Never heard of this one before. Read it in an article about fly-fishing for smallies in Maine. Some of those fly guys are as down and dirty as us bassers, some are…a bit different. More on that later – first, smallies “on the jumps:”
On my first trip to Pocomoonshine Lake, in eastern Maine, many years ago, my guide informed me that we would fish bass “on the jumps.†Not quite sure what that meant, I asked him to choose a fly for me. Rummaging through my boxes, he took out a large Humpy with a bright-blue body, exclaiming that it would be just the ticket.
When we arrived, the smallmouth were slashing across the surface for flying blue damsels, often jumping and taking them in mid-air. I will never forget floating that big fly down to the surface on a long, slow forward cast, and the incredible aerial attacks of these bass.
If I’m reading that right, these guys are floating flies down toward the water and the smallies are coming out of the water to grab ’em. That sounds like a blast! Sure this happens now and again with conventional bassin’ topwaters, but I wonder how we could approximate the slower fall of a fly – an unweighted crappie-size grub maybe?
Different
Like I said up top, some of these guys are different. Check these two quotes:
> …the smallmouth always occupied a very warm spot in my heart. I even took time off during the middle of tarpon season to go to places like Minnesota, Tennessee, Canada and Maine to fish for these lovelies.
> From lovely lodges and guides, to rental canoes and wading opportunities….
I can honestly say that in many (too many!) years of writing about bassin’, I have never – not once – used the word “lovely.” Or Humpy.
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Chris
July 28, 2011 at 11:23 am
Well who says gay men can’t fish? :-0 — jus’ sayin’
PJ
July 28, 2011 at 11:29 am
That is the worst Photoshop job on a photo I’ve ever seen! Hahaha where’d you find that thing?! Hilarious!
Chad Keogh
July 28, 2011 at 6:25 pm
I have seen firsthand smallies coming right out of the water to grabs lures. I was fishing on a desert lake in southern British Columbia called Osoyoos Lake. It was late April and the bass were spawning.
A buddy and I were taking turns fishing every other bed. It was my turn, but his boat, so he was standing on the front deck with his rod held so that his lure (a 3″ grub on a darter jig) was about 6″ above the deck but close to the gunnel. He was motoring along with the trolling motor and we saw a murky cloud of silt all stirred up around one of those boat cradles for lifting your boat out of the water.
We both knew there had to be a male bass in the silt cloud making a nest. As he swung the boat around to give me a clear shot at the cradle, a 3 lb smallie rocketed out of the murky water, jumped clear out of the water and tried to grab his grub. It missed, then went back into the murky area. I pitched my 4″ lizard next to the cradle leg and whammo! Or should I say “lovely” bite!