Fishing Report: Clinton County, Stream Smallmouth

Higher water and sunny skies helped make for a great day chasing small stream smallies. We boated a total of 12 smallmouth bass with only one “dink” in the bunch. I landed 8 smallmouth between 12” and 13.5” while my fishing partner landed 4 fish. Unfortunately, we didn’t score any “lunkers” but not for lack of trying. We spent the first two hours of our trip targeting a known “big fish” area I found on a previous trip. We spotted 3 fish well over 17” but could not draw a hit despite throwing everything at them including the kitchen sink!

Time
10:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.

Baits
We caught fish on two different baits. The best producer of the day was YUM Dingers both 4” and 5” rigged tex-posed with a split shot. The effective colors were pumpkin/chartreuse and green pumpkin/chartreuse. My fishing partner caught one fish on a Rapala Shad Rap in Perch color.

Other lures tried were YUM Crawbug and Slug-Go’s. No fish were caught on these baits. I was surprised that we didn’t get bit on the YUM Crawbug considering the fish seemed to be feeding heavily on crawfish.

Pattern
I suspect the fish are starting to strap on the feed bag as the nights are getting cooler and fall is fast approaching. Most of the fish we caught had big bellies and many of them were coughing up crawfish as we fought them to the boat.

Most of the fish we caught were in deep water (3-5 feet) relating to either wood or submerged boulders. Only a couple of fish were caught in shallow water areas.

Strikes came when baits were dragged across the bottom with very little action.

Water Conditions
Murky with visibility at about 2 feet. Water temps were colder from recent rains but actual temp not known. Water level was up but still below normal.

Weather Conditions
Sunny skies with very little cloud cover. Air temps in the high 70’s.