Fast forward almost 20 years to a couple weekends ago and there I was doing the same thing, floating a small river in a canoe in pursuit of the fabled "bronze-backs". It had indeed been almost 20 years since I had last fished for, let alone caught, a smallmouth bass. I was super excited to say the least. The drawback was that Joey and I were going to do the float on Memorial Day weekend, not exactly the best timing. After a little research, we decided to float a small river (that will remain unidentified) that flows in the Elk River, in hopes that most of the weekend floaters would be on the Elk. We put in about 3 miles above the confluence with the Elk River with hopes of big smallmouth and very little floaters!
We decided to bring the spinning rods and conventional tackle along with our fly rods just in case the bite was slow on the fly and because trying to cast a sink tip line on a 7wt with a clouser could be sketchy in a canoe. This little creek we floated was freaking amazing. Crystal clear cool water with tons of sweet looking water that could possibly hold a toad of a smallie! Lots of lay-downs, boulders, and deep holes provided tons of spots to toss a lure or fly. We started with our spinning rods, Joey throwing a texas-rigged watermelon lizard and me throwing a 1/8 ounce chart. spinnerbait. We worked the canoe around a little gravel bar island with a nice backwater hole on one side and a deep slow run on the other side. A few minutes later I was hooked up with my 1st smallmouth in almost 20 years! I couldn't believe how hard these fish fight, its amazing! I was really really excited.
A little further downstream, Joey picked up this nice smallie as we worked a deep rock ledge from the canoe.
We continued our float down the river, picking up smallies along the way in all the likely spots. This little river was just loaded with fish, I was impressed. More excitement came about in the form of a downed tree that created some small "rapids" that we had to take the canoe through. I hadn't been in a canoe in a very long time and was still wary of being in such a narrow boat, so I was pretty nervous coming up to the downed tree. We lined up with it and just paddled hard through it...the ol' Buffalo canoe shot through the chute with no problems at all. I'm not going to lie, I was holding my breath the whole time. After that I was good to go...
We hadn't caught a fish on the fly yet at this point so we came to a nice stretch of river that would allow us to do some wade fishing, beached the canoe, and dug out the fly sticks. I tied on a brown/orange clouser and walked upstream to a small side-channel that cut behind the gravel island we'd beached the canoe on. This little channel wasn't much more than 6-8ft wide and just a few foot deep but Joey said the smallmouth will move up in there if there is cover and shade. At the mouth of the channel was a small rock ledge with a deep hole so I launched the clouser just above it and let the current carry it into the hole. After the clouser disappeared into the depths, I began stripping it back towards me which was followed by a hard strike! I set the hook and pulled a good smallmouth from the hole, my first on the fly rod!
We pulled several good smallies from that stretch of the river before shoving off to finish the last leg of our float. We finally started to see floaters coming down the river at this time and, as we approached the confluence with the Elk River, could hear all the yahoos screaming and yelling. It was at this point that we decided to pack it in and paddle our way through the masses to meet Joeys dad at the take out. As we paddled, we got to experience 3 of the biggest hatches you'll ever see on the Elk River...the rubber hatch (rubber rafts), the aluminum hatch (canoes), and the bikini hatch (the girls in the rafts and canoes). It was quite a circus on the river, people everywhere!! We pushed through the heavy hatches and made our way to the takeout to end the day...
I'm now hooked on float fishing for smallmouth. I hadn't had that much fun fishing in a very long time. Brought back so many fond memories of fishing with my family, especially my dad, who taught me how to fish. The smallmouth bass is an awesome game fish to say the least, whether caught on conventional or fly tackle. I can't wait to get back in a canoe and chase 'em!
I'm officially a river rat...
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