A trusty fishing partner and I decided to do an overnight tour of some small Clinton County streams to check out their “smallmouth potential”. We were not disappointed with the results. Upon arriving at our campsite we quickly set up and got down to business harassing some of the local smallmouth bass.We fished for about two hours before dark. My fishing bud and I combined for 10 smallies. I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the fish. I had expected to catch a lot of “dinks” given the small size of the stream. That didn’t happen. Most fish were around 13” inches with one measuring 14.5”. All good solid, fat, healthy bass!
Baits
We packed a good supply of various baits by Yum. The top producer of the day was the 5” Yum Dinger. We also caught fish on the 4” as well. The fish favored pumpkin/chartreuse and dark pumpkin/chartreuse colored baits.
We rigged the bait tex-posed with a size #1 Gamakatsu offset worm hook. Most of you are probably thinking “hey that hook’s too small”. You are probably correct but I like a slightly smaller hook because it has a lower profile and this particular hook’s weight lets a 5” Yum Diner sink absolutely parallel instead of nose first. We did not add weight to the bait. The deepest we fished was about 5 feet.
We tried several variations of retrieves but by far the “do nothing” approach was the most effective at enticing fish to bite. Basically all we did was cast and let the bait free fall without imparting any action at all.
I also tossed several colors of A bomber crankbaits with no luck.
Pattern
Can you say wood and rocks! The best producing structure on the stream we fished combined large boulders or wood in about 4 feet of water. Closer to nightfall the fish moved up in the shallows and we picked up a couple just off the shallow rock banks.
Water Conditions
The water was obviously very low. Visibility 5+ feet. Water temp unknown.
Weather Conditions
Air temps mid 80’s. Sunny.
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