River Bass

[basscatcher85]

I caught my first river bass this week! she was a real beauty! For the rest of the day I was absolutely dumb founded! I really had no idea on how to fish em, what to fish, and where to fish!
Any suggestions?
BC

[Wild One]

I don't have an answer b/c I've never done it either, but I appreciate your thread, cause I've had the same questions. So, all you warm water pros, willing to share????

[peregrines]

Hey Basscatcher, one is a start. I bet it was fun, she sounds like a beaut. And there will be more.

I had a coach that always said "Never change a winning game, always change a losing game." I guess "the game" in this case is trying to figure out a pattern. So try and focus on the difference between what caught the fish, and what may have been different, to see if you can make out a pattern... or at least eliminate some things things that didn't work.

Trying to reproduce a pattern based on one fish is tough...But Buddies' recent Bass Tidbit articles have been very instructive and there was one on trying to pattern bass a couple of days ago.

Any thing you can think of about the one you caught like:

location: off a point? structure? underwater hump or hole? near the bank? water depth? obvious presence of bait? current speed? back eddys or current seam? boat docks or other structure? inside or outside bend? water depth?

water temp: in a dark bottom shallow bay or near an inflow where water temp might be a couple of degrees warmer?

Bottom: rocky cobble? marshy? vegetation?

retrieve: fast, slow, deep? (sometimes I'll count "mississippi's" or "hippotomi" with a sink tip or sinking fly on a floating line to figure out depth fish are holding so I can fish different depths and be able to reproduce it if anything good happens.

Days like yours in the long run help you become a better fisherman by pondering such things, assuming there is a "logical" explanation that can be somehow figured out. Sometimes though I would swear the fish are just funnin' with us for their own amusement.

Fish you caught: condition prespawn, eggs, spent? color? (assuming color adjusts to environment over time, open water tends to mean lighter colored, dark shallower structure oriented fish could give you a possibility of where the fish has moved from recently if the colors don't seem to correlate... maybe.... just a theory) Condition? -- (if fat in early spring, and not loaded up with eggs I'd figure it's been on baitfish like shad, so I'd try and figure out where they'd be.)

Any way, those are some of the straws I'd try and grasp at to try and make some sort of sense out of it. You could always claim you caught the only one in there, which actually makes you one heck of a fisherman, if you look at it that way.

Good luck, and remember a day on the water is always a blessing, even though a good amount of 'em have an element of frustration.

peregrines

[johnsonr1948]

Here in Central Texas, we fish almost exclusively for river bass. My key is to locate slack water near a current seam. Downstream from a small set of rapids, downstream from a large rock or log in the water. In or near heavy cover. Bass are like us, they are lazy. They will hold in areas where they can rest from the current, and where the current will bring them dinner. I fish woolly buggers a lot, and fish them on the drift, casting just upstream from such obstructions, drifting past the log or rock. Undercut banks are also good, as are dropoffs after gravel bars in the bends of rivers. Just think about where you would hang out if you were looking for dinner in the river. That' where the bass will be. Good luck.

[oldschoolcane]

basscatcher,

In fishing as well as life, experience is the best teacher we have. Continue spending some time on the river and all of this will become clear.

Congratulations on your first river bass

jman

[Big Bad Wulff]

Not trying to be rude here but by 'river bass' do you mean smallmouth bass? Rock bass?

[oldschoolcane]

He's describing a Largemouth (Black) from a mid sized river.

jman

[Joe Hyde]

Basscatcher,


Hey, you're the one who caught that fish, not us. Mind telling us how you did it? Which fly you used? General description of river structure, etc.?

I personally could use the help because I have a guided trip lined up for sometime this year; I'll be fishing a limestone stream in Kansas that probably harbors LMB, 'gills and who knows what.

Thanks!


Joe
"Better small than not at all."

[basscatcher85]

Hey sorry guys! I havn't checked my post in a while! But thanks for all the help! I remember catching that fish on a crawdad imitation in a two to three foot outside bend. It was really close to the shore which suprised me because I could see the flash of the fish strike. Yeah sorry I forgot to mention what type it was, it was a large mouth. It was around mid-day a over cast day, at times there was sun but otherwise cloudy.
Joe, I wish I could help you in recomending some patterns but I was truly clueless on what flies to use and where to use em.
Thank you all for helping me out! I will be out on the river much more, having some new ideas on how to fish it.
Thanks again! BC