By Ken Maurer
For The Daily Item
SUNBURY —
The river finally got a break this past week.
Some good rain here and north of us, along with some cooler nights and overcast days early in the week, produced slightly higher water levels and a welcome drop in water temperature. I made it out on the river for a short evening trip with a buddy early in the week. The river was just starting to rise as we did a float through some flat water.
This little jaunt was essentially a shakedown cruise to make sure Chris’ boat was Canada-ready, as we had done a little tinkering. Of course, it turned into some fairly serious fishing, since the boat was OK and we don’t get out fishing together very much in our old age.
Chris has the annoying habit of catching the biggest fish on the rare times we get together, and he got that out of the way right off the bat with a nice 18 1/2-incher. I was slinging a musky lure around, and after he caught another nice bass on a topwater, I figured it was time to try to catch a bass.
When we finally got to some nice rock ledges, the fun started.
I had only brought one spinnerbait along and I picked up that rod and started slinging the spinnerbait. On the first cast, the spinnerbait hit the water, one crank and boom! A nice 17-incher smacked it.
The sun was almost down and the smallies were stacked up on the ledges. They were smacking the spinnerbaits like there was no tomorrow. I’m not sure how many we caught, I’m guessing somewhere between 12 and 15, but they were all nice fish in the 15- to 17-inch class, along with a couple of smaller ones. They were still hitting when we left at dark to try to pick our way back through the shallow water with the spotlight. It was some of the best fishing I’ve had since spring. Most of the fish we caught were as fat as a football.
They have lots of food to eat out there, and I think that is one of the reasons they are tough to catch during the heat of the summer. With the water cooling off and coming up a little, they really get the feedbag on. I think we got a taste of what is to come in September and October. We’ve had tough summers like this before, and it is usually followed by some tremendous fall fishing.
A lot of us are wondering how the fall walleye fishing is going to be. Walleyes often seem to “come out of the woodwork” in the fall. This past week, I heard of a couple of guys catching some.
I caught one on a spinnerbait in the middle of the bass fracas we had. Walleyes have no problem hitting spinnerbaits, though spinnerbaits are not considered “walleye” lures. Whenever there is a rise in the river, you can usually count on catching a couple of walleyes, usually nice ones, on spinnerbaits.
It’s still a little early for serious walleye fishing. From mid-September on, walleye anglers start to get serious. What usually starts it is a good rise in water level. If we don’t get that, the lowering of the Bower Dam bags is usually enough to kick-start the walleye fishing.
Fall is near. Archery season and walleye time, break out the flannel shirts and the gore-tex. ‘Nuff of this heat already.
n E-mail comments to kenrose@tds.net.
