Pete’s
trip marks the first fly fishing only trip of the year. Bill Dougherty, Jon
Balaski and Kevin Erickson were the guides. We fish strictly smallmouth bass
with accidental pike thrown in. This year we were hoping to target bedded
smallmouth bass on Pete’s trip. On the previous trip we had seen a few bass
nests but not many. Our Guide boats are Lund Pro V GL208 with a with a 250 hp Mercury, Lund Pro V GL197 with a 225 hp Mercury Verado, and a Lund 2025 Pro V IFS with a 250 HP Suzuki.
Lund Pro V GL 197
On
Tuesday Pete Ankeny, Chuck Moos, Ben Case and Steve Johnson caught about 35
very nice smallmouth casting Murray popping bugs and a form of wooly bugger
called a tequillia.
Wednesday
smallmouth bass started to bed heavily on shallow south facing shores. At times
bass milling around the nests surrounded the boats. They had no interest in
feeding. They wanted to spawn but water temperature or some other phenomenon
was holding them up. Further down the shore bass started to hit surface
poppers. Sometimes it was a slow rise to the fly and a subtle sucking the fly
under; other times it was a hard smack.
During the afternoon the bass seemed to leave the spawning nests and
moved very tight to shore. The water level is about 1 ½ ft. higher than
normal. This makes the nests deeper and
harder to see and at the same time allows bass to get quite close to the
shoreline edge. 
Thursday
smallies cooperated really well taking poppers off the surface in nesting
areas. More nests were showing up as the day went on. Even though bass were on
or very near the nests they had not spawned and were not guarding the nest with
their normal ferocious attitudes.
Every
year is different in the life of a Rainy Lake smallmouth. They are not native
to Rainy Lake. They were introduced in the early 1900’s. Smallmouth have the
hardest time spawning of all the different species. They need certain water
temperatures, bottom content that has rock, sand, and gravel. Unlike other fish
in the lake the female smallmouth only mates with one male, not multiple males.
After spawning the male stays on the nest fanning the nest and protecting it
from minnows, crayfish or any other threats. Eggs hatch in 3-10 days normally
the longer the time period the more stressful on the male smallmouth.
Another
successful trip was had; it was different in the respect that the bass were
around nests but not actually spawning. It is probably happening today and tomorrow.
We will be back for more fly-fishing on Thursday. We leave this afternoon on a
walleye trip.
