05-20-2009, 03:19 PM
So I decided to try pouring my own soft plastics, and made up a few batches of lures over the weekend. I really wanted to give them a try, and all those Snake River smallmouth reports really got me wanting to catch some smallies. Well, there was no way I was going to make it up to The Snake, but I wanted to see if they really were in a bit smaller river closer to home. Well, I remembered a nice deep slow run that had looked bassy to me before, so I figured I'd give it a try. The first deep hole on the run brought hits on every cast, but I missed or lost the first few. The little buggers ripped the claws off my crayfish imitation, but I tossed it out one more time, and I finally got one. I put a fresh bait on and began working my way up throught the deeper holes. I landed ten in the first hour. 8 took my new crayfish, and 2 took a Big Hammer swim bait. I was pretty happy with how healthy they look. Very chunky. After that, the water got more shallow, and the fish weren't around. About this time I a terrible odor wafter over and I realized there was a putrifying deer carcass in the water about ten feet from me. I'd been up wind and concentrating on fishing, so I hadn't noticed it. Well, I was out of there to find another good run. Didn't find it. The next place brought three little dinks on Gulp Minnows, and then I had to leave for work. All in all a pretty fun couple of hours, I ended up with 13 smallmouth, and some pretty decent ones. I can't wait to get back up and explore some more for them.
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