Um, yeah. Chasing smallmouth bass again.

So, here I am.  Sitting in the man cave, enjoying pizza for breakfast and a hot coffee as I reflect on my first true outing of the year for smallmouth bass.  Earlier in the year, I hit some streams knowing January and February weren't the best opportunities for smallmouth bass.  I did land a number of spotted bass and rock bass.  Oh, wait - I did catch a smallmouth in January on a small stream.  It was a horrible outing.  Freezing temps and raging water.  

I went out for crappie last month but upon my first cast, I found a knot on the fly line.  I proceeded to tear up the line as I tried to undo the tight knot that mysteriously appeared from nowhere.  I cut off 9 inches of fly line.  

Guess I'm just blabbing at this point.  Yesterday, I hit new water that I scoped out in January.  It's your typical smallmouth stream with good numbers but not a lot of fat pigs.  It is an absolutely beautiful stream.  I would say it's a mid-size stream.  Just above a small stream or creek.  Along with fallen timber, you will find it to be flowing clear and rocky with gravel and a good current with riffles and pools.  It's not very dirty.  Not much sediment at all.  The fish are still holding in deeper pools. The panfish aren't moving about yet either but are hitting hard near timber in deep water.  Soft strikes and tugs with some sucking and spitting are expects from smallmouth bass.  I lost 2 on the jump.  As overnight temperatures plunge and mysterious frosts appear and kill our garden plants, water temps aren't holding well.  They dipped to around 55-60 degrees.  Even the white bass run south of us isn't holding steady.  May and June will of course prove to be successful outings for smallmouth bass and fat panfish.

And of course, I stuck with my Shucker pattern and it proved to be a successful pattern yet again.  The stream was so beautiful that I probably would've been fine with being skunked.