Bill Marchel: Best truly saved for last in quest to nail bass

Brainerd -- On Monday afternoon on the Mississippi River, Greg Kretzman of Brainerd and I threw one-two punches to smallmouth bass: Greg hit 'em high with a surface popper, and I hit 'em low with a tube jig.

There was a slight breeze from the south, the sky cloudless, and the river low and clear. A hint of autumn color amid the predominately green shoreline vegetation was testament more to the summer drought than to the shortening daylight.

As the afternoon waned we caught the occasional bass, mostly small fish less than 2 pounds. Oftentimes it's the lesser fish that are the most acrobatic and, much to our delight, some cleared the water by 2 feet or more during their head-shaking attempts to throw hooks.

The tube jig was out-catching the topwater popper roughly two to one, but Greg remained steadfast, casting the surface lure with confidence.

"Maybe the topwater bite will pick up toward dark," I said.

As we drifted downstream, I occasionally used a push-pole to guide us around boulders. Some rocks were perceptible only by the braking current while others protruded from the swift water, thus providing dry loafing spots for turtles, and hunting perches for hungry spotted sandpipers.

The Mississippi attracted non-human anglers, too. Great blue herons stood in the shallows, poised, ready to strike, and we saw the occasional bald eagle. One carried in its talons some unfortunate fish. And kingfishers announced to the world their presence with their rattling calls.

At sunset, I aimed the boat upstream and buried the throttle. After a 10 minute boat ride, and with the western sky aglow yellow and faint orange, we had to try just one last spot.

On Greg's first cast a big smallmouth blasted his popper, and a battle ensued. The bass ran upstream and down, Greg's rod bent in an acute arc, his drag singing. Ultimately Greg boated and released the bass. It weighed nearly 4 pounds.

I tried to both fish and run the boat in the fast current, but gave up when my line became wrapped in the propeller. I learned the hard way that a six-horse outboard can take out line faster and make a drag sing louder than a big smallmouth.

During the next 15 minutes, Greg caught a half-dozen or so bass, including two others pushing 4 pounds, all on topwater. Then, as dusk faded to twilight, and cool, calm air settled over the Mississippi we motored toward the landing.

Indeed, the topwater bite had picked up toward dark.