bronzeback6
Site Admin
Joined: 22 Jan 2007
Posts: 563
Location: Bridgman, MI
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 Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:08 pm Post subject: St. Joe River (10-23-07) |
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Water temp 58 and the wind was out of the north. I caught a few fish on tubes and the rest with a small crayfish bait I make.
What an afternoon on the Benton Harbor stretch of the Joe!!! A cold front pushed through the area last night and caused the big smallies to migrate back into the river. The smallies were inhaling my small craw. I was heading out to pick up Ron Nelson off of the pier heads but I decided to make a couple casts in the river on my way. I made a cast in 13 ft of water by a log and set the hook on a 4 pound 8 ounce smallie. On my second cast I hooked a chunky 3 pounder. The spot was loaded with bass but I had to get Ron a fish the lake for monster smallies.
I picked up Ron and we motored out into 3 ft waves with occasional 5-6 ft swells. We were drifting tubes around a rock pile without much success. We only managed one bite while we were on the lake but it was a 4 pound 12 ounce fish.
We decided to go back into the river where we caught a bunch of 2 1/2 pound smallies and one more pretty close to 4 pounds. We caught them along the sea wall coming in from the lake with tube jigs. I decided to drop Ron off so he could walk back to his truck before we got to far away from the pier. He wanted to walk the pier and try to catch a couple there.
After I dropped Ron off I motored to a spot that can light up if the conditions are right. I had a pretty good hunch because there was a school of big smallies feeding up. I instantly had on and lost a giant 5 + half way to the boat. My next cast produced a tiger striped 4 pound 2 ounce toad. A few minutes later I caught another giant that weighed 4 pounds 4 ounces. I caught three big smallies and lost a toad in 20 minutes. After it got dark outside the bass stopped biting and I headed home. My best five bass weighed 21 pounds 8 ounces on my X-Tool that usually weighs 8 ounces light. Not a bad way to spend 2 1/2 hours after school. |
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