When Your Stuck to the Bank

       About the middle of October, our lives changed drastically when I was hit head on by a small compact car and it totaled out my Nissan Xterra which we had used for carrying our Kayaks to fish for the past four years.  As most of you know, it's not  only a lifestyle for us, it's in our blood now; we are addicted.  So without a truck, what is a fella to do?  Hit up some smaller rivers and travel the banks, rocks, and even wade the shallow waters for some surprisingly large bass in such small waters.

      We fish a small unnamed river that flows into a lake, that at places, is barely as wide as a two lane road.  It's about waist deep on average and there are a few holes and pockets inside the shoals we wade that are a little deeper.  But we find most of the year, the big spots, shoal bass, and occasional largemouth are in the shallowest, fastest water we can find inside those shoals.  

    The gear I recommend for small flows like this would be one versatile rod, that had a medium action with some give to the tip and at least a length of 6.5-7ft.  That sounds long for wade fishing, but when a 4lb spotted bass grabs your swim bait on the end of a 50 yard cast, you need a long rod to drive the hook home.  I use a Dobyns 765 CB GLASS for this type of fishing.  It lets me throw anything from jerk baits, which are my all time favorite shallow water lure, small swim baits, spinnerbaits, top waters and more.  

      Now as for lures, the one's mentioned above are my main aressenal and I almost never slow down to plastics because in small flows, there are just less baitfish for the bass and usually less pressure so that makes for some extra aggressive, big spotted bass and shoal bass.  I caught a shoal bass from the one lane wide, creek/river you see above that weighed 4lbs 1oz and was only 18.5" long.  She was fat and pregnant, and wanted my Suspending Rogue like it was crack for an addict.  

4lb 1oz Shoal Bass

    I usually use those oh so stylish, "fanny packs" that have double water bottles on them.  You can get them at Walmart for really cheap and it comes with the two 24oz water bottles that fit on your sides like two six shooters.  This works great for a drink in one and an extra spool of line in the other.  Then you can fit your assortment of jerk baits, spinnerbaits and occasional soft plastics (just in case ;) etc.  I find the suspending jerk bait to be the deadliest of all the tactics I have tried for these small water bass but have caught some pigs using my 5" Bullshad also.  Sometimes they just swipe at it though, because it's a little large to represent the forage in this river but at least that shows me where they are and I can come back and get them to eat that jerk bait when it suspends in their face.   

     So try some small water wading when you find yourself stuck without a vehicle, you might just be surprised at the size of bass that can live in 2-3ft of water annually.  These fish are trapped in this area and live here year round.  So they are accustomed to the fast water and feeding even in cooler temperatures.  Don't be afraid to give that small flow a shot that's down the road from your house.  You may just catch a few of these weirdo's, like this spot and shoal bass hybrid.