A Day on the Water

On the long padIe downstream from the launch in Saint Johns Marsh, I tried for largemouth in some new to me shallow weedy bays and some seawall spots, nothing there.  Nearer the mouth of the North Channel, the current flowed briskly over deep, partially weeded flat. Drifting along the 8 foot contour, casting Poppers out across the current toward 12 or 15 ft depths near the edge of the much deeper central channel.  On the first drift the White 3/0 Marabou Banger got hit by a very big, hard fighting smallmouth that shook the hook on the first high jump.  I stopped to set...

I found Bass and Pike in the same spots as previous trips, I must be wearing them out by now.  Also found some bass in a few new scattered spots.  I finished with 17 bass, 15 to 19.5 inches. More 12 to 14 inch bass than I could keep track of.  All the fish came to 3/0 Chartreuse Marabou Bangers tied extra long with extra flash.  This Pike was the first hit, he blasted through the surface missing the popper.  He came back twice rushing the popper subsurface, getting hooked outside the mouth.  I only needed the lip gripper for...

From the stairs Looking for fish above coffer dam, I could see a big Chinook with a flashing spoon hanging from his dorsal fin.  Looking harder I saw spawning salmon backed up on the gravel ramp just upstream of the coffer spill over.  20 feet upstream,  6 more salmon hung in the eddy line about 30 feet from shore.  No one was fishing down here.  I Took up a position 15 feet upstream from and 6 feet back from the guy who had waded out in front of me while I untangled my tackle.  Below the coffer, a Salmon powered through the rushing turbulent...

I fished from Early Morning till dark, trying 7 poppers.  I was hoping to get some video shots of poppers getting eaten.  The previous 2 trips here I got spectacular aerial hits by 3 big pike 30 inches or better.  Today I couldn't find them.  Bass were often not hitting on the retrieve but following the poppers in till I gave them a long pause 12 feet out from the kayak.  Some times they would blow them up then, other times I saw that they had spooked when I picked up for the next cast.  The first 5 or 6...

I had tied and gathered up some subsurface Bass and Pike streamers to offer the fish something new, particularly for the spots I had pounded with poppers 4 days ago.  Today was windy with bright sun and no fish seemed to be out today.  Later, along the sheltered weeded rip rap shoreline, I got two bass 15 to 16 inches after I switched back to the top water 3/0 Chartreuse Marabou Banger. Working a mile of weed edges down that long rip rap shoreline produced a couple of 12 inch bass and an aerial hit from a pike similar to...