I've been catching fish the easy way again. Who needs a rod and reel when six amps and a dipnet will do? (Disclaimer- I'm a trained professional. Do not try this at home!)
This beautiful smallmouth bass came from somewhere on the St. Croix River. It was probably the first 20 inch smallmouth I had ever seen, weighing in at 4.5 pounds. For some reason it does not look that big in the photo, probably because my coworker, who is holding it, has enormous hands. And by the way, that's not an anomalous adipose fin in front of the normal spiny dorsal fin; it's part of a life jacket or something on shore.
Greg Brown has a great quote about flyfishing for smallmouth bass and trout in the song (actually a really cool Beat-esque spoken poem with musical accompaniment) "Eugene" off his new album, The Evening Call. "Smallmouth bass aren't all finicky like trout. Trout are British; smallmouth bass are Polish."
I gotta get a fly rod and head on down to the river.
6 comments:
Oh, those St. Croix smallies!
Nice fish!
We spent some time pursuing the smallmouth on the stretch downstream of Granstburg a month or so ago. Tried both fly rod and spinning. Water was low and the sun was high, so we didn't have a lot of luck. Gabe ended up with maybe an 18" fish on the spinning gear.
Two weekends ago Katie and I did the river again and she snapped off a smallie easily 20". Damn that hurt.
Great fishing, though I still have a lot to figure out about it....
Every year, my husband and a few friend from high school do a canoe trip. (Actually, it's a bit more of a floating trip - not a lot of paddling happens if they can help it. Various refreshments are served which prohibit too much ambition.) This year, they did the St. Croix for the first time - starting near where it enters Minnesota and going down about 20 miles. They caught fish, but nothing like a 20" smallie!
Smallies got to be the funnest fish I have ever caught. Trying to get one on a fly rod is a very enticing thought. Thanks for sharing the photo.
Beautiful. If you do go fly fishing, we demand pictures!
dharma bum- I didn't want to advertise on the main post, but this one was near the old railroad bridge access east of Rush City. Water was kind of low, most of the river there is about a foot deep, but we just knew there would be one or two hanging around under a log near the old bridge pilings. We saw one escape the electric field that was about the same size.
And, you have to check out that Greg Brown song. I just know you'd like it.
Tracy- Even if they didn't catch any big smallies, they paddled (or floated in a stupor ;) ) through some beautiful country.
Terry- My first introduction to smallies was in Quetico, the first canoe trip I took with my now-husband. They are not native there, but they did provide some fun action on an orange Rapala, and a meal or two.
FC- Will do, but must procure the fly rod and some time to use it first!
"And by the way, that's not an anomalous adipose fin in front of the normal spiny dorsal fin"
No way! I sure had it pegged as an anomalous adipose fin in front of the normal spiny dorsal fin.
I'm being facetious, of course. On the other hand, the Anomalous Adiposes might be a good name for a bluegrass band...
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