Kentucky Smallmouth Thief
Beep-beep-beep-beep. Yep, that’s the alarm and yep, it’s 4:30 a.m. With the summer temperature being just under 100 degrees, it was necessary to get up that early to beat the afternoon heat. Dan Jenkins, a buddy of mine, was completely down to join me and didn’t require much begging. I had told him about the spot I go to on the Elkhorn Creek in Frankfort, KY, to catch smallmouth bass. We waded into the creek just after first light and it was already pretty warm outside, but the coolness of the creek was key. Before climbing down into the creek, I rigged up my fly rod with a dark dry fly, cicada pattern. The water was really muddy following some pretty big rain a few days before and I need it would be tough with a dry fly.
After a little while fishing the downstream section of where we got in, I decided it just wasn’t right for the fly that day. We hopped out and I changed my rod and reel to my spinning gear. We went upstream to the section of the river where I usually catch the most fish. I tied on a green pumpkin creature bait and fished it in all different directions around structure. After not getting any bites on that, I decided to go to a crawfish crank-bait. Bingo. After a few casts, I finally had a really good size smallmouth on the line. The fish jumped up out of the water and darted downstream. I was able to get him turned around with my 4 lb. test line and bring him back to me. When he was close enough, I raised the rod tip, like an idiot, to grab him. This was, by far, the biggest smallmouth I have caught in the Elkhorn, over 16 inches and fat. Well, with the light line and my mistake of raising up on it, the fish shook the small hook and got off. After getting over the disappointment, I rummaged through my tackle bag and tied on another crawfish imitation crank-bait. After a couple casts in the same spot, I hooked another smallmouth. This fish immediately jumped and when it did, the line snapped. I am not sure when I am going to learn my lesson on using line that’s too light.
Following the loss of that lure, I tied on a Rooster Tail spinner bait that had a gold body with a black blade. I was able to land 6 decent size smallmouths that were facing upstream hanging out in front of weed beds. Dan wasn’t having much luck. He didn’t have anything similar to what I was using. I let him move into the spots where I was catching fish and it just wasn’t working for him.
Maybe twenty minutes after I lost the crank-bait, a smallmouth rose and jumped out of the water and there was a noise that sounded like someone shaking keys. I said to Dan, “I think that was my fish with my crank-bait.”
Ten minutes later, the same thing, a fish jumped in a spot 5 yards from the other spot. Same keys jingling sound. I swear that was the fish that I had hooked. I tried my hardest to cast to where that fish was to see if I could get him to hook up again. It didn’t work. I wanted to catch that fish for two reasons. The first, to get that crank-bait back that was obviously working. Secondly, just to spite that fish and prove to him that I am the superior species and he was dumb enough to chomp down on a piece of metal again. He sure showed me.
