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Bill Marchel: Shallow water still can hold some big bass
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LITTLE FALLS -- On Saturday, shortly after sunrise, Ryan Hamre of Brainerd and I launched my duck boat on the Mississippi River. Due to a lack of rain the Mississippi is not too mighty, and we figured traversing the shallow, rock-strewn waters would best be performed in a small craft. Mounted on the stern of my duck boat is a six-horsepower Beavertail, a long-shafted outboard built for shallow-water navigation.
Ryan and I planned to catch a smallmouth bass or two -- and maybe a pike, walleye or muskie.
The first smallmouth hooked wasn't big, but did its best to affirm the species' long-held reputation as the fightingest of freshwater fish.
Ryan is a smallmouth bass fanatic, and he prefers to catch them on surface lures. But on Saturday the smallmouth refused to rise for any of the various topwater lures.
Throughout the morning, we spotted whitetails standing in the river eating wild celery. Some sauntered into the woods as we passed, others watched with their breakfasts -- long strings of celery -- dangling from their mouths.
As the morning progressed, it became obvious that the smallmouth were not in an aggressive feeding mood. But we did manage to catch a bass or two.
The hot lure was an olive colored tube jig hooked Texas style behind a pegged bullet sinker.
By mid-afternoon we had caught and released about 20 bass, including two more than four pounds, and several that were three pounds-plus.
Bill Marchel, a wildlife photographer and outdoors columnist, lives near Brainerd.
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