Outdoorsmen Adventures.com

The ripples from my tube jig entering the water hadn’t subsided when my line made an erratic turn to the right, indicating a strike. Rearing back hard on the rod, I hoped to force what ever had inhaled my bait in the direction of the boat.

Just about the time I thought I had it under control, a pound and a half smallmouth broke the surface of the water trying desperately to shake the hook embedding in it’s jaw.

We’d heard that the Smallmouth bite was on and had been invited up to fish Lake Francis Case by Team Outdoorsmen Adventures member Joel Vasek, Missouri Valley Guide Service.

Larry Myhre, Sioux City, IA. and I had made a quick trip hoping to get into some of the early season smallmouth fishing that we’d enjoyed the previous year.

As I landed the scrappy smallmouth, it looked as if 2009 would be another banner year for smallmouth on the lake.

We were casing into the rocks along the shoreline in one of the many creeks/bays that come off of the big lake. The shallow water in these areas warms more quickly than that in the main lake, attracting all species of fish early in the season.

When we first pulled into the creek, Larry who was running the front bow mount had connected with another a nice bass using a small spinnerbait.

As their name indicates Smallmouth Bass don’t have the gigantic mouth that their cousin the Largemouth has, so you’ll need to downsize your bait.

A one eighth to one quarter ounce tube jig or spinner bait works very well during the early season to probe the shoreline.

We were targeting the areas of the bays where rocks and boulders ran out into the deeper water, as this is where the Smallmouth bass love to lie in ambush.

Since Smallmouth are very aggressive and a schooling fish, when you catch one, chances are you’ll find several in that area.

It’s not uncommon for an angler to have one fish hooked on their bait with several others in hot pursuit.

If you find a bay with warmer water with a strong wind blowing into it, more than likely, you’re going to find several species of game fish using the area.

Winds blows into these warmer bays pushes the zooplankton into these areas and the baitfish follow it, since zooplankton is one of their major food sources.

When you find the baitfish, you can bet that the game fish won’t be far away.

Our first day was a short one as we’d arrived late in the afternoon, but that didn’t stop us from boating over 20 Smallmouth.

On day two, the weather took a change for the worse with the wind blowing hard, making the main lake unfishable.

We decided to stick it out in one bay as the water temps seemed ideal for this type of fishing.

Once again our lures of choice were tube jigs and spinnerbaits and everything was going well as we’d caught several fish and Larry was on a hot bite.

I’d just landed a nice Smallmouth that was hooked close to the eye, so I wanted to do my best to release the fish without harming it.

Holding the fish by the lower jaw, using a needle nose pliers, I reached in and grabbed the jig when the fish flopped and out popped the jig.

I thought to myself, great, I didn’t harm the fish, then where was all of the blood coming from?

It didn’t take me long to realize the blood was coming from my thumb where this funky looking jig was buried it self up to the barb.

Of course, the last thing you want to tell your fishing partner is that you did a dumb thing like burying a hook in your hand.

It didn’t look that bad, so I yanked on it as hard as I could, trying to pull it out, I knew it probably wasn’t going to work, but who knows, miracles happen every day!

Well after wiggling it around and pulling on it from every direction, I had to bite the bullet and let Larry know that I pulled a good one.

When he saw all the blood running down my arm and the jig buried in my thumb, he got pretty excited.

His comment, “What are we going to do?”

Since the hospital was a long ways away and the fact that we had a real good bite going, I wasn’t sure what he might suggest as good fishing like this doesn’t come along everyday.

I told him that we could get it out using fishing line as I’d did it numerous times when one of my clients that I had guided would stick themselves.

The first thing we needed to do was to get the lead head off, using a Leatherman tool; he cut the jig hook just below the lead head.

Then he cut a chunk of Fireline off my reel, made a loop on both ends and wrapped the line around the hook.

I pushed down on the end of the hook, which backs the barb back into the original hole and then he pulled back and the hook popped right out.

After cleaning the cut with a Wet One, we added some antibacterial salve and a Band-Aid and went back to fishing.

The week before, my wife had told me that I needed to update my tetanus shot since it had been many years since I had one, so once I got home, I had that done.

Of course, I neglected to tell her right away the real reason for doing it so quickly was because I’d stuck myself with a rusty jig. I’d hoped to make a few points with her by letting her think that I’d did just as she told me.

Even with the pause to remove the hook, we managed to boat over 30 Smallmouth, one Walleye and a couple of smaller Northerns, not too bad of a day.

Spring fishing on Lake Francis Case can be excellent once you locate the warmer water tht attracts all species of fish, giving the angler an excellent opportunity to do some early season angling.

For more information on Missouri River Guide Service and the Missouri River lodge, go to www.walleyetamer.com