Heathen Fish with Heathen Gear...

Got a call from Kirk Morris, a past guest on the blog. Kirk is a good friend to have. He has a nice boat. He fishes a lot with his wife and kids. And when they are out of town, he sometimes calls friends and invites them to join him. So it was that I got a call inviting me to join him on a trip to the nearby Potholes Reservoir to chase smallmouth and largemouth bass. A great chance to learn a little more about warm water fishing, as he has spent a lot of time recently figuring it out and is a great instructor. 

I picked up an early morning #6 at McDs on the way to his house hoping its magic works for non-trout species. It does.

We were joined by another friend, Lance Rhoten, who is a dentist like Kirk. On the drive up they spent plenty of time talking about crowns and cleanings and other dental procedures, as well as various bass baits and rigs. Both are foreign languages to me. But the shout and whoop with each fish hooked and landed is a common language we all spoke, and there was plenty of shouting and whooping today.

We started out fishing above rockpiles near the face of the dam where smallmouth hang out. A dropshot with a rubber worm bait of some kind was the ticket. The smallies ranged from the typical under a pound to a couple nice ones about a pound and a half. 

A nice smallmouth to start the day

After getting the rust off our casting and setting skills, we headed uplake to the dunes, where the lake becomes a series of bays and channels as it wraps around the sand dunes that were present before the lake covered the dunes with water. The banks are largely clumps of short willows, mostly underwater now, but well away from the waterline later in the year as the water level in the reservoir drops. The willows provide an unending source of cover for the largemouth bass, which had recently completed their spring spawn.

My description of this fishing, besides FUN, was that in a way it was like flats fishing, cruising the shoreline of the inlets and bays, blind casting to the cover, carefully watching for bass to target. Once a fish was spotted, we would sight fish to them. Most of the largemouth were caught sight fishing, mostly on the dropshot rig. 

Note the willows in the background; the fish were mostly found in the open spaces between the willows

While the largemouth would often show interest in other baits tossed their way, they would usually leave them alone until a dropshot was tossed in front of them. Then the rubber worm would quickly disappear and the fight was on. Kirk was a champion of this technique, and rarely was there a bass that he didn't successfully entice in this way. 

Kirk with the largest of the day, just over three pounds I think

Lance and I both got in on the action too, and we ended the day with around a couple dozen largemouth to hand, most in the range of one and a half to two pounds. Together our five largest totaled somewhere around 11 pounds (Kirk has the best fishing toys, including a digital scale that tracks the weights). 

A nice largemouth, a little under two pounds

The most memorable fish of the day was at the end of an inlet where we spotted two nice largemouth cruising back and forth between small openings in the willows. A couple small willow branches blocked any cast into the only open water we could hope to reach, so I put the small-stream pendulum cast to work and swung the weight over the top of the branches and dropped the rubber bait into the open water behind. I shook the rubber worm to try to draw the attention of the fish, and we all watched as the larger of the two bass swam into the opening and slowly approached the bait. It had it nose right under the worm, then backed off. Some more shaking got its attention again and we watched in anticipation as it approached again, literally nosed the worm, then backed off and swam into the adjacent opening. More shaking, and the big guy (or gal) returned for the third time to our opening. I let the worm sit completely still this time, and the bass again nosed up to the bait. Then with no apparent movement of the fish, the worm disappeared as it was sucked into the fish's mouth. With a set and a shout, the water exploded as the bass in the range of two pounds started dancing around the small opening. It immediately dove into the adjacent willows, leaving my hook in a branch rather than his mouth. Disappointment at the loss, but getting that take was a lot of fun!

We stopped to pick up a few more smallmouth on our way back to end a great day of fishing. There really is no such thing as heathen fish or heathen gear. Catching fish of any kind with gear of any kind makes any day a great day! Thanks Kirk!