If the T.F.M. archives are any indicator, I've known Danny Reed of
Crooked Creek Holler (and owner of
Hot Stuff Tattoo) for well over ten years now. We've fished together all over the place together and I don't know how into smallmouth bass you are but Danny's a fiend for them. He doesn't want to catch one. He wants to catch an infinity of them. He's obsessed. Gleefully he watches them fin in the net and he holds them ever so carefully when he releases them with a
look and a smile reserved for few things in his life. When he's not catching them, he draws them. They show up in his flash and fine art. He tattoos them. War painted up smalljaws are always on his mind. And, over the years, they've shown up in some of his most iconic CCH designs. If anyone has a (non-sexual) kink for smallmouth, it's undoubtedly Danny.
This past spring, I spent several days with guide Mike Rennie of
Blue Mountain Drift (circle back to these posts
HERE and
HERE) and our conversations touched enough times on his summertime smallmouth floats where fish slurp topwater flies through the heat of the day that we put a couple of days on the books for late July. Mike has an obvious obsession with guiding and fishing for smallmouth and since our friend Danny is
absolutely gluttonous for them. This was going to be fun.
As the trip neared, a heatwave was continuing with days in the mid to high 90's and humid but more importantly, the water was clearing up after nearly constant heavy rains the weeks before. The smallmouth were looking up. Rennie was excited for a couple of days with us and gave us a full rundown of what to expect the night before our first float at the small house Airbnb that Danny had found for us.
The next morning we made a longish drive after a gas station breakfast and as soon as flies hit the water, smallmouth were rising for them. It was a day of steady rises and good to great fish in the net. As morning was turning into afternoon, we used the excuse of Danny catching a larger smallmouth as a reason to pull the raft over, get out, and take a few photographs followed by a needed soak in the river to cool down. We followed this with another swim an hour or so later while enjoying lunch in the shade. I'm not sure a chicken salad sandwich (on lightly toasted bread) could have tasted better than sitting chest deep in the river.
Our float continued and we caught more smallmouth through the
afternoon. We ended the day with Danny going two slurps for two hook sets on brute smallmouth that were sitting right where you'd expect and hope them to be. The first, the larger of the two, was at the hard shadow edge of a concrete bridge base and the second came out from under a mess of structure from a downed tree. Of course both of these fish gave us good reason to get
out of the boat for a swim and a stellar way to end the day. I couldn't have had more fun than to set backseat watching it all go down with my camera in hand.
Give me a day or two to post the follow-up float which was unexpectedly hotter, with less fish which was made up for with more swims in the riffles. I'll toss the gear notes in the next post, too.
If you find yourself anywhere nearby, book a day or several with Mike Rennie of
Blue Mountain Drift. You won't disappointed and expect to hear a loud raspy shout of SET!!! if you're not watching your fly. Don't ask Danny and I how we both know...
