Early Fall Bass
Being on the water on early September mornings is a great experience. I, Al Harper, fished a small lake and river on a crisp morning just west of Union a couple of days after Labor Day.
The five-acre lake was emitting beautiful sheets of water vapor just after dawn as air temps fell below that of the water. The lake was part of a private anglers club I joined last spring and aluminum boats are kept on the shore. I brought a paddle so I quietly launched one and began casting a popper around the clumps of lilly pads and up close to the shore.
Working a fly among openings in the surface vegetation was tricky but productive. A weedless hook is a real asset when dragging a popper over tough lilly pads that can measure up to two feet in circumference. When one gets the hoped-for surface strike, a safe route to retrieve the fish has to be quickly calculated because if he manages to wrap a line around the rope-like roots of the lilly pads extending all the way to the bottom of the lake it’s all over.
I lost bass that morning due to that difficulty and can testify that the tough pads are almost impossible to yank out. That quiet morning I heard many strikes deep in thick inaccessible clumps of the vegetation that provide near perfect cover and protection for warm water fish.
The challenge was to entice the bass to strike a fly along the edges of that cover. In addition to pinpoint accuracy in casting, extreme stealth was required in the small lake. A careless bump of the paddle against the aluminum boat would telecast one’s presence and scare the bass deep into the vegetation.
I switched from a deerhair popper to a floating frog fly I had enjoyed some success with in the past and increased the number of strikes. I slowly approached a secluded cove with trees and other obstructions closing in on all sides and launched the frog from a distance. A largemouth bass that seemed too big for a lake that size inhaled the fly an instant after it landed and began a ferocious struggle once it realized it was hooked. I had no additional weight in the little boat and as the fight progressed I became aware that the big bass was slowly spinning me around as he headed to more open water.
I was concerned that my 4X tippet might not match the bass’s strength but it held even as he darted under the boat at one point and then put on an impressive aerial display as well.
After a few adrenaline filled minutes, his vigorous resistance slackened and I was able to get him close enough to get a thumb in his enormous mouth.
Based on his length and heft, I estimated his weight to be at least four and a half pounds and he was in beautiful condition. He’d certainly found a lot to eat in that small lake. He darted off when released with plenty of reserved energy.
The property I was on also included a section along the banks of the Bourbeuse River, one of the most crooked in the whole state, but also an excellent smallmouth and goggle-eye waterway that I’ve floated in Franklin and Gasconade counties. So before quitting for the day, I wet-waded a stretch of the river and managed to land a smallmouth on a crawfish fly.
