6/17 Exploring New Water

[RedHeron]

I discovered last night that my wife's car had a leaky brake line. We went to the parts store, but they wouldn't have the new lines in until this morning. So I had to drop her off at work. BTW, I do not envy her...she works basically in downtown B'ham, and we live in Calera...so depending on traffic, she has a commute that can be as short as 45 minutes, or longer than 2 hours. So we left the house this morning at 5:30 to make sure (hopefully) we'd make it there by 7am. Luckily, traffic was pretty light this morning, and we arrived at 6:15. Knowing that I'm not a morning person, I decided that instead of going back home, sitting in my office, and promptly shorting out my computer with my drool, I'd go explore some new water for a couple hours...you know...to wake myself up. :D

The sun was just cresting the trees as I put in on my 110th river.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a219/LanceS13/P6170001.jpg

I started slinging the buzzbait to see if they wanted it on top. Initially there were no takers. I swapped up between the buzzbait, a swimbait, and a T-rigged crawfish. Eventually, I got to a good looking push water. Dragging the buzzbait in front of an undercut rock scored this nice spot.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a219/LanceS13/P6170002.jpg

Working my way through the push water and the following shoal, I caught a few other smaller ones on the buzzbait. One of the pools had a deep cut along a rock wall bank with wood cover and current. It just looked like a money hole. I brought the buzzbait down along the bank, and it was promply inhaled by this fine specimen. 19" long, 3lb 5oz spot.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a219/LanceS13/P6170006.jpg

I caught a few more on the buzzbait and swimbait, including a couple that landed on top of the buzzbait after going airborne! I lost another good fish on the swimbait. I got to another pushwater with a large drop. I didn't need to go any further (since I do have to do some work today, not to mention fix the wife's car, and go pick her up), so I worked the pushwater real good. I had several short strikes and finally this skinny 17"er smashed it.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a219/LanceS13/P6170008.jpg

As I paddled back up to my put-in, I realized that this was a pretty little creek, despite all the debris in it from its metropolitan headwaters.
Mimosas were blooming everywhere.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a219/LanceS13/P6170007.jpg

Butter-fly-by
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a219/LanceS13/P6170013.jpg

All in all, it was an awesome morning. Wish I coulda stayed all day.

[Bruiser]

Mmmmmmm! Tasty!

[Redfish]

Sweet, Lance!!! Nothing like a quick fishing trip to wake a man up! Question, what do you suppose made the difference between the trip with your dad and this one, as far as the bite goes???

[basshead]

great report and nice watrer, not to mention a fun morning

[RedHeron]

Thanks guys!
Good question, Terry. It was a different river for one thing...and from what I hear, it's hard to have a bad day on this creek, numbers-wise. But, except for one or two, all the fish were skinny (just like the few I caught Saturday), so they're apparantly not eating enough to keep up with their metabolism. Something (the heat?) just has had them off lately, and for some reason they decided to bite this morning. But I still don't think they were biting to feed as much as they were just reacting to the lure. For every fish that absolutley anhialated the buzzbait, I probably had 2 more that just swiped at it and missed. The reason that other big one that hit the swimbait got off is because she swiped at it and just barely caught the tail treble. So, to answer your question...I have no friggin' clue. :p

[Stump]

That 17"er is one seriously malnourished looking bass ! Beautiful water though and a great way to greet the day Lance!

[mookie]

sweet, waaaaayyyyy better than my morning, thx for sharing!

[RedHeron]

That 17"er is one seriously malnourished looking bass ! Beautiful water though and a great way to greet the day Lance!

That would be an Ally McBass. :)

[ML]

Nice work Lance. That creek holds some big spotted bass.

[waderjon]

That would be an Ally McBass. :)

Ha Ha :)

Great report Lance as always..

[creekfreak]

Ive caught so many three plus spots on that flow its not even funny. I also had a five pound plus spot get off at the boat on two seperate occasions. Like Ml said that flow has some big spots in it. Btw great report as usual Lance.

[smfisher]

Nice looking flow and great report.

[RedHeron]

No kidding! I had been under the impression that it was just a numbers creek. I only measured the 19" and the 17", but I believe that first fish was about 16"...so about 52" for the top 3...those 3 fish woulda put the catcher on the podium at the RB tournament. I'll definitely be hitting this flow more in the future.

[FlySlingerCole]

Great looking flow and great fish!

Nice report!

[TurboGTi]

That creek IS a numbers creek, but the closer you get to the main river, the less it becomes a numbers creek and the more it becomes a big fish flow. The biggest spotted bass i've ever seen swimming was in that crystal clear water, and she was a HOSS. I thought Jacky was gonna have a stroke when he first spotted the fish. You may have even made it far enough to have reached the hole where she lives..... "boat destroyer shoal." Aptly named lol. By the way, don't run boat destroyer shoal, at least not on the left!

[RedHeron]

LOL...ok, note taken. Spoken from experience?
I just made it to the top of the really big, wide shoal complexes (there's like a small ranch house or maybe a double-wide up on the hill on river left), so I don't think I've met "boat destroyer" yet.

[Jump n Fish]

Hmmm, looks familiar. I definitely wouldn't mind hitting that water again sometime. Thats a pretty good show for this time of year.

[creekfreak]

You made it to boat destroyer shoals but yoy didnt make it over it lol. The big spot turbo is talking about lives at the foot of boat destroyer shoals. I had that five plus spot in that long hole before the big shoals. One afternoon in four hours I caught 74 on that stretch you fished,and whats crazy its a four hour float lol. Pm me sometime when you have a complete day to kill and me and turbo will show you a real good stretch on that river.

[RedHeron]

Sure thing, man!