|
Both of these 19.25 inch river smallmouth hit a black spinnerbait
slow rolled to allow frequent collision with the rocky bottom.
They were caught in 42 and 45 degree waters respectively.
Collision lures like crankbaits have an erratic action
that triggers strikes. However, the visual part of the presentation
may only be a small part of why the fish feels compelled
to punish whatever caused the noise. Smallmouth in low light
conditions such as 40 feet deep, or in twilight conditions
seem to be able to find the lures that crash into hard objects
better than those that are in the middle of the water column.
The lateral lines are how they do it.
Most anglers can easily point out the lateral line on a
fish that they have caught. Not many anglers know that bass
have a lateral line lattice that covers the top of their
heads. The graphic showing this organ in Knowing Bass
by Dr. Keith A. Jones resembles the facemask on a football
helmet. The bass use this head lateral line to assess the
shape and vibration of a potential food item at close range.
Have you ever seen a bass position their body nose down
on a bottom bouncing lure before it strikes? This position
puts the target in their close range radar.
Several lures do an excellent job of creating the jolting
vibrations. One of my favorites is the 1 oz spinnerbait.
Last January while fishing in 37 to 38 degree water, I realized
how effective this presentation is. For years I have followed
the commonly accepted principle that fish will only chase
something if their metabolism is fast enough. When the water
is cold, their metabolism slows, and they are less likely
to give chase. It is simply not worth expending the energy
to chase some moving prey that they are not likely to catch.
They need to conserve energy. Most anglers fish bottom bouncing
baits in the hopes that they place the offering right under
the nose of a fish. Cold fish may make the decision to take
something that requires very little motion to capture. However
tapping into that involuntary response trumps the "energy
expended versus potential energy gained" wager.
It was about 4 p.m. on a cold and windy winter day. I was
fishing for river smallmouth with my buddy Tom. Both of
us were skunked up to that moment. I figured that the day
would end that way, so I decided to test drive a few spinnerbaits
that I had poured and tied up with rabbit hair. I really
just wanted to see how they swam. I heaved it out and waited
for the slack braided line to stop traveling across the
surface. The coils of braid stopped, and I knew that the
1 oz spinnerbait had hit bottom. I engaged the reel and
slowly started bringing the bait back to the kayak. I could
feel the #4 Colorado blade thump. Every 3 to 7 feet of the
slow retrieve, I could feel the 1 oz head smack a rock.
Then it stopped hard. I figured that it was wedged tightly
between two rocks. My shoulders slumped as I anticipated
the arduous battle against the wind and current as I would
try and get my creation unstuck. Then I felt the distinct
throb, and my frustration disappeared. In the next few minutes
I hooked three fish and landed two of them. After getting
skunked on traditional "let it sit" presentation bottom
bouncing jigs, I realized that I had stumbled upon a winter
search bait.
Another collision bait that emits good vibrations is the
¾ oz blade bait. When I started learning how to fish the
silver buddy, I thought that the thump of ripping the blade
off the bottom was how the fish found it. With time, I noticed
that I was much more successful if I got as many touches
on a rocky bottom as possible. Lifting the bait an inch
or two instead of ripping it up a foot or two allowed me
to get more of the bottom touches that seemed to be the
strike inducing trigger.
The only problem with this type of presentation is its
propensity for snagging. I thought back to learning how
to Carolina Rig. Specifically, I was interested in incorporating
the snag resistant shape of the Lindy No-Snagg weight into
a collision bait. I ordered the Do-It mold for the jig that
most closely resembled the same snag resistant weight that
I used for Carolina Rigging.
Around the same time, I had been reading Billy Westmorland's
Them Ol' Brown Fish. In his recollections of his
largest Dale Hollow Reservoir smallmouth catches, two lures
kept coming up. One was the "hoss fly and rind", essentially
a 1/8 oz black bucktail jig tied on an aspirin head jig
with a long thin strip of white rind. In one of the photos
in the book you can see this lure. To me, the black aspirin
head looks like the pupil of a baitfish. The rind trailing
behind resembles the white body of a baitfish. From the
hoss fly and rind, I took the big eye and baitfish profile.
The other lure is the ½ oz Pedigo Spin Rite, a triangular
shaped chunk of lead with a Colorado blade trailing behind,
and a treble hook on the bottom. From the Spin Rite I took
the ½ oz collision vibration and Colorado blade thump.
Slow rolling this snag resistant swim jig and letting it
smack bottom every few feet produced this 19.5 inch river
smallmouth in 45 degree water.
So far my swim jig has been productive on several river
smallmouth including the 19.5 incher in the photo above.
I have high hopes for this good vibration baitfish profiled
lure working on the reservoir fish as well.
Slow rolling spinnerbaits and swim jigs, or
vertical jigging a blade bait isn't the only way to make
the strike inducing vibration. The first time I encountered
someone purposefully trying to make the vibration was while
fishing with Brook Hoover of Brook's Marine in Chambersburg,
Pennsylvania. We were fishing from his jet boat on the Susquehanna
River. Brook is a jet boat mechanic who has so much business
that he doesn't get to fish as much as he would like. When
he decides to put everything on hold and go catch some huge
river smallmouth is when most anglers would think that you
would be crazy to even try. He gets excited about going
when the water is chunky with ice, mud, tumbling logs, and
trailer homes. In other words, he waits until the river
is near flood stage.
When Brook took me out on his jet boat, I
was excited to be out on the river just from the standpoint
of seeing the river when the Harrisburg gauge was at 17.5
feet. I wouldn't recommend doing what we did, and I certainly
wouldn't attempt to do it in my kayak at that level. However
to my surprise, we caught fish from that zero visibility
water. We hooked smallmouth, some kind of fish that he called
a buffalo something or other, a few catfish, and walleye.
All of the fish were clustered very tightly into the few
remaining eddies. We caught them on tubes and soft plastics
rigged on a ball head jig. While Brook was fishing the plastic
on the jighead, I noticed that he was shaking his arm as
he held the jig in place on taught line. At first I thought
he was just shivering. I asked him about it, and he said
that he purposefully shakes the jig so that it sits in the
same spot, but rattles the bare lead head against the rock
it is rested against. I believe that the fish we caught
that day were relying 100% on the lateral line. The constant
rattling of the lead against the rocks made it that much
easier for them to locate the lure.
The metal on rock vibration caused this reservoir
smallmouth to bite despite the 38 degree water temperature.
Even though we are talking about good vibrations,
Ozzy Ozbourne and the other members of Black Sabbath have
their place in the heavy metal rock music presentation.
Earlier today while keeping the beat of Iron Man playing
in my IPod, I lifted and dropped my ¾ oz blade bait onto
the rocks 40 feet below. The fish in the picture above seemed
to like the same beat, despite the 38 degree water temperature.
I can't wait to see what happens when the water temperature
rises, and their prespawn metabolism really starts cranking!
When fishing a ¾ to 1 oz lead lure, make sure you let it
sound off and crash into the rocks as much as possible.
Jeff "Yakfish" Little is owner of Blue Ridge
Kayak Fishing LLC
www.blueridgekayakfishing.com, which provides kayak
fishing instruction for river smallmouth, tidal largemouth,
and reservoir bass in Maryland and Virginia.
|
