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I e-mailed George on Thursday to see if he wanted to go out on my jon (I was planning to go Sunday). He said he could do today (Saturday) and we decided to go out of White's Ferry. I picked him up at 5:30am and we were on the water by 6:15am. The Ferry operator was drunk as a skunk. He held up his mug with a grin on his face and said "guess what this is?" I looked at the mug and it was shaped like a bunny face, so I said "bunny rabbit" and George said "kitty cat" and the guy laughed and said "F--- You!" and we all laughed. He never did answer and after taking our money, walked away mumbling again.
The weather was nice, mostly cloudy and the water was up a bit (down from a big bump during the week) and stained. We tried one spot and after a few minutes, decided to run up river. We went up a couple miles maybe, where the water was faster and clearer. George decided to start with one of his homemade spinnerbaits. He got the skunk off first with a feisty little guy.
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I decided to use the one chatterbait I had after that and a little while later, I caught this nice 17 3/4" smallie.
The water was moving pretty fast and we were getting toward the end where it slowed down. That fish tore my trailer up, so I put a swim bait on the chatterbait. George caught a couple fish an lost a couple. Then I hooked another good fish. It jumped and I could see it was bigger. I got it close to the boat and it jumped again. It looked to be close to 20". I asked George to get the net and I played the fish closer. Finally, I brought the fish toward the net and right at the net, it jumped. George caught the fish in the air and the chatterbait came flying out of it's mouth right before he caught it. Unbelievable save! We were both stoked and I measured the fish at 19 1/4".
The weather was changing between cloudy to sunny and the wind was picking up with a front from the NW. The slower section was more muddy that the faster section. We saw an Osprey, Bald Eagles and some Deer. We decided to float the faster section a few times and when the sun came our we switched to swim baits mostly. I caught a 15 1/2" smallie.
George was catching fish more regular than me, but it took a while for him to get a bigger fish. He finally caught this nice 16+"
And then a very strong 17 1/4" that was fat!
We both lost several fish throughout the day. After floating that section a few times, we stopped on a shoal for lunch. Then back up a couple times. George caught the most on his SWM jig with a green pumpkin swim bait. He also caught a few on his spinnerbaits (he lost 2). I caught fish on the chatterbait, SWM jig with various swim baits or craw baits, Bandit crankbait, Rebel Humpy crank and Rebel Wee Craw. I caught one Sunfish and George caught one small largemouth. We finally floated the rest of the way back. This was the standard for the day.
We got off the river about 5:00pm and the same Ferry operator was at work (much more sober). Great day on the water with Hookup!
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Excellent work......the wind was churning up here in Ashburn for sure.
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I was concerned about the wind, because I thought it would blow downriver. We were lucky though, because it mostly blew upriver, which slowed our drift. No real effect on the fishing. Floating grass was a bigger issue.
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Water looks good...may try that area on Thursday or Friday.
Wonder what would be more cost effective, run the jet up there from Algonkian or drive and pay the drunk for crossing and launching?
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$11 round trip
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drxfish wrote:
$11 round trip
Ramp fee included?
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Yes. $8 round trip plus $3 on the way back for the trailer is what we paid.
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Great report and pics, those are some nice smallies. I haven't done any river smallie fishing this year, think I might have to fix that this weekend.
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Nice job!!
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We worked for these fish. Spent 9 hours on the river trying to develop a pattern, did, then worked that pattern hard. Fish were concentrated and predictable after 3-4 hours of working the river.
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