I took work off on Friday to fish with my good friend Michael Jarvis. We had not been out together in a little while and I was super excited to get out on the water with Mike. I was also excited because Mike was going to teach me the way of the River2Sea S-waver.

The weather forecast for the day was for wind and rain mixed with rain and wind   It started out calm enough though. I got to the river about an hour and a half before Mike and started fishing - excited to have these conditions in June! 30 minutes later I was a bit less excited since I had only manage one dink on a topwater.

I was feeling the pressure to catch something reasonable before Mike got there. I cycled through all my presentations without success until I came back to the topwater. I am not sure if it was the area or if the bite just turned on but I almost immediately had a bite. I quickly cast out with a followup lure (Sebile magic swimmer) on my new heavier spinning rod and caught a nice 2lb bass. A few casts later I caught another but then I missed a couple and had several follows. I felt like the fish were there and feeding but I did not quite have the right presentation.

I switched to a 4" MinnowZ paddle tail on a jighead and that was the ticket (at least for a while). In the next 45 minutes I added 10 more bass. Around then Mike called me to let m know he was at the ramp. I fished my way back to him (catching 5 more along the way) and found out he had caught 5 as well by the time I got there.

After that he fished together for the rest of the day. We laughed and bassed and just had an all-round great day on the water. Sometimes the wind was so loud it was hard to hear each other talk but we both know that the smallmouth love that weather and are always willing to battle the elements to catch big bass.

Now, Mike is a great fisherman and he is a magician with that S-waver. It is a bait that I have fished half-heartedly a handful of times but I could never get over that hump that I need to when learning a new bait or technique. I had no confidence in it and I needed a lesson from the master.

Fortunately for me Mike is as generous with his is knowledge as he is fun to fish with. He talked me through the different ways he fishes it, when he uses what color, all the little things that separate a great fisherman from a good one. I have to say I was not the best pupil because even with that tutelage I still struggled for a few hours while I watched Mike land giant after giant.

Talk about a humbling experience! But with enough good-hearted kidding and a continual stream of pointers I was able to finally hook a good one on the S-waver! Unfortunately, I almost immediately lost that fish. I think it is that I did not get a good hookset because I was in total shock when my lure finally got slammed. Still, just getting that bite was huge for me. I fished with renewed confidence.

MIke decided to move to our next spot but I wanted to stay where I had finally gotten a bite for a bit longer. It took about 15 minutes but I finally got pounded again. I could tell this was a good one and it put a healthy bend in my new spinning rod (which I bought for throwing wind-resistant baits on windy days). I was ecstatic when I slipped my net under a beautiful 19" 3lb 5oz bass! It felt great to finally feel like I had broken through some plane of understanding with that S-waver and catching a big one on a new rod is also the awesome.

On the next case I got thumped again. This turned out to be a nice 2lb 4oz The wind was whipping, the white-caps were busting but I did not care. I was learning the way.

For most of the rest of the day I kept that S-waver in my hand. I am far from an expert with it but I now have the confidence to fish with it without worrying that I am wasting my time.  3 of my best 5 bass came on that S-waver including my biggest, mentioned above. During the course of the day the wind would occasionally let up for a bit and then pick back up, It was sunny for a bit then it would rain again. Through it all they were eating that S-waver.

Late in the day a cable on my drive broke. I could still pedal it but I was worried I was damaging it so I told Mike I was going to fish my way back to the ramp. He asked if I needed him to come along with me but I told him to keep bassing!

On the way back to the ramp I decided to re-fish some of our earlier spots but decided to switch to the old Jack Hammer Stealthblade to show them something different. That ended up being a good call because I racked up quite a few on that lure including my 2nd biggest of the day, 18.75" and also 3lb 5oz. That fish made a couple of big jumps in the waves. It was just a great way to finish off the day.

Eventually I made my way home and texted Mike as i was putting things away. I told him I had re-hit our earlier spot (when I got my best one) and he immediately replied that we sitting on that spot right then! He is not only a great fisherman he is relentless. Some days I almost feel sorry for those bass when Mike is on the river!

So, I guess the point of the story is that an old dog can learn new tricks!

If you want to learn about PNW bass fishing I recommend visting his channel: Michael Jarvis

Here are some pics from the day and the video:

30 minutes ago, pdxfisher said:

We laughed and bassed and just had an all-round great day on the water.

I love ^this^ line.

Gosh, those are beautiful bass!

Really nice write-up once again.

Plenty of fantastic great bass and views that should be pasted on a postcard.

Talk about being suitable for framing . . .

Congrats

A-Jay

Thanks for the kind words PDX, however I’m just a guy that loves to chase bass and picked up a few things along the way on that journey. (Also not afraid to spill some of the juice along the way)! I had a great fun day also, the wife wasn’t as thrilled as I crashed through the front door just shy of 11pm! 🤣!! Always a pleasure being out here with friends and fellow searchers of the mystical 22” giants!