She's Heatin' Up....
Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 12:04PM 
Well, it's official. My favorite stretch of Mississippi River is starting to heat up. How do I know? Simple. The smallmouth bass are starting to really bite. Wednesday, I had a chance to row a few hours for a fellow flycaster and first-timer on the Monticello stretch of river. Walt Larsen showed up right on time, 7 wt. rod in hand, and took the bow seat. Mitch Petrie, who, of course, is our company president, tucked away in the stern seat with a couple of spinning rods and we oared away from shore and I pointed the old Clackacraft downstream. I had noticed a few risers at the boat launch, but the fishing was slow the first hour. Walt through a beautiful cast into good transition water and *Bang*, first fish on. He wrestled a feistly two-pound 
Walt, the "Catfish King"channel cat to the net. Certainly fun to catch on the fly rod. The fly? A tequilliey, which is one of our "go to" subsurface flies. For the next half hour, Mitch 
Tequilley (No one actually knows how to spell this fly's name)and I thought Walt was to become the "Catfish King" of Monticello. Geez.... No more bites. Then, about 4 pm, the fish turned on. Walt poked several nice smallies on block head poppers, which may now have a new nickname. Walt labeled the little guys "Sponge Bobs". Might just stick. Mitch caught a few nice fish too. In fact, I noticed something unusual in the mouth of one of Mitch's second fish when I netted it. A few moments later, Mitch popped out the hook 
See the mouse? and exclaimed, "What the heck is that?" Sure enough, the bass had plucked a field mouse or mole off the bank, I'm guessing within 12 or so hours of our catchin' him. There's something to be learned from that fish. It's proof that bass like to attack big, big targets, especially in low light conditions when they're feeding patterns are at their peak. Exactly why I normally like to be on the river at sunrise or just after sunset; A time when critters like mice and squirrels find themselves in water and open for attack. In all, a great day to be on the river! We 
broke one rod, landed more than a dozen quality fish and beat the impending dark skies and rain by a good 20 minutes. As always, Thanks to Paul Hansen of Sporting Life Travel, who supplies the Clackacraft Drift Boat. Be sure to check out his website at: www.sportinglifetravel.com. By the way, rumor has it Paul will be offering a new Mississippi River smallmouth adventure trip any day now... Stay tuned for more details....
Mitch with another beauty
Reader Comments (4)
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