☺️hi everyone, I'm back on here again! 😁 I'm leaving the yak and boat home and I'm going to go wade fishing for smallies! It's how I developed my love for these fish decades ago, wading shoes, and over the shoulder tackle bag and off I go to the lower Snake River east of Pine City Minnesota! Plus fish are Muskies, Pike, Walleye, and? Hey, give it a try!

I was doing it when I caught the bass in my avatar. I used to live 200 yards from a great little smallmouth river. The fishing was great there until runoff from all the suburban, over fertilized lawns caused massive algae blooms made it impossible to wade. 

I’ve done it for many years, a couple of times in just the last 2 weeks. I’m a wimp though, I can’t wet wade, I wear waders because the water quality in my region can always be questioned so I take no chances. 

Wading a river to catch smallmouth is my happy place. I started 15 years ago and will continue until my body says I have a better chance of drowning than catching a fish…

I do it now and then...I prefer floating the rivers in a drift oat or raft.

I did it for years. In swift current, being on the bank can be advantageous over a boat. On a drifting boat, you might have the chance for only one or two casts on a feature. From a wade position, you can take as many casts as you wish, and even try a different lure. 

 

 

2 hours ago, MassBass said:

I did it for years. In swift current, being on the bank can be advantageous over a boat. On a drifting boat, you might have the chance for only one or two casts on a feature. From a wade position, you can take as many casts as you wish, and even try a different lure. 

 

 

Good [point! ☝️ 

On 8/20/2025 at 4:02 PM, MassBass said:

On a drifting boat, you might have the chance for only one or two casts on a feature.

We can always anchor, or even anchor and get out.

...or if whoever is on the oars is good, they may be able to hold the boat in place.

We don't do it often, but it works.

Twice a week. Love it and keeps me young. Getting a yak next year 

My absolute favorite way to fish.  Shoes, shorts, belt pack, and only one rod;  if I had a nearby place like the one I left behind I probably would not have bought a boat.

Used to do a lot of it 50 years ago on the upper James and Maury rivers when I lived in Virginia.  Top baits were helgrammites or Mepps spinners.  Caught some nice channel cats on the helgrammites occasionally.  If I had to pick one way to bass fish and could still do it that would be it.

I wade fish the Mississippi every winter.  If it is above freezing I try and get out once a  week.  Up here in Mn it is the only way to fish from November to March or April. It is cold but fun.

Yes, when I was young and strong.  I have a bit of a story here.  I was introduced to wade fishing by a man who owned a tackle store in my hometown.  In the fall when the river above town would get low and clear, when the air was cool and smokey gold, the smallies would chomp.  He made a spinning rod out of an 8 ft fly rod blank, 4# line, and his homemade bucktail jigs.  The jigs were poured with the lead along the hook shank so the jig would ride horizontally (this was in the 1960's way before the FFS guys started using this "new" design).  He caught lots of 4# plus smallmouth.  He showed me his technique and taught me how to read a river.  I was blessed to have him for a mentor!

1 hour ago, Lottabass said:

Yes, when I was young and strong.  I have a bit of a story here.  I was introduced to wade fishing by a man who owned a tackle store in my hometown.  In the fall when the river above town would get low and clear, when the air was cool and smokey gold, the smallies would chomp.  He made a spinning rod out of an 8 ft fly rod blank, 4# line, and his homemade bucktail jigs.  The jigs were poured with the lead along the hook shank so the jig would ride horizontally (this was in the 1960's way before the FFS guys started using this "new" design).  He caught lots of 4# plus smallmouth.  He showed me his technique and taught me how to read a river.  I was blessed to have him for a mentor!

 

I love your story, Al, and the telling too.

 

On 8/22/2025 at 1:26 PM, Tackleholic said:

My absolute favorite way to fish.

 

Mine too.

Wade fishing was how I got started.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DPHpPT1jtTQ/?igsh=bDhuOXF6bDdic2g1

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DPUfU6djppO/?igsh=MXBqdzJ6dW9jN29rMQ==

Wading small rivers for smallies is how it started for me in bass fishing. You will be very surprised by the size of small mouth in my local Mid-michigan rivers. I actually waded a couple times this summer while I was killing time waiting for my daughter’s dance class to finish up.  

 

It’s pretty simple fishing.  in the spring and fall in-line spinners and float f-7 rapala’s.  Summer time ned rigs, tubes, and plastic helgamites.