The brothers and I got out to our beloved St. Croix this morning for some serious smallmouth fishing on the opener. We were on the water with the sunrise at about 5:00am.
We ran into a number of successful presentations as the day progressed starting with a little top water early in the morning. A Bandit Footloose cranked just barely under the surface was enticing enough for a number of solid fish. (Pictured above)
After the sun came up it was tubes and dingers for us. There is something about fishing these lures that just never gets old…sinking, sinking, tap tap, line swimming sideways, reel to him, and lower the boom!!!!! I love it. We caught a ton of nice fish targeting current breaks, but more so boulder fields with deep cover. Anywhere you could find deep (3-4) feet of water with big boulders, you could swim a tube or YUM Dinger for a limited time before a bronzback would suck it up.
Pics to follow are my three brothers and the youngest one’s girlfriend. I normally don’t “hide” where I’m fishing, but there were a couple that were totally obvious so I shaded them.
On a side note: YUM Dingers are great baits but they get chewed up so fast I can usually fish them for about 4-6 fish before they’re falling off…any thoughts??? I just purchased a few of those Hard Nose plastics by Mann. We’ll see how they fare.
With fish like these to follow…who needs the Mississippi (in jest of course)?
