Smallmouth rampage !
A friend and I spent 2 1/2 hours this morning, wading the Escanaba River, and I have rarely seen action as fast paced as we experienced. We took a long hike down the riverbank to get into spots where little fishing pressure exists and found a hotspot. Being observant helped us find fish. Most of the river was less than knee deep, but in one place a whitetail doe and fawn waded across the waterway. As we watched, the doe entered belly deep water and the fawn had to swim, so we could see that a deeper hole was found there. That is where we fished. I've had many, many great days on the river, but today was in a class by itself.
We honestly lost count of how many bass we landed and released, but I am dead certain it was over fifty and maybe as high as seventy-five. We both had runs of twenty bass in twenty casts. The river is low and deeper holes load up with fish. The size of the bass ranged from 10 to 16 inches, with many being 11 to 13 inches. Lots of jumpers, and many bulldogs in the river current. I cannot recall ever having faster action, but I have landed larger bass many times.
The fish were not too choosy about lures. The Lewis Floating Rat-L-Trap worked very well since it gave us better casting range and it triggered fish easily. That extra casting distance really helped us land more bass. Important to use the floating style Rat-L-Trap, not the sinker. The river is too shallow for a sinker - even in the deeper spots, since the fish were in 2 to 3 feet of water. The shallowest spots we caught bass were only one foot deep.
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