Rob Perdue of Vancouver Washinton was steelhead fishing on the lower Deschutes River, a few miles from the mouth that enters the Columbia River. Rob was spin fishing with a wiggle wart plug that he remodeled by replacing the trebles with single hooks. TWO Smallmouth Bass chased his wiggle wart and it turned out to be a tie because both fish hooked themselves at the same time!
I know it’s not unusual for smallmouth to compete for food, but in the DESCHUTES???
For those of you that don’t know, the John Day river is the warmer river in the area, not the Deschutes.
Deschutes River=Trout, Steelhead and Salmon (Cold water fish)
John Day= Smallmouth, Squawfish and I don’t know what else.
Maybe it’s True what I have always believed about smallmouth! They are CRAZY! :lol:
Doug
Interesting Doug. Maybe they just moved up the D. for a summer vacation. In regards to the John Day - I saw a flick on TV where they were catching big carp near the mouth. Also there has been concern that smallies will become abundant in the Rogue but that doesn’t seem to be the case plus I have heard stories that somehow squawfish have become established in the Rogue.
Tim
That is an interesting story. I have caught quite a few smallies on the Grand Ronde, and they are a hoot, so i can see them moving into and up the D. Too bad, as the best fly i found for them was a salmon smolt!
While still in middle school in Anchorage, I had to get rides to the rivers and lake from my dad’s co workers as no one in my family fished. I would show them where and how, and they got me there. On one trip, I took a new transfer to Ship Creek, in down town Anchorage. We were soaking eggs on a spin and glow in the tide water near the mouth. His rod went down with a fish, so he played it, landed it, and all was fine. While the fish was still in the net, we noticed that it was not his hook that had hooked the fish. Someone else had hooked the fish, and broke it off at the swivel. My friend had hooked the swivel of the previous person’s rig! A hook point going through the eye of a swivel, in moving water seemed way too much to believe. Had I not witnessed it, I would not believe the story. :o
Have fun, Jeff
I saw the same thing on a small river in NW WA, the Samish. Funny thing is the Samis has a similar type fishery and reputation as Ship Creek in Anchorage.
The differences in the stories is the guy, or should I say kid that hooked the eye of the swivel was 14 years old. The fish was a 50 lb. chinook that was broke off like the one in your story. The real interesting part of this story is I didn’t know the kid that caught the fish and was telling the story at work a few years later. One of the guys I was telling the story to pops up a says I know that story is true becuase that kid was his son.
Kerry said “I saw the same thing on a small river in NW WA, the Samish. Funny thing is the Samis has a similar type fishery and reputation as Ship Creek in Anchorage.”
Around 1970 I was fishing a creek further up the Cook Inlet from Anchorage. I was using a lure and cast into a pool, had a “hit” and set the hook. I landed a nice bright silver that weighed about 8 lbs. However I did not hook the fish, but snagged a fish stringer that was dangling from the silvers mouth. Boy did I get a ribbing from my fishing partners.
Tim
Same story as before but names changed to protect the innocent. Long time ago at Paulina Lake (central OR), My Dad, brothers and I were on our annual pilgrimage (I was a glutton for punishment!). 4 Adults 2 kids, so we rented 2 boats. My Dad and I were the competent fishermen! so it was Dad boat 1, me boat 2. What could go wrong??? Everythings under control! Right?? We were VETS not newbies!! :lol: The previous year, one of my brothers LOST my rod and reel overboard (1 down! 11 to go!) and I THOUGHT! he had at least learned to hold on to his fishing pole! Well i was WRONG!!! Derald! Derald! Derald! 
