took it under and again the line tightened. This one was cleaver enough to escape from my grasp though before I got it too close.

  By now I was pretty close to my exit point. In fact I was able to see the garage my bicycle was parked at across the road. I kept within casting distance to the roadside bank and casting over towards it. The water appeared to be pretty shallow but I kept casting as if there was nothing else to do before getting to my bike.

  There was one huge boulder up against the bank and ¾ of it was in the water. Maybe that boulder held enough water back to make it a deeper pocket of water. What ever the reason, after my popper hit the surface and after a couple of short pops, a smallmouth inhaled the frog popper in an overwhelming disturbance that sprayed water in all directions. It surprised me, no doubt, that I thought I was going to be late on the hook set after he took it under. I yanked back like I was going to rip the lips off of this one. The rod arced deep and I felt the fish tussle on the straight tight line. I watched as the wake was noticeable upon the shallow surface as he swam upriver through the shallows. He circled around me in deeper water and into the stronger current and I gave him some line. After he swam downriver some I held tight and I could feel him turn. He burst out of the water, full bodied, shaking the popper stuck to his lip. A big splash followed as he submerged beneath. I’m not sure if this one was ever caught before but he wasn’t giving up too easily coming to the float tube. Even once there I had to be real careful lipping him, not wanting to get hook stuck, as he pulled and tugged on the bowing rod near the tube.

Well, that ended one of my best, most hooked smallmouth fishing on the river.

It doesn’t get much better then that!

~doubletaper