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Smallies offer big moments
They might have small mouths, but everything else about my favorite bass is big.
Last weekend’s spectacular Indian summer weather lured me to my favorite October fishing hole, Shenango Reservoir. Fall fishing is fantastic there. Some anglers tow up to Lake Erie for steelhead, to Mosquito for largemouths or to Berlin for walleyes, but I drag the BassCat to Shenango, just north of Hermitage, Pa.
Smallmouth bass are one huge reason I extend my fishing season. There will be plenty of time to watch football and do other autumn stuff once the weather turns, so when the leaves are turning and the sun is shining, I’m fishing.
Sunday was a perfect example of why it is worth investing time on the best smallmouth fishing of the year.
The first fish of the morning struck on my fifth cast. As I pulled a crankbait down the edge of a concrete boat ramp, it stopped firmly. But it wasn’t like the rock-solid stop of a snagged lure. It instead was as though I’d plowed into a big block of gelatin that wiggled on impact.
The “block” surged and it became obvious I’d hooked a big fish. My brain started counting through the options: bass, catfish, walleye, hybrid striper?
All four species flashed as possibilities in the moment of doubt immediately after the hookset. Two seconds later, all doubts were erased as the fish leaped clear of the surface and the morning sun illuminated the bronze flanks of a 4-pound smallie.
Little compares to the sensations created by a big smallmouth. Everything from their appetite to their strength is big. That is why I fish for them in October.
After a stubborn fight, the fish tired and I bent to grasp its lower jaw. It was a heavy fish and it was plenty obvious I’d offered it something it clearly wanted to eat. All six points of the twin trebles were inside the smallie’s mouth.
Ten minutes later a couple hundred yards from the first encounter, another smallie decided to eat. The water was only 2 feet deep, so I was walking a topwater bait over the crest when the fish bit.
The “take” was very light, almost a sip, as the fish committed to the lure. My first impression was it was a little smallmouth bass, the kind my friend Steve and I refer to as water wolves. They are fierce predators, considering their pint-sized bodies.
But the pint soon proved to be several gallons. The fish pulled hard and leaped high, bulldogging all the way to the boat, where it lunged for the security of the deeper water under my feet. Throughout the tussle, I saw the topwater plug sideways in the smallie’s mouth, another sign the strike was out of hunger and not just curiosity.
That’s the beauty of fall fishing. Whether you are angling for bass or walleyes or crappies, you are almost certain to be targeting hungry fish.
Fall’s shorter days and cooling waters trigger a reaction in all game fish in our part of the world. Environmental factors flip fishes’ switches to all-out feeding mode.
Some call it a feeding frenzy. Fish eat more hours each day as fall advances and they aren’t particularly fussy. They’ll gobble whatever is available.
Smallmouth bass are huge on my fall fishing list. Their fight is bigger than their bodies and year after year, they punctuate the pending end of the season with giant exclamation marks. They always provide big moments that hold me over until next spring.