I’ve always had two excuses not to fish the Root River. First of all was my fear of failure. To drive an hour to go wading and not catch fish would be very frustrating. The second was my fear of crowds. Again I was thinking of that hour drive to find that I’m standing in amongst a crowd. Of course the worst scenario would be to be the only one standing in the crowd not catching fish! That would be the ultimate humiliation.
Today I decided to head on down to the Root River and take a chance on the crowds. I didn’t even get down to the river until nearly one in the afternoon. I almost expected to run into a fisherman’s glee club singing the seventeenth verse of “You should have been here this morning”. Much to my surprise, mine was the only car in the area. So much for a crowd.
Within my first 5 minutes of hitting the water I caught my first smallie of the day. I wasn’t skunked. Already a perfect day! As I continued wading up stream the only evidence of another person in the area were tracks in the sand made earlier in the day or even earlier in the week.
The first time I fished this particular area I was with two friends and caught a few smallies. This time I was alone but managed to catch nearly 30 smallies. Nothing huge and I was counting everything from 4 inches on up. My largest bass were around 13 or 14 inches.
I tried a number of lures today, but the bulk of the fish were caught on Pee Wee lures and paddle tail plastics all available at HOF. I actually could have caught more bass, but when I switched to a larger tube bait and jig, the little base that attacked the tube couldn’t get the larger hook into their mouth. (Note to self: smaller tubes and jigs needed).
All in all it was a wonderful day to be in the water and catchin’ fish. (Second note to self: I think my waders have a leak). Now I can look forward to a fishing adventure with friends on Mazaska in a couple of weeks. = )
These are a ”must have” bait. The Superdoos work great too casting and retreiving.