Halloween Smallmouth
October 29th to 31st 2021
Fall of 2021 was a very busy time and plans for a fall fishing trip to the Snake river in Idaho never came together. So with the days getting shorter, and colder, Chuck and I made our way to the Lower Colorado to do some smallmouth fishing. Chuck offered to pull the boat and I pulled the travel trailer and headed out Friday morning for a weekend at the river.
We were excited to have one last shot this year at smallmouth on the fly but did not know what to expect. We had never fished the river in the fall weren’t sure of conditions would be in our favor or whether the Smallmouth would be in the mood to play. We had been watching the water levels which tend to be much lower this time of year compared to the spring months. We had no idea what the water temp would be, how clear the water would be, or whether we would be able to get up river with the boat.
To our delight we were able to fish top water flies all weekend. This fish took a #4 yellow and orange Clouser EZ popper. Good color combo all year not just Halloween.
Skinny water and no fishing on Friday. We arrived at the river mid day on Friday after our long drive through the desert. After dropping the trailer on our camp site we rigged up our rods and headed to the river. The water was so low the dock was on dry ground and the end of the ramp was out of water. Without enough water to safely launch the G3 we went back to camp, cooked dinner, and hoped that the water level would rise overnight and allow us to launch in the morning.
Saturday morning was beautiful and the water was up enough to give us a shot. The USGS water gauge indicated the water was at the bottom of the navigable range for this stretch of river. With the low water we slowly made our way up river and stopped at a location that was normally to fast and deep to fish so we took advantage of the situation and gave it a go. We had several shots right away and ended that first run with a nice smallmouth just across the river from our put in spot. The first run took about an hour and things looked promising. The day just kept getting better and by the evening the water had risen to a comfortable level and allowed us to fish most of our typical water.
Top Water!!! Most of the trip we stuck to top water foam poppers. Chuck had spent a lot of time at the vice and it paid off as we rotated through a series of top water bugs in different sizes and colors as the action and water conditions dictated. When the top water slowed we would switch to subsurface with yellow Clouser being the fly of choice based on the reaction of the smallmouth.
The numbers and quality of fish was surprising, just what two Smallmouth junkies needed. Fall fishing on the LOCO will be on my calendar for 2022 you can count on that.