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Sometimes there’s really no place like home

One of the main reasons I’ve never become an archery hunter is fishing can be so good in the fall. So as much as I like to hunt deer, I have always opted to spend most of October pursuing trout and bass on the rivers, streams and lakes rather than sitting in a tree stand trying to get a deer with a bow. To each his own, I suppose.

This year the promise of fall was even a little more enticing. The long, hot summer and dreadfully low water it produced left much to be desired as far as fishing was concerned.

Trout fishing was a futile exercise most of the time, and there were many days when the bass fishing proved to be mediocre or worse. I, like so many other fellow anglers, hoped the change of seasons with coming of cooler days and the promise of autumn rains would change the fishing for the better as well.

For the past several weeks, I had been telling my brother Dwayne stories about the wonderful fishing I have experienced at Erie over the years. Last Saturday morning, we headed north with our kayaks with plans to fish Presque Isle Bay for four days. We fished Thompson Bay that afternoon for over three hours, and I only managed to hook a small northern pike, a sunfish and a tiny largemouth, while my brother didn’t get a bite.

With renewed hope, we embarked on Misery Bay the following morning. I caught a 2-pound largemouth on a spinnerbait in the first 15 minutes and was hopeful that was the beginning of a great day. More than five hours later, however, neither of us had another strike.

We regrouped and I apologized for our making such a long trip for such lousy fishing as it turned out. And the likelihood of things changing for the better was not good with a forecast for northeast winds in the next two days that could easily render the bay unfishable from our kayaks. Dwayne suggested we cut our losses at that point and head home and try fishing for smallmouths on the Juniata River. I wholeheartedly agreed with that plan, so we packed up and headed home, soon to prove the adage, “There’s no place like home.”

A day later, we started fishing at one of our favorite pools on the Juniata, and my brother caught several nice bass there while I didn’t get a bite. I was glad for his initial success while hoping for a good day overall. At the next spot we fished, I caught a hefty 16-inch smallmouth on the first cast and lost a much bigger bass soon thereafter. As I probed the structure of this familiar pool, I caught a few more nice bass before hooking a much bigger and stronger fish, which measured a solid 18 inches. While bringing in the that bass, however, I noticed another even bigger smallmouth following it, but many more casts failed to entice that lunker. In spite of that, I was more than encouraged by our success so far.

Next, we moved to a smaller pool that surrendered 20 bass from 12 to 17 inches for the two of us. Although it was now midafternoon, I was satisfied the Juniata had already had given us a good day. At the last pool we fished that day, I landed another 10 smallmouths, including two 17-inchers and another that measured 19 inches. Altogether, I landed 30 bass that afternoon, and only two were smaller than 12 inches; that’s more like the fall fishing I’ve grown to expect on the upper Juniata.

As fall progresses, I’ve generally found that river smallmouths tend to target minnows and other baitfish somewhat more than crayfish, hellgrammites or other food sources, and my experience on the Juniata River last week was in line with that notion.

I caught most of my bass and all the bigger ones on a Split Tail Stik-O, a new lure from Bass Pro Shops. I’ve long been a fan of their 3-inch Stik-O for river smallmouths so I was quick to try the new 31/2-inch split-tailed version when I first saw it last summer.

Basically, it’s the regular Stik-O with a minnow-like tail, making it a great baitfish imitation. Like the regular Stik-O, the Split Tail is loaded with salt so it casts like a bullet and sinks better than most soft plastic baits. Fished like a jerkbait or just with some subtle twitches, it mimics the action of a sick or crippled minnow that smallmouths can resist. The Split Tail Stik-O comes in several colors; I have found Baitfish effective most of the time but also like Houdini and Peanut Butter and Jelly as well.

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