Fishing small streams

I live in a "water poor" part of the state - yeah - Mn has 10,000 or
so lakes, but my county doesn't lay claim to single one. Note to
self: the next time you move, move somewhere that has a lake or
two or 50 to fish!

Anyway, when time is short, and with the price of gas, you need
to make do, so I've been hitting the local small streams, mainly
fishing pools formed by road bridge crossings - The land is privately
owned on all of these, and No Trespass signs abound. All of the
streams in my area are slow, warm water streams - so panfish, LM bass,
carp and NP are the usual.

Yesterday morning I hit one such pool. This particular pool sometimes
holds LM and NP. In the past I used bait (most often sucker minnows
or crawlers), but lately I've been throwing SW's.

Yesterday morning, it was overcast, and I had a hit on the 2nd cast,
on the 3rd, I hooked it - a 18" NP. Not big, but it hit hard. So went
my 2 hours, ended up w/ 14 NP (all released with the exception of
two which took the hook deep and got torn gills and 1 more to
make enough for lunch), and no bass. This pool seemed to be full of
them - but it was alot of fun. The skirt of my SW is shredded.

Last night I checked out two other pools, these both a bit larger -
big enough I can't cast across them them. Several hits on my
SW, hooked one NP, might have gone 26-28", but I slipped
and fell on the creek bank, trying to reach for my net, and the
fish tore free. Switched to a buzz bait as it got darker, got two top
water hits, but both missed - hitting the blade. Both of these hits
were solid strikes, but I couldn't see what they were by. My final
action of the night was a another small NP. I did see one bass come
out of the water (chasing minnows), but it was out of my casting range
(the road right of way is the limiting factor for movement on the
banks).

The really nice thing about fishing this way is the lightness -
one or two lures, rod and landing net. You get a change of
scenery w/ every pool, and you never know what is going to
be on the end of the line.

Jim

The first bass over 5 pounds I ever caught was from a small pool formed
where a tiny brook passed under a gravel road.

I'd been fishing a large farm pond on my wife's uncle's place with no luck,
and as I walked down the dusty road I spied three bass in the little pool.
One was about 7 pounds or so, another 5, and the last about 3 pounds.

I cast a plastic worm across the pool onto the pond scum and floating
vegetation, then dragged it slowly off into the water. I slid the worm right
across the snout of the largest bass, but it showed absolutely no interest.
When the second bass turned slightly in the lure's direction, I twitched it
a time or two, and the bass inhaled it. I set the hook and drug the bass up
onto the shore. I guess I had only about ten feet of line out at the time
the fish hit.

I've heard of big bass coming from even smaller pools.... but I can't
imagine it. This entire pool, about 5-feet deep at the most, was about the
size of my living room. Since it was on a hillside overlooking Cherokee
Lake, I figure someone must have slowed down and dropped the three bass in
to come back and fetch them later.

Joe
_____________
"Jim Laumann" wrote in message
...
I live in a "water poor" part of the state - yeah - Mn has 10,000 or
so lakes, but my county doesn't lay claim to single one. Note to
self: the next time you move, move somewhere that has a lake or
two or 50 to fish!

Anyway, when time is short, and with the price of gas, you need
to make do, so I've been hitting the local small streams, mainly
fishing pools formed by road bridge crossings - snip