My love affair with smallies

Whenever a smallmouth bass smashes my lure, it renews an old belief that this game fish is a back-alley scrapper.

Here is a barroom brawler, and if this fish was human, you wouldn't want to meet it alone in a dark alley if it's in a bad mood.

I've seen my share of brutes on the beach, in bars, and swaggering down the street. They seem to exude a massive level of testosterone, and that's the feeling I get whenever I do battle with a smallmouth bass.

Smallies love to fight and never give up easily.

An angler enters the fishing arena with this game fish knowing one thing: the smallie will try to ring your bell.

They expect you to pack a lunch because they plan on giving you a hardnosed scrap that lets an angler know that here is a fish willing to mix it up, and if you're not careful, he'll eat your lunch as well.

A day on Green Lake several years  ago was a good example. A lure was fished along the edge of the steep dropoof where the Little Betsie River flows out of Duck Lake and into the north end of Green Lake. Bass and trout often gather off this dropoff in the spring.

This five-pound smallmouth bass had about as much class as a modern-day wrestlersor a serial killer. He swam into the picture, hammered the lure, and bolted into the air once he felt the hook. His tail kissed the water, and then it bounced into the air and tail-walked across the surface. Class, sheer class.

Rough and tumble fighting is their trademark.

He dove, swam under the boat, and jumped on the other side, and if fish had very many brains, he could have been accused of trying to foul my line in the motor. He was steered clear, and we drifted into deep water and still the fish raged on.

Steady rod pressure eventually took its toll, and the fish, sapped of strength, came reluctantly to the boat with blood-red eyes staring at me. My thumb went into his mouth, my fingers curled under his chin, and I lifted the fish into the air for a closer look while the lure was wiggled loose.

I admired the fish, and received a baleful stare in return, and  it was eased back into the water. This bass gave me a tail-salute, and splashed water in my face before boring toward bottom and away from the boat.

There are many things to like about smallmouth bass. I used to spend after-dark hours casting River Runts and other wiggling plugs near dropoffs, over submerged slabdocks, and smallies seemed to love feeding after the sun went down. It was great fun hooking them in the darkness, and not knowing exactly what you were hooked up with until it began crashing up and out of the water.

Michigan has a lengty season and many hotspots.

It didn't take long to realize that smallmouth bass feed avidly during the day. Find the right spot, and fish it properly with the right lure, and smallies seemed eager to please.

They are a noble fish, and willing to stand toe-to-toe with a daylight angler, and the joy of this is being able to see every jump they make in an effort to get away.

It's been my great good fortune to fish for and catch smallmouth bass all around the country. Some of the Shield lakes in Ontario, besides producing muskies, also produce some great smallies and most are of good size.

I've fished the upper Mississippi River 75 miles north of Minnesota's Twin Cities, and have found those river fish as eager to please as those found in lakes along the Gunflint Trail in northern Minnesota.

Many dandy smallmouth bass have been caught from Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair, and the Detroit River. Countless smallies have slammed my lures in the Grand River below Lansing, and in the Tittabawassee River below Midland. I've caught some in the Kalamazoo and  St. Joseph rivers, and  Grand Traverse Bay is always a good bet.

Lake Erie has a wonderful smallmouth fishery around the Bass Islands, and I've caught some great bass in the St. Lawrence River while muskie fishing. I've seen some smallies smack a 9-inch muskie lure. That is a fish with an appetite and an attitude to match.

Fish like that have juice flowing through their body that many other game fish seem to lack. It makes them fearless, and they are willing to take on all comers.

Tired of trolling for salmon, and long to fish with a rod and reel in your hands all the time, then grab one with six-pound line, and some jigs or diving lures, and give bronzebacks a try. You won't be disappointed.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors