MGF

We haven't had much rain but the river is clouded up a little anyway. Still pretty low and still fairly clean. We just had a short rain move through but I'm going to give it a try anyway.

Once in a while in early fall I can get some action on a fluke or even a double fluke rig. You would think the fluke would work well just about anytime when the water is low but I haven't found that to be the case. Contrary to what some here have said, I have found that some lures work much better than others at any given time. I sort of have two classes of baits/presentations. Those I expect to produce the most or biggest fish and those that I just enjoy fishing. The baits that catch the most for me in the river are those you just cast and drift down in the current. It's fun catching a bunch of fish but sometimes I just want to skip a jig or watch surface blowups so that's what I fish for.

In the river one of my favorite "high" water patterns is a 3/8 or 1/2 oz arky head skipped up under overhanging trees. All the way onto the bank is good and even better if I can drag it over a log in the water near the bank. I catch more fish when the water is low but the trees are out of the water and little reason to skip so the casting just isn't as much fun.

I don't go out of my way to fish in the rain...or too much wind either. I catch plenty of fish when the weather is nice and that's when I prefer to fish. I've done my share of all weather fishing and hunting and those days are over.

On our river...I caught a bunch of fish on them when I first started using them and then...it died. For a while there it seemed like everybody I saw was throwing then and it got to where I couldn't buy a bite on one.

We have a slot limit for black bass in rivers. I don't think much research went into it but I really think it's helped the bass population. Most locals here keep and eat EVERYTHING they catch. Hopefully some only eat what's legal. I don't really keep anything out of the river anymore. I LOVE to eat bass but I catch a lot. A few guys like me could do some real damage if we were eating them and I'm not the only one who can catch them. Once in a while we'll keep a small one (under 12 inches) if it's hooked bad but that doesn't happen much because I smash down the barbs. I have permission to fish a private pond that's loaded with small stunted bass. I can catch 50 in a couple of hours. Once in a while I'll go there to get some largemouth for the fry pan.

The fishing is great but the traffic on my river as become unbearable...even on a weekday. We have two rental places in the area and they drop hundreds of floaters in the water every day. Each with a bunch of liquor and a boom box. Even the number of floating locals has gone through the roof. No kidding the floaters can cover the river from bank to bank and it doesn't bother them to use the side of your boat as a handrail.

All of the above at one time or another. Completely different from spring "high and dark" water to the low ultra clear water we have now. Fall is different yet again I love the river because I get some of my best action midday in the bright sun. When I float the river I get there when I get there. No fast motoring up and down in the low rocky water. I'm almost afraid to tell my favorites for this time of year. I haven't seen it in the thread and I don't see it on the river. One favorite is what they're calling a "tiny child rig". It looks stupid in the water but you wouldn't even believe the number of big bass I've caught with it. Much better for me here than even a NED. Better yet, I find that it works just as well with a piece of a worn out senco or yum dinger as it does with a zman trd. Just put that stub of a worm on a number 1 worm hook with a little nail weight of some kind in the other end. My all time favorite is a zoom finess worm on a split shot rig...a real split shot. The same number 1 worm hook. I'm going to try a 1-0 in both just becaus I have so many and I have to order the number 1. In both cases I just drift it in the current and hang on.

You could hit with any of the above suggestions but I tend to lean toward tubes, ned/tiny child and splitshot rigs depending on water level and clarity. There are other baits that I like but in most cases I'm letting the bait bounce down river with the current. I adjust the amount of weight to what the fish like. That's not to say that there aren't days when the dt6 or wee craw aren't just the ticket. LOL

Depending on where you are on the river you might only have a few minutes to get to higher ground when they open the gates to run more generators. My cousin lives on the white and I want to say that water can come up about 10 ft in a short time. I've been wading out there many times when we had to beat it for shore. That said, if I didn't make it out in time it would be embarrassing and inconvenient but unlikely to kill me. Once when my son was just a little guy we took the canoe to the other side of the river to fish along the bank. The river started coming up and we headed back as fast as I could. I needed to go pretty much straight across the river. I crossed that river paddling as hard as I could upstream to hold my position and just inching across. I'm not sure I could do that today (that was 30 years ago). Today I'd probably make shore down stream a ways. Again, inconvenient but unlikely to cause any real harm.

It was fun...not much fishing going on but we found plenty to shoot the breeze about anyway. Thanks guys.

I have some good fishing around here...and I get the impression that some don't believe me about the size of some of the smallmouth I catch. LOL The hunting is kind of tuff unless you own land or know somebody. I see plenty of deer but I don't usually get to hunt where they live.

