Best time of year for bass fishing

Level of success depended on the type of bait used.

DETROIT FREE PRESS

GRAND LEDGE, Mich. — You may have to wait a few days for the water levels to fall and clear after the recent rains, but this is one of the best times of the year to hop in a kayak or canoe and fish a river for bass.

Three of us dropped our kayaks into the Grand River a couple of days before the last heavy rainstorm and headed downstream to where we had deadheaded a car at the Portage State Game Area.

We hadn’t gone 100 yards before two of us hooked up with chunky smallmouths, one on a muddler minnow streamer fly and the other on a plastic creature bait, a 3-inch Berkley Powerbait Sabertail.

That section of the Grand is noted for hard-fighting smallmouths that are mostly 10-14 inches long, but every now and then you’ll get a surprise when a 16-inch fish grabs the lure and bends a light spinning or fly rod double.

The water was relatively low and we found most of the smallies over gravel bars in 1-2 feet of water or hanging out in the fast water below points and other structure.

We fished streamers, plastics and shallow-running crankbaits, and all achieved about the same success with the smallmouths. The difference was that the plastics drew a greater number of hits from largemouths that we found around downed trees and other structure (wherever the current had gouged out a hole), and in some slow backwaters where the channel split.

Got the job done

Successful flies, all tied on a No. 6 streamer hook, included the muddler with a yellow marabou wing, a traditional feather-winged gray ghost, a black woolly bugger with a marabou tail and a white Lefty’s deceiver designed originally for saltwater species.

They were fished on a 5-weight fly rod with a 6-pound fluorocarbon tippet at the end of a 9-foot leader, a combination that allows anglers to cast a fairly large fly (albeit not very far) yet not overmatch the fish.

The most successful crankbaits were an original Rapala minnow and a Lucky Craft shad imitation, while just about every kind of plastic from olive tubes to purple worms also drew strikes. Those lures were fished on spinning tackle with 6-pound line and fluorocarbon leaders.

The best technique in most places was to cast across and slightly downstream and let the current sweep the lure down and across. About 90 percent of the smallmouth strikes came as the lure neared the bottom of the arc.

We missed quite a few fish, often because we’d raise the rod tips to start a retrieve just as the fish decided to bite. Our hookup rate improved when we let the flies, crankbaits or creature baits swing all the way down before starting the retrieve. In several places, we found gravel shoals that were too big to work properly from the kayaks. When that happened, we pulled the boats up in the shallows and got out to wade and cast.

Most of the largemouths were taken by tossing a weedless plastic bait into slower water and working it back across the bottom. The only largemouths that took the fly came out of unexpected places in the main current.

Smallmouths in strong current are among the hardest fighting fish in fresh water. They use their slab-sided bodies to take advantage of the flowing water and fight right up to the boat.

But while the smallies were the toughest fighters for their weight, the longest battles came from a half-dozen channel catfish from 3-6 pounds that took both flies and lures.

Most of the cats seemed to be holding in the deeper pools below the shallows, and unlike the jarring strikes from the smallmouths, the first indication we’d get that a catfish was on was a long, slow pull as we raised the rod after letting the lures sweep into the deeper water.

From now until the onset of cold weather is a great time to float a river for bass. The rivers usually are deserted on weekdays, because schools are back in session and many other outdoors people will turn their attention to hunting or salmon fishing.

If you can find time to sneak away, you’ll have it all to yourself.