8-15

[Norm Minas]

The river is flowing at about half it's normal flow. The water temps are in the low 70's . There is a lot of weed clumps flowing including some rather large knee buckling affairs. This ismuch earlier than usual for this. With the clearer water and the influx over the years of excess fertilizer from those "perfect " lawns algae on the bottom has become a problem again. It makes using a jig or crankbait problematic as they are fouled with green gunk rather quickly.Obvious solutions are rattlebaits, spinnerbaits, flukes and swimming a jig off the bottom.

Yesterday, I tried another method that also works fairly well. I wacky rigged a 4 inch cigar type worm weightless on a size 4 octopus hook.

I fished the heads and tails of riffles, channel areas and associated flats from mid afternoon until i couldn't see any more. I got a lot of smallmouth, many of them smaller fish under 15 inches but also some nicer ones up to 18 inches. I also picked up a few really nice rock bass, a couple of walleyes and five channel cats.

Early on I had to just let it drift on a semi slack line and tighten up to set the hook when the line started doing something different. As it got darker I was able to get more agressive and start popping the rig two or three times then drifting. Many of the times the popping resulted in very solid strikes.

The only downside is I have to restock 4 inch cigar type worms, down to a pack and a half.