Last weekend, Jacqulyn and I began our quest to explore the local small creeks. There are between 20 and 30 decent little streams in our immediate area suitable for wading and/or canoeing. I should be ashamed for not exploring them sooner, but I often find myself pining for more exotic locations full of trout. Anyway, several of these streams are rumored to have some nice smallmouth bass fishing. So, with the help of google maps and freshly-downloaded USGS maps, we headed out in search of good access points to what we’ll call Stream A. The little stream proved ideal for wading, and I was into a fish on the first cast. We only fished for a couple hours before a storm chased us from the water, but we managed to catch five or six fish of various kinds. All came on a size 12 woolly bugger. No smallmouth, but we didn’t complain. Like I said, we should be ashamed for not trying this stream sooner. I suspect it holds a few nice fish if you know where to look. You can see some shots from the trip below. This coming weekend, I plan to hit a new stream if the water doesn’t get too high from our latest round of storms (for which I’m very thankful, by the way – good-bye drought…hopefully). If the water is too high, I’ll be where I probably should be anyway: building rods.
Jacqulyn plying the cold, slow-moving waters of Small Creek A.
Okay, what the heck is this thing? I thought it was a redhorse at first, but it didn't have a sucker's mouth. I'm guessing it's a shiner of some sort. The fins had red tips. The fish struck hard and fought like a bass. I'll be going after these beauties with a bamboo rod before long.
I did catch one bass. The photo makes the fish look like a spotted bass, but it was actually a little largemouth.
A beautiful sunfish Jacqulyn caught just before the storm arrived.
Take care,
Nathan
Maybe that wierd fish is a “rudd.” I found the following link, and it looks pretty close. The rudd apparently inhabits our waters. It isn’t a native fish.
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=648
Hawgdaddy,
I didn’t know you fished…
I guess I shouldn’t mention to Jacqulyn that I have personally seen gators in that water. In all seriousness, keep an eye out!!! However, they tend to be quite lethargic this time of year…it’s a crap shoot.
GATORS?!?!?
Well, they’re only a few of them out there, and they’re pretty friendly from what I hear. Most are down in the wheeler wildlife refuge, not up where we were fishing. Did I forget to mention the gators?
Unless you’re already dead – or close to it – or you step on them, gators aren’t gonna mess with you. I imagine they don’t get as large up here as they do in Mobile, etc. anyway.
If you DO happen to see a small one, chuck a topwater to him…
How about a steel leader with a mouse pattern tied to it? From a Kayak? WOOOOPIG!!
Friendly…? I’m sure theye probably pretty friendly after a large meal of sorts….
Forget the rod….I think bowfishing is the ticket!
that shiner looked like a striped or common shiner