Soggy Smallmouth Venture

This week has brought a steady stream of obstacles to my fishing plans. First I abandoned my trip up north. On Tuesday, some home chores kept me up too late and took too much out of me for my Wednesday morning bluegill venture to happen. But last night, I did take my first shot this year at Huron River smallmouth. It was a fairly disappointing trip, though not mainly because of the lack of catching.

I got on the water around 6:30 in the spot pictured about. This is my go-to smallmouth water, on the edge of downtown Ann Arbor.

The Huron is often too high to wade until well into June, but after a few relatively dry weeks, I thought it would be manageable, and it was. Though the water was higher and the current swifter than I'd like, I never felt I was risking my neck, as I have on some other early season Huron outings. The water is never very deep at the spot where I wade in, so sometimes I've blithely entered the river there only to find myself in trouble a couple hundred feet downstream where the river narrows and picks up speed.

I worked different weighted streamers along both banks, drawing a few strikes and landing one very small bass. When I reached my favorite bend, the water was becoming too deep to continue. It was still early, though, so I packed up and drove upriver above the town of Dexter. I often hit the hex and ephoron hatches up there later in the summer, but had never ripped streamers there early in the year.

I was encouraged at first, since I had a large bass follow my streamer on one of my first casts. Soon I had a few other strikes. Things were looking up, but I should have been looking down. While I was wading through a waist-deep slot, I collided with a log, and while I didn't fall in completely, I was knocked forward enough so that a gallon or so of water shipped in through the top of my waders. I had it coming, I suppose, since I wasn't wearing my belt. For some reason, I'll wear a belt when the water is cold, but usually forgo it when it's not, no matter how deep the water is. I may rethink that.

My shirt and jeans were sopped, so I slogged back to shore and headed home. A thudershower hit just after I got on the road--maybe I hadn't cheated myself out of too much water time.

It was, as I said, disappointing. On the positive side, my smallmouth season has nowhere to go but up.