8/7/2009

I decided to float down the stretch of Mad River that Whitewater Warehouse uses for their Wednesday Night Paddle, except this time I was looking for more than a relaxing float.  I wanted to catch some smallmouth bass! Before I loaded up my gear I decided I wanted to take both my baitcasting rod/reel combo and my ultralight rod/reel combo.  I was going to launch at about 1 o'clock in the afternoon during a hot, muggy day without a cloud in the sky.  The weather is what made me decide to take the ultralight combo.   I figured that during such a hot clear day that I wouldn't catch many fish and at least the ultralight would allow me to catch some bluegill or rock bass on little rooster tails.  Apparently fate had other plans for my ultralight fishing....more on that later.  After browsing through the Whitewater Warehouse demo boat selection I decided to take out the Perception America 11.0.  I had been in the America 11.0 before, but have never tried to fish out of it.  I chose this boat for a few reasons first and foremost was that the angler edition of the America 11.0 had rod holders mounted behind the cockpit that were able to hold both a spincast rod and a baitcast rod.  The other reason is that the boat is highly maneuverable.  Mad River was running at 320 cfs (very, very low) and the America 11.0 would help me in maneuvering around a lot of the rocks.  Now I just needed a shuttle...I talked to Bernie, one of the owners of Whitewater Warehouse, and he said that he would drop me off at the put in.  No questions asked!  Since he is my dad it usually takes some prodding and usually some begging, but not this day.  So he dropped me off at the put in and I loaded all my gear into the stern hatch as dad was driving off in the distance.  I then went to grab my rods and put them into the rod holders and quickly noticed that something was missing!  The ultralight combo was nowhere in sight...I came to the realization that I left it in the back of his car.  I knew things were going to well!  At least I still had the baitcasting combo to rely upon...I just may not catch as many fish as I had hoped.  I ended up launching and wasn't able to catch anything for the first hour or so and then some clouds started moving in.  After they moved in I was catching fish left and right.  Once I started catching some of these fish I soon realized that it was a good thing that I left the ultralight behind.  Since most of the smallmouth were caught in some swift moving water I am sure I would have lost a few on the ultralight or I would have ended up swimming trying to keep them on!  All in all I was on the river for 5 hours and estimate I caught nearly 50 smallmouth with about 10 of them between 2 and 3 lbs.  One thing that I was surprised with (other than catching a bunch of fish) was the Perception America 11.0 was a lot better fishing boat than I had ever thought.  With the water level so low on the river the America 11.0 allowed me to catch some small eddies and maneuver in some tight spots.  Not a bad day!

-Neil Farley