Tis the Season!

Fishing for riverine Smallmouth in winter is not the most glamorous activity. The fish are low and slow and you can rarely expect to have huge number days. The fish are concentrated in 1% of the deep and slow-moving water. Plus, you have to deal with cold weather and compete with the ice forming along the banks. For those reasons, river fishing in winter is reserved for the hardcores. We’re talking about guys that absolutely must scratch the itch. I happen to know a few guys who fit that description.

I finished law school on Wednesday and thought a fishing trip would be the perfect celebration. After my last final exam EVER, I walked outside and checked the weather on my phone. I hadn’t been done with law school for 5 minutes and I was already thinking about fishing. The air temperature was going to be in the mid-40s, but it had been below freezing over the past few weeks. The water temperature was at 37 degrees and dropping. Typically, fishing is a little better when there is a warming trend, but you gotta take what you can get. I texted Josh and Jeremiah to see if they were game for a Saturday outing, Josh eventually agreed and had some ideas on a spot we could hit. Jeremiah was going to be out of town for his wife’s family Christmas (boo).

Friday night we had a work party, which included a lot of wine and a resulting slight hangover. My alarm went off on Saturday around 7:30 a.m. My wife rolled over and said, “you’re crazy for fishing today.” I’m sure she thought a comment like that might make me think twice about fishing, but for winter fisherman, this is exactly the reaction you are looking for. I threw on my clothes, took an Advil, and drove over to Josh’s. The plan was to fish in the “heat of the day” from our kayaks in one large wintering pool we had fished a few times before.

We got to the wintering hole around noon after dragging our kayaks upstream about ¼ mile. I was fishing a 3” Rage Tail Craw and Josh was casting a Ned Rig. We went fishing a few weeks ago and Josh absolutely crushed me with conventional gear, so the flyrod has been stowed away for a while. We could not have been fishing for more than 5 minutes before I brought a really nice 16.5” fish to hand. Not getting shut out today, baby!

The hole itself was about 100 feet wide and 300 meters long. There was ice forming along the right side of the hole to about 6 feet off the bank (I said it had been cold). We were catching glimpses of supersized Smallmouth sitting alone on the bottom as we worked down the shallow side. The water in the middle of this spot is about 12’-15’ deep with absolutely no current. The depth and lack of current make it a great wintering spot. Since I caught the first fish, Josh started fishing in front.

Within a few minutes, Josh set the hook on a really nice fish. The water is so clear that we quickly could tell this was a big Smallmouth. After a quick fight, I netted what was a really quality Smallmouth. It’s always cool when your fishing buddy catches a big fish right next to you, but it’s even cooler when it’s a winter bruiser. After a few awkward white-guy high-fives, fist bumps, and a chest thing that might have been a chest bump, we took a few pictures. Then, we put the fish on the Hawg Trough, 19” of Indiana bronze. BOOM! Winter success! After we released the fish, it swam under the ice right up to the bank and lodged itself sideways in the shallowest part. I think it was disoriented or something. Josh went into rescue mode and broke through the ice to free the fish. These big Smallmouth are worth saving since they’re probably close to 10 years old. She swam off just as strong as ever after Josh freed her from the ice. Since Josh was back in the “lead” I started fishing in front. Man, it feels really good to do well in winter.

Things slowed way down for about an hour. I had only one bite and that fish broke my line quickly, probably because I tied a poor connector knot between the braid and the fluorocarbon leader. Either way, we both had nice fish and all was right with the world. I was casting upstream and towards the center of the hole at this point. I was letting the crawfish sit about 20 seconds between twitches.

I made a non-descript cast out to the middle and gave it a twitch after letting it rest on bottom for about 10 seconds. As I raised my rod-tip, my line just twitched. I set the hook and felt heaviness. Like the kind of heaviness you get when you hook a log that dislodges or something. Then, whatever I hooked started moving. Again, the water was super clear, so I knew I had a Smallmouth on within a few seconds. She was pulling like a freight train, but I really had no idea how big this fish was yet. After about 20 seconds, she surfaced and I got a good look. I knew she was big enough that I would be kicking myself if I lost her. I fought the fish, and the urge to bulldog the fish, until I was finally able to get my net under her. I almost had to two-hand my net to hoist the fish into my kayak. Then, I’ll just say I began speaking in tongues or something. I let out several whooohooos and was doing the Tiger Woods fist-pump! You would have thought I just hit a $1 million half-court shot at a Pacers game.

The head on this fish was HUGE and the tail was as big as I had ever seen. Josh was paddling towards me and I just kept saying, “I don’t know” as in, I don’t know how big this fish is yet. It was sticking out of my fairly large net, so I only knew the fish was pretty damn big. Just then, Josh got a glimpse of the fish. His reaction was not that different from mine. I finally got my thumb in her mouth and lifted her out. We both began laughing like school kids. Just an absolute slob... I mean, the pictures don’t even do it justice. We took a few photos, laughing the entire time, and put her on the Hawg Trough.

She measured right at 21” and was probably equally girthy. This was my biggest fish of 2017 and it came with only two weeks left in the year! We both spent the rest of the trip with smiles on our faces. I texted Jeremiah, then called him on the phone. His reaction as he opened the text message, “Good Lord.” Indeed. I caught over 1000 Smallmouth this year and Josh caught close to 1300 Smallmouths, but the second-to-last one of the year was the biggest. What a way to close out 2017!