NWF

Catching bass in the shallows during the spawn is a fun thing to do in the spring, but when it comes to summertime fishing, few things are more enjoyable than catching aggressive largemouth and smallmouth bass. Here are a few of my favorite ways to hook them:

Topwater Fun

There are a lot of ways to skin a cat, as they say, and there are also a lot of ways to catch a bass during the summer months.  However, nothing is more enjoyable than watching a bass erupt out of the water to smash a topwater lure.  The best time to fish topwater lures is early in the morning or in the evening (even after dark on a moonlit night).  However, if the waters are calm, you can also have success with topwater lures anytime, especially in shaded areas or on cloudy days.

What kind of topwater lures should you use?  If you are fishing an area full of hydrilla, milfoil, or lily pads, it’s hard to beat a weedless frog.  Tournament angler Jeremy LeCaire favors frog lures with a white belly since that mimics an actual frog belly.  Others swear by frogs that are black in color, while others believe in using a frog with, well, a frog pattern!  No matter what color you use, twitching it over pads into small open areas of water can trigger many strikes.

If you are not fishing in cover, you have lots of other options.  The biggest bass I ever caught (8+ pounds) was caught on a Berkley Bullet Pop popper in a frog pattern, fishing the lure near wood stick ups.  Similar poppers or lures like a Zara Spook can be fished at a slow pace or a faster pace in a “walk the dog” fashion, popping left, then right, while you retrieve the lure.  As an old friend once told me when it comes to speed, “Let the fish tell you what they want”.  

Are there other topwater lures that work?  You bet!  A fairly new offering is the Whopper Plopper, which is can be cast and reeled in with a slow, steady retrieve as it gurgles along the surface.  Buzzbaits retrieved at a fast pace can trigger violent strikes, and don’t forget classic lures like the Arbogast Hula Popper or Jitterbug.  They have both been around for over 80 years but they both still work.

Spinnerbaits

Spinnerbaits are always a good summertime bet for bass.  I personally favor a white spinnerbait for most conditions but will go with a chartreuse color if there is low visibility in the water.  A ¼ or 3/8-ounce spinnerbait can be retrieved rapidly, just under the surface of the water, creating a wake.  Heavier spinnerbaits between ½ to one ounce in weight can be slowly retrieved near the bottom.  Both methods can be effective.  Again, let the fish tell you what they want.

Crankbaits

Crankbaits are a big favorite of mine for both summer and fall bass.  Many anglers mistakenly believe these lures should be fished without hitting any structure.  That is a mistake.  Shallow water crankbaits should bang off of wood and deeper diving crankbaits should be ticking the bottom because that contact is what triggers reaction strikes from bass.  One of my favorite lures is the Berkley Digger which runs at a depth of 8 to 11 feet.  If I need to go deeper, the Berkley Dredger will get down to a depth of 20 feet.  As for colors, try to match the forage base.  For example, a perch or bluegill pattern if that’s what the bass are eating, a reddish color if crawfish are in the lake, or blue and chrome if the bass are feeding on trout.

Lipless Crankbaits

Another confidence bait for me is the lipless crankbait.  The original Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap has caught countless bass since it was introduced in 1971.  Rattle trap style lures have no bill (hence the word, lipless).  They create a sharp vibration when retrieved and thanks to BB sized shot inside the lure, they create a rattling noise as well.  The combination of the vibration and sound triggers bass hanging out in ambush points along weed lines or other structure such as log lay downs, beaver huts, boulders, or rocky riprap.

The lure excels in depths of two to eight feet.  You can rapidly retrieve the lure and draw strikes but I prefer to pause several times when I retrieve a rattle trap, just for a quick second.  I do this because following fish will often strike it when it stops in their face or as the lure begins to fall like a wounded fish.  Another method is to use a Yo-Yo retrieve, fishing the lure off the bottom.  This technique works best when the fish are deep.  

As for what lure to use?  There are a lot of lipless crankbaits out there in various sizes but my hands down favorite is the ½ ounce Berkley Warpig, which I’ve used to catch not only bass, but also walleye and other species since it was introduced a few years ago.  

There’s so much more to talk about when it comes to catching summer time bass (soft plastic baits for example) but we’ll have to leave that for another time.  Until then, use crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwater lures to reel in some hard-hitting bass during these hot weather months!

John Kruse – www.northwesternoutdoors.com and www.americaoutdoorsradio.com

As fly anglers, we are all cultured to believe that trout eat insects and nothing more. Trout gently sipping bugs from the surface of a calmly flowing stream paints the image of fly fishing narrative. It’s what we all learn in the beginning. Anything else would be culturally unacceptable in the fly fishing world. For years, I believed that no self-respecting trout would ever eat anything other than some form of aquatic insect or terrestrial bug. Fly fishing in Appalachia ingrained that into my head. That was right up until I read an article in Fish Alaska magazine about rainbow trout eating mice. 

