Chippewa river 8-25

[gmetime24]

Got a chance to go yak the river on Sunday and had a great time. I wanted to show my brother what the river was all about. We caught about 25 smallies in 5 hours with most of them being small. Best fish were 14,15 and 17 inches. We also got a 15 inch walleye and a handful of rock bass. The water is very clear right now and carp and sucker fish are all over. I saw a couple of good sized smallmouth actually roaming around on top of big carp and directly below them. It was weird but the smallies were definitely hovering so close that it looked like they were touching the carp. All in all it was a fun and enjoyable day

[djkimmel]

Maybe the smallmouth were trying to figure out a way to eat them?!?

Sounds like another great day on the water! I've always loved river fishing!

[21XDC]

I have seen smallies do this on StClair as well as other places. I think the smallies let the carp rummage through the bottom, turning rocks over and do all the work... Then when a craw squirts out, The smallies eat them.

[21XDC]

Tom Taylor, a friend of mine that lives 1 mile from me, Makes/Sells a Big Hellgrammite 3.25 that works awesome drop shotted on these clear rivers.... Especially on the "Chip"

https://fishingcompleteinc.com/large-hellgrammites

[djkimmel]

I like the Case Plastics Hellgrammite! Don't get enough chance to use them. I should 'make' more chances to use them I guess. I have been using the Case Plastics Lil Magic Stik quite a bit lately drop-shotted for smallies. I've started catching them better on that!

One thing us bass anglers aren't short on is lures to try!!

As far as bass hanging with carp - I've seen this many times over the years with both largemouth and smallmouth bass. I don't know how many times I've thrown a lure at carp during a moment of boredom just to make the carp jump a little and when I would snap the lure past the carp I would hook a really nice bass!!! I do it now on purpose more often for that reason.

[21XDC]

Going to the Chip on Sunday... 4 Yacks catching smallies. 

[djkimmel]

Sounds like fun! Maybe we can get a fishing report with a couple pictures??

[21XDC]

4 guys, 4 yaks, 25 smallies... Nothing big. ... 1 largemouth, some chubs, rock bass, suckers. We saw Saw some 4lbers and one 5lber and several walleyes....

I never caught a bass... I lost 5-6 small ones. I did catch 2 rock bass and a chub.  No pics to share... We all had a great time.

[djkimmel]

Chub-slayer! (I've caught a zillion of those things - used to use them for bait when I was an aspiring angler...)

[detroit1]

I must be doing something wrong... I am pretty good at catching small fish, but never caught a CHUB! Do I need special tackle and what is the hot bait? 

[djkimmel]

No special 'chub' tackle that I'm aware of... I always used a tiny single hook with a tiny piece of bait on it to stock up on chubs when I was catching them for big fish bait. Bobber with a small split shot if some weeds/snot or lots of snags, or just a split shot rig if I was fishing in clean riffles (something they like to hang out in).

They are pretty aggressive so they'll go after anything near them that they can get hold of usually.

A short chub story - I was in the wilds of Northern Ontario fishing a small stream to see if I could catch any trout - just something different to try in between the lake fishing. An angler came up to me with several odd, but somewhat colorful fish, asking me what kind of 'trout' they were... had to tell him they were just plain ole creek chubs. The males can get colorful around the time of their spawn. They also get those odd bumps on their heads sometimes.

[detroit1]

I was kinda toungue-in-cheek about the chubs, but we did get another fish story from Dan. Thanks.

[djkimmel]

I try to make everyone happy in every way...