smallies by bridges

[jim cosgrove]

[jim cosgrove]

just got word of a few more an hour south.in the middle of nowhere kind of area.be heading there early may.

[Slip Sinker]

here is a good time at the bridge just a short walk from my house...

[Slip Sinker]

i have the opportunity to fish (4) bridges systems between 2 reservoirs  ... that hold huge amounts of fish... they tend to be transient fish... working their way to the main lake or the river systems. here is a mapping system drawing ive done on one of the 4 bridges. fish hotspots... all of them. many times ill catch huge rock bass along with the smallmouth up against the bridge pillars during the summer periods and the rip rap along shore early and late in the seasons generally.

[John Sheehan]

This is great! ,yes Slip I've remarked on the Samllie/Rock Bass similar habitat /food source in another post . Hope to fish some new bridges this year .

[jim cosgrove]

i first caught smallies fishing creeks for rockbass.they seem to go together like bluegills and largemouths.after the zebra mussels and gobies invaded lake michigan we started catching rock basswhile perch fishing.there had always been a few smallmouths caught here and there but the clearing of the water and the new food source really made both populations explode

[John Sheehan]

good analogy to  BGand LM .Those smallies and Rock Bass have those Red eyes .They're related somehow.

[Slip Sinker]

20150821-so after the landing of that significant Rock Bass i continued looking for a B'Gill bite. The B'Gill were absent from the shallow flats. Obviously the schools moved out deeper and so i follow. I switch up to small panfish jigs in the deeper water to quickly cover the area. I find one dink B’Gill and a few Medium Crappie in about 10’FOW. Then I was justly rewarded with a couple chunk SMB with scorching runs, acrobatics and anchor rope twists. I love, love, and love fighting these fish. Under the bridge … oh yeah

 

[Slip Sinker]

...the bridge

[Slip Sinker]

20151101- it’s been almost a week since I made a cast… doing a little bit of resting and recuperating the neck shoulder and arm… some days to painful to go fishing… then overdid it with some walking with the legs and lower back…  so today I felt some improvement and decided to do a little shore fishing casting UL jigs on tiny dia line. This rod and reel is feather light can barely tell your holding it in your hand. It’s a  Eagle Claw Skins rod 5-6’  with a Shimano 50 series reel mounted storing thin 4# Nanofil… casts tiny jigs a country mile and the sensitivity is off the charts. This little setup landed my 5# SMB filling the Master Angler.

Today I put it through a work out again. As I walked to one of my shoreline spots I noticed a bass boat thoroughly working the area. I waited for him to slowly and methodically work over the area and slowly moved past. Striking up a conversation I asked how the fishing was and he replied hes gotten a few SMB’s but the fishing was slow… he was using a craw colored marabou jigs tipped with minnows… he also stated the water temps were in the mid 40’s. 10 degree difference in  a weeks time. I waited till he was out of casting distance and started working over the structure. I immediately hooked up with a heavy fish and nearly brought a huge walleye to net. One head shake and I was down a jig. The fish would have measured close to thirty.

A few short casts later I hooked up with a chunky SMB that just shook loose after a beefy battle. The next few hits came quickly in succession landing a 15” class that I thought was a rock bass at first. Had the heart pounding for a bit. Felt good to bring the next one also to net at 18.5”. All that activity after another angler just covered that spot?

[Slip Sinker]

During most of the season… I can come to this isolated spot and tag some nice fish including Small Mouth Bass. After a handful of casts around the perimeter of the bridge and rubble along the bank I tag a nice one under the bridge with a 1.5” swim bait mounted on a 1/32 oz jig.

 

[John Sheehan]

Great Smallies Slip!