 The level of disbelief wielding in my brain about what I was akin to what my grandfather thought about space travel. It wasn't happening. It didn’t happen and it wasn’t ever going to happen. Sure, I had seen a brown trout slashing at other fish and had buddies in the upper midwest that talked about mouse fishing for brown trout at night. But never, ever would a rainbow trout chase down and annihilate a mouse. Rainbows weren't that type of aggressor and besides, they didn’t get big enough to eat a mouse. Right? That’s what I, the 25 year old knower of all things trout, thought. No way.

 I must have read that story 10 times before I finally accepted that the writer must have had a very minute amount of success using this “mousing” method for Alaskan Rainbow Trout. Back in those pre-internet days all we had to rely on was a trusted publication with mass circulation and a photo album. Yes kids, before internet and social media we all carried photo albums with us to trade shows, speaking engagements, etc. A three ring binder notebook full of print photographs. Sometimes carrying just one album was not enough; depending on the situation and competition. It was the only way to advertise your trade of skills and to prove that you weren't just a liar. In fact, the next trade show I worked at was where I found living proof that the “mousing” I had read about was in fact real. Not only real but a viable method for targeting the largest of the species. I was befuddled.

 At that show, I met a lodge owner that hosted the writer for the story I had read in Fish Alaska. He explained to me how the whole Alaska trout universe operated. Upon understanding, the program made sense. It was no great consequence that this guy gave me my first job in Bristol Bay some years later. I adapted his explanation into my own version. If you have fished with me as a lodge guest, client or friend new to the Alaska trout universe, you have heard me deliver this lecture. Some of you may have heard it more than once. Its as follows - Alaska rainbow trout live a different life and lifestyle than lower 48 rainbow trout. They only have a three, maybe four, month window of time to get in a full twelve month life cycle, as compared to a regular lower 48 rainbow that might have nine or ten months to get everything in before the water cools to a point that their metabolism slows to a crawl.

So, in three months, an Alaska rainbow trout has to find a girlfriend, find a house or two and, it has to eat everything it can. And by eating everything it can, I mean everything starting with the highest forms of protein first. In spring, voles (mice) and leeches are the prominent source. As summer comes so do the salmon producing first eggs, then flesh after the spawn is over. Fall brings on the sculpin, more leeches and whatever else they can find. All that along with finding a girlfriend and a couple houses in three months. Its a lot of living.

 But more importantly, the “mousing.” While in spring and summer hordes of mice or voles, red back voles to be specific, make their seemingly ridiculous trek transitioning from tundra animal to aspiring olympic swimmer. Why? I don’t know. Some say its because of some migration pattern. Maybe. Others say its because they are seeking the same things all mammals seek. Could be. Why a tiny little vole would jump into a raging river flowing at upwards of ten knots is beyond my level of good reasoning and understanding. Why do voles jump in the river? My opinion is because they just do and I don’t care why as long as trout continue to eat them. If you are more worried about why they do as opposed to the consequences of it, you should probably change the channel. I heard re-runs of the greatest Bob Hope Christmas specials were going to air in July. You might check that out. 

 The first time I watched a rainbow “mousing” left a scorching imprint of what really happens in the bush. Eat or get eaten. Brutality in its purest form. This poor little red back vole was just swimming across the river in a narrow channel that didn’t seem deep enough to hold a rainbow. Its swimming along just trying to get to the other side for who knows why and this two foot rainbow manifests, chases the vole, swirls and smashes on it but misses. Then it swirls and smashes again only to miss the vole again. Just when we all thought the show was over the trout comes back for one last grab. Third times a charm right. Nope. Another swing and miss precluded with a full body leap out of the water to come crashing down on top of the vole, missing completely.

All the while this vole is still just swimming. Doing its thing. While I am sure the thing was horrified beyond belief, it didn’t change its pace or course. Probably because it wasn't capable of physically fighting the river current. The fourth and final attempt from the rainbow proved worthy but not without show. The fish came back waking the even more shallow water like a great white shark chasing a seal. It literally powered its way through six inches of water to annihilate the vole just before it reached the other side of the narrow river channel. Pure unforgiving brutality. I and my Swiss clients stood there looking at each other. Until that moment, we had all struggled with a language barrier. they didn't speak much English and I didn’t speak Romansch. Once that rainbow crushed the vole, we all understood what needed to happen and it did.

