Bassin'

[lowbidder]

Did 2 straight days of Bassin' over the weekend with 2 guys who love to come up here and catch high numbers of smalies. This past weekend was no exception as we hammered them pretty well. Back on the muskies this upcoming weekend.

I helped stock the Yough last Thursday. I got out on the water 2 hours before the truck arrived and went to the best spot that I planned on placing fingerlings. I caught 12 smallies and 1 largemouth and put them in my livewell (no lectures please). I took them 3 miles downstream and released them in a good smallie hole. I'm sure others moved in quickly, but I had 2 hours to burn so I figured WTH.

Out of the 12 smallies, only 1 was caught in shallow, slack water. The other 11 were all caught in deeper current 4-8' deep. That's a definite shift from 3 weeks ago when I was catching them all in shallow current. In that time the avg. water temps only dropped a few degrees, so photoperiod must also be another factor in their movements.

After stocking I got 2 hours of Esox fishing in before the storms rolled through. Lost a decent tiger at the boat and landed a nice pike. They were definitely getting in the mood before the cold front comes through tomorrow. Hopefully that doesn't shut them down for long.