North Branch 11/24/11 - Happy Bassgiving!

[Lard Almighty]

I showed up early at the Folks' house to get some fishing in with Dad before we all ate ourselves sick. We roll into Natirar at about 10:00 to see the river high and muddy. Visibility was about 1 foot. We start pounding the fast water with spinners and jigs, not a scratch. I was afraid we were in for a disappointing day.

We get to a deep hole near the bottom of the park and I switch to a big, noisy jerkbait. On my second cast I nail a 12" smallmouth almost at my feet. I was thinking that may be the one fish we get all day. Several minutes later I switch to a gold spinner, and again get grabbed by a smallie near the shore. By now the wheels are turning, and I figure I may have stumbled on a pattern. I start slow-rolling the spinner along the shore, and sure enough I bring a third smallie in.

I told Dad what the pattern was, and he starts throwing the spinner along the shore. Almost immediately he hooks up with his first smallie of the day. Over the next hour we pick away at the bass along the bank, catching a few, moving up the bank, catching a few more, moving back down, repeat. By noon we were out of there, with about 15 smallmouths between the two of us. Biggest was about a pound, all the fish were pale from the muddy water, but chunky. Hits were pretty lazy, and they wanted that lure S-L-O-O-O-O-W.

To me, this kind of day is the most gratifying you can have as a fisherman. When faced with tough conditions (and there aren't many tougher than cold, muddy water), to be able to find the one pattern that produces and catch a whole mess of fish doing what you discover is a tremendous accomplishment. It adds to the illusion that I've got this fishing thing all figured out.

A fun day fishing with Dad. In the end, what's better than that?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

[Skunk City]

Very nice to hear the smallies are hitting like that this late. Gonna have to hit my Passaic River smallie spot this week too.

[AndyS]

Some great late November fishin' !

[SplitShot]

Catchin' fish like that at Thanksgiving time is definitely a bonus to the season... Nice going!!