I sitting there in my boat, fishing, and I hear AW CRAP!!! I didn’t have to think too hard WHAT that meant! My brother’s son called out to me that his Dad (Derald) had LOST MY rod and reel overboard, For The SECOND YEAR in a row!!! :shock: It was like a big bucket of Cold water was thrown on OUR fishing trip!!! I wasn’t angry about my rod, just concerned with bringing the Morale back up! Either God or a Angel told me to Cast my line (Jokingly) over to my Dad’s boat and after my line landed right in the lake, exactly next to my Dad!, I said “DAD! Is THAT where you’ve been catching FISH???” :lol: What a Smart A–!!! WHAT is Going ON??? I felt something on the end of my LINE!!! It feels like I have a TROUT on!! I reeled the fish closer to me, but then it wouldn’t come any FURTHER!!! I put my rod down in the boat and started pulling the line by hand and I started making some progress!! The trout got close to me and then it VANISHED!!!, but I still had tension on the line!! I pulled and pulled! until up from Davey Jones Locker, OMG!!! My ROD is coming up from the BOTTOM of the LAKE!!! :lol:
I remember a Boat full of people going by and the thought crossed my mind that THEY were pretty sure I had lost my mind!! :lol:
I’m now known in my family as the nice brother that BAILED his careless younger brother OUT!! Saved his BUTT!!! “Your Welcome!!”
By the way! I didn’t hook my brother’s trout, but the line it was attached to and MY HOOK was attached to HIS HOOK after the trout got off the line.
Doug
Tim,
That’s a Good One!!
Doug
Doug,
Small mouth bass are not just a warm water fish. There are many small mouths taken every year through the ice. They are probably one of the most tolerant species of wide temperature ranges that there is. They are very territorial and can be down right mean. I have often said that we are fortunate they do not have large teeth otherwise they would make the piranha look like a wimp. Warm or cold water, they will fight you like heck in or out of the water.
well you guys are lucky to have seen fish caught by catching the eye of a swivel.
I have, twice, caught the eye of a swivle on a drift (I lie, one was the eye of a hook). However, the only thing that swivel (and hook) was attached to was the bottom.
It is much more fun to catch a fish than it is to catch the bottom.
Eric,
Smallmouth Bass need THERAPY!!! (LOT’S OF IT!!) (YEARS!!!) (DECADES) ect…of course they would need Health Insurance! (nevermind)
Doug
this is the right thread for this story:
when i was young enough to fish with bait, i usually lost it to hungry minnows right away. i’d sit hopefully, and in the end pull up a bare and empty hook.
but once when i pulled it up, there was a fine flounder on that hook. the hook had passed through the fish’s nose.
really!! i know, they didn’t believe me then either. but why would anyone make it up?
Many years ago my twin brothers went fishing on the Willamette River. They came home all EXCITED!! because one of them got snagged on some weeds and this largemouth Bass (4-5 lbs) grabbed their weed covered HOOK! OH BOY! We must be good fishermen!! :lol:
Doug
Kerry,
It is funny that hooking a lost fish through a swivel has happend before to other people. I remember another time down at Ship Creek, this time i rode my bick 5 miles to fish, another interesting thing happend. There are three large culverts that the river goes under a rock brige near the inlet. At high tide, the water is pooled up behind the bridge as the tide comes in. At low tide, the culverts, 15’ in diameter, are exposed. During a high tide, an angler was on the upstream side of the bridge casting his spin and glow with egss up the river, and letting it bounce back towards him and the culvert really slow with the slight current. After many casts, he hooks a nice king. Fish goes a ways up river, taking line, then does a quick 180 right at the guy. He is madly reeling in the slack line to get the fish on the rod again when the fish jumps. Right in front of the culvert the guy was standing on, and lands right between his legs! Still reeling in his line with his jaw on the ground, other anglers yelling at him to net the fish quick, they guy just keeps on reeling, and reeling and reeling. In super slow motion that seemed to take forever, the fish spits out the spin and glow, and SLOWLY slides back into the river. They guy was still reeling as everyone on the river was laughing their cold rear ends off.
While i only caught a few kings and silvers from that river, it sure was neat some of the things i saw happen there. That was also the last time my parents told me to be home by dark, as spring time in Alaska means some very long days! 
One little secret about Ship Creek is the trout fishing. I lived on Elmendorf AFB, and there was a lot of nice water from the golf course upstream to the hospital that had a lot of good spawing water, lots of trout, and extremely limited access. I did not know how good i had it till i moved to Washington. At least i know now.