Small Mouth BIG Fight!

So we had an unexpected window to show up to a house warming party for my sister-in-law last Sunday afternoon.  Sarah and I left Massachusetts right after church and made it to the party in Connecticut before it started to wind down.  We spent the rest of Sunday relaxing by and in the pool.

First hook up!

Once I woke up on Monday and had a good breakfast, I wanted to fish!  I hit up Housatonic River Outfitters and asked them about the small mouth bit.  The younger guy behind the counter was excited about small mouth bass, he pointed out a couple flies that he said would work.

Best looking bass award goes to the Small Mouth

I hit the river with a popper.  After trying a couple different retrieve methods and failing I made an angled cast up stream and there was an explosion under my popper.  I was so shocked by the violence of this strike that I missed the hook set by a mile.  With this I went back to trying different methods again and still could not find that right retrieve, but got another strike.  I missed again but this time I felt much better about my odds.

This one might have been the biggest.  About 17 inches

Then like magic I had another strike just as popper hit the water  and I did not miss this time.  I set the hook and after one jump the bass started to drive to the bottom.  It swam up stream and took all the slack line from my hand.  Then once it was on the reel and I started to put pressure on it the bass when it turned tail and went down stream.  The fight slowed and the fish tired and I brought a nice small mouth bass to hand.  It was about 15 inches and had great color.

They all loved the green frog popper.

The small mouth bass is hands down my favorite bass to catch .  Their colors and fight make them a great sport fish.  The fish I was catching in this section of the Housatonic also had the added bounce of an amazing attack.  Every fish I caught attacked my popper with reckless abandon and when the hits came they were fast and explosive.  After a couple hours I found that the bass were looking for a little twitch.  If there was no take right as the popper landed I could intice a hit by just give it little movements over large rocks and structure.

All were great fighters!

I had a blast for a couple hours and returned in the evening to try to land just a couple more fish.  The total for the day was about eight or nine fish and I missed five or six which I felt was a good day of fishing.  The thrill you get from these fish is completely different then what you get from trout or other bass.  It is addicting and I have been dreaming of small mouth bass since we got home.  I hope I can get back to Connecticut at least once more before the summer is over.



-Bruce