 The first pass with a “mouse” pattern fly was nothing less than epic. Three chases and then a hook up. Next guy cast and had four chases and then hooked up. This went on all day and the rest of the week. At one point, I even took all the flies out of my pack except mice. The fact that they witnessed the initial sacrificial lamb significantly flattened the curve. They knew not to set the hook until they felt weight on the hook. Like the precision watches the guys built, with systematical precision they took apart the entire river and covered every bit of water with mouse patterns. All week. 

 Now I have clients that book for Alaska specifically when “mousing” is peak. Usually, June and July. They bring only mouse pattern flies, and floating seven weight lines on 9’ rods. Most folks bring two rods, just in case the unspeakable happens. The bush isn’t a place to not be prepared but, that’s another story.......

Too many kokanee. That was the problem. We had the cure. 
As we idled away from the dock in the Nomad's Fishing Adventures 24-foot Koffler sled, Bill Kremers and Josh Hopkins tied up rigs. Our guide, Damon Struble, passed out cups of cured corn. Garlic on the starboard side and krill-marinated kernels on the other. Then Struble pointed the bow up into the narrows. 

A few minutes later, when Struble shut off the Mercury, he looked each of us in the eye - Tim Wehde, Kremers, Hopkins, and me. "We're going to set the back rods at 60 feet out and the front rods at 70 feet. Put one to two kernels of corn on each hook. Things are going to be chaotic. If a rod starts bouncing, don't worry about whose rod it is. Pick it up. If you are tying up a new bait and see a rod with a fish, set the first rod down and get the fish in the boat."

Each rod was loaded with a 3-ounce weight to run the baits 30 to 40 feet down where thousands of kokanee schooled below us. 

At full pool, Green Peter covers 3,700 acres and is ten miles long, with 38 miles of shoreline. 

The water level fluctuates and the fish move around, but some of the best kokanee spots are by the dam, in the Quartzville arm (where we fished), and around the peninsula in the main channel. Jigging is a favorite technique early in the year, but trollers seem to do better in the summer. 

Damon uses a Simon 4.0 kokanee dodger on the main line with a Gold Star micro hoochie. Another good bet is a Kokanee Kid Super Mysis Bug or a Mack's Lure Double Whammy with a 10-inch leader. Most anglers add white corn. Damon likes to marinate the corn overnight in Pro-Cure krill powder and Garlic Plus. Hopkins had brought two prototype Lamiglas kokanee rods, graphite/fiberglass hybrids with slow actions. We would put them to the test with these heavy 3-ounce weights. 

For several years, ODFW found themselves with a surplus of sockeye smolts, Struble explained. Those fish ended up in Green Peter Reservoir.  

"The result is such an overabundance there isn't enough food for all the fish. So they are stunted," Struble said. 

In less than two minutes, we had the first bite. The fish came fast, sometimes with two or three rods bouncing at once. As quick as we could put fish in the box and put fresh bait on hooks, there would be another bite. Our kokanee averaged eight to nine inches each. The direct beneficiary of the kokanee experiment is a little known landlocked chinook salmon fishery created by ODFW almost 20 years ago. 

"They wanted to see if the chinook salmon would migrate through the dam and return. For seven or eight years, ODFW put 20,000 chinook smolts in the reservoir," Struble said. "After some high water flood years that blew out the catch nets, the project was abandoned." Technically, the experiment didn't prove successful, but the chinook are still there. "They turned Green Peter into their ocean and spawn up in the creeks," Struble said. 

How big do they get? 

"The biggest one I have caught was 16-1/2 pounds, while trolling for kokanee with a dodger and a little hoochie," Struble said. Those landlocked chinook are growing big on the kokanee. Struble estimates he has caught 25 or 30 chinook between two and ten pounds while fishing for kokanee. 

"When they are small, I'm not sure what they feed on, but inside that 16-1/2 pounder was a mostly digested kokanee about eight inches long."We didn't have time to target Green Peter rainbows, but that is another facet of this interesting fishery. Ahead of every Memorial Day weekend, the state plants 10,000 rainbows. Anglers don't get them all.

"Come springtime there is a really good population of hungry holdovers that range from 12 to 18 inches," Struble said. While we worked back and forth above a biomass of kokanee, the eagles and ospreys watched. When we lost a fish at the surface, a raptor would swoop down to pluck it out of the wind-riffled water. 

At Green Peter, the kokanee limit is 25 per day in addition to the daily five-trout limit. There is no size restriction for kokanee. Landlocked chinook salmon may be retained as part of the kokanee limit. 

Damon glanced at the western sky, which had suddenly filled with clouds and said, "Unless you guys want part of that, we should run for the dock!" And run we did. By the time the Ford was pointed back toward Central Oregon, the windshield wipers were working overtime. We had boated 45 kokanee in two hours. We hardly put a dent in them. 

www.GaryLewisOutdoors.com