I was talking about the smallmouth in north east Indiana Tippecanoe river smallmouth.

Same here...they vacate my part of the river and head down toward the reservoir. But...it's hard to tell when they're going to leave. I've had years when I caught good numbers of bass into December and years when they seem to vanish in October.

The 6th at 10 am should be ok for me.

There's a guy on our river who fishes out of a 12 foot jon and uses nothing but a push pole. He carries one rod in the boat and hand full of small crank baits and surface lures. I know him we;; because I used to work with him. He's in his 80's now and knows the river really well. The river is the only place he fished with the exception of some ice fishing he does on some local lakes and an annual trip he makes to LA to fish with his brother. That's a 25 hop motor...that's a big boat. LOL

Me too...both. When the river is "higher" I use the BC more because of the baits I'm using. When the river is low and clear I'm using spinning more.

I have some pretty good fishing around here and I think my brown bass river is GREAT! The crowd that makes fishing difficult isn't fishermen. It's the tubers. You can't fish weekend afternoons during the warm months because the river is clogged with tubers. When I say clogged, I mean clogged. It's big with the locals and there are a couple of rental outfits. Heck I've been run off the river on a weekday after work. It's really getting bad. They're drunk, playing loud music and throwing garbage all over the place.

Hunting...the source of my annual fall depression. I love to hunt...except there isn't anyplace around here to hunt. I live in rural northern Indiana and there are deer EVERYPLACE. I generally see hundreds in a weeks time and most of the vehicles that I've owned eventually get smashed up by deer. No joke...my current truck was smashed up by a deer while I was parked! The state says we need more hunters. The problem is that most of us don't have access to the land where all those deer live. The local state WMA is over hunted, beat the crap and not worth your time. Small game? I've walked my legs off at the WMA's and I haven't yet found a rabbit. There are hunters around but they're people who have money for leases. It's turned into a sport for the wealthy. The state is in the business of selling licenses. If you are willing to purchase a license for lousy fishing or hunting, they are happy to sell it to you. I usually purchase a combination license (hunting and fishing). The if I'm really dreaming of deer hunting I buy a deer license just in case. This is me second year ins a row of not buying a deer tag and next year I'll probably skip the hunting license. I don't know what I've been paying them for all these years.

I don't have the equipment to wade in cold water so I don't. When we take the canoe out in cold water/weather I pack a dry bag with everything I need to get warn...assuming I make it out of the water. Again this is something we only do when river conditions are right. When I first got the canoe years ago we did flip it once in December so I got to use the contents of the dry bag...but the water was shallow and we just stood up, got out of the water, changed clothes, started a fire and made a nice dinner. No real big deal.

I do a lot of wading. I guess I had some "mishaps" when I was young because I was careless or didn't know better but nothing life threatening. Once the water warms and level comes down in our local river my wife and I wade a LOT. I didn't do any fishing this year after Oct, 1 but I haven't had the boat or canoe out since August. Even when the water is low I like to use the boat just to cover more water. This year I didn't need to cover water. The honey holes were in easy walking distance from where I park the truck. 25 years of wading this particular river with the wife and even the kids (when they were kids) and not a single mishap.

I started using jigs other than those designed for tubes when I started using smaller tubes and couldn't find tube jigs with small enough hooks. I'll tell you something else I do...I'll use a ball head (or whatever) and just thread the tube on behind the head. It has a little different action but sometimes the bass just go nuts for it. You might want to use a drop of glue to help hold it on. And you don't have to retie every time you need a new plastic.

Most of my fishing is river smallies and most of that is with some kind of jig. I do use a lot of small stuff but don't be afraid to try something larger. After all these years I'm still finding new combinations that work well. I tend to prefer rubber over silicone but I use plenty of silicone. My tubes are mostly green pumpkin but my rubber jig skirts are usually black...a little bit of blue mixed in is ok but I can do without it. An arky head with a paddle-tail trailer is good but I use some craw trailers and a ned or tiny child is great although the later isn't really a jig. Last year I bought a bunch of hair jigs but my season ended early and I never really used them. I'm going to buy some more and try real hard to fit them in next year...too many choices and not enough time on the water. Normally my PB for the year is on a 3/8 oz black arky in the spring but last year it was on a zoom finesse worm splitshot rig in the fall...go figure.

I thought the ending was kind of abrupt. My dinner was ready anyway.

I'm in.