Stacks of Smalljaws

    "Well, shit, I don't know if this is gonna work," were amongst the various expletives and thoughts racing through my mind whilst 52 degrees Delaware River water raced through the hole in my waders. Our original plan for the day was to continue with the Spring shad run, catching a couple silvers before converting some to chunks for channel cats and maybe an early season striper. However, while the river was at a technically fishable level, walking out to the peninsula to get into suitable casting distance to the current break where the shad were stacked up produced great deals of adversity. After trying for a couple minutes, myself and my friend and shad guru Ernie decided to pack it up and try to catch some bluegills or stocked trout to sacrifice to ol' kitty whiskers. 

    Ernie and I soon arrived at one of the many locks of the Delaware and Raritan canal, where gates are positioned to open and close to control flooding. When these gates open during high water, fish from the river can often enter the canal. After periods of heavy rain, superb fishing can be had in these locks with species associated more with the river ending up on the end of your line. So while Ernie was trying to catch trout or something, I put on a keitech and started jigging. Within 5 minutes, I get whacked. A couple short runs, head shakes, and spectacular displays of bronzeback acrobatics later, Ernie sinks his net around my first smalljaw of the year. 

    After a winter full of largely unsuccessful walleye fishing, I had almost forgotten the levels of scrappyness possessed by bronze bass. Largemouth are nice, stripers are great, snakeheads like to either roll right on in or thrash around everywhere and break shit, but nothing in freshwater in my area can pull, jump, and fight quite like a river smallmouth. 

    Soon, Ernie got to experience this for himself. A nice cast into some pocket water, a few cranks of the reel handle, and soon he's got a leaping smallmouth while I'm taking my turn on net duty. After a long tussle, we soon land this fish, which ended up being Ernie's personal best. 

    After we released that red-eyed beauty, I continued throwing swimbaits while Ernie tried to procure some catfish bait. The latter mission was unfortunately, unfruitful, but I was able to connect with a cast all the way up against a wall. As I slowly cranked my keitech in, it gets crushed. I set the hook into an explosion of leaping bronze and green. A soon as I hooked this fish, it was easy to tell it was pushing my personal best as well. In the murky water, this fish was staying down and deep. After a tense minute, I was able to get her head up and Ernie managed to get her into the net, a beautiful tiger striped smallmouth that was one of the biggest I had ever caught. 

    The smallmouth fishery in the Delaware River has declined over the years. For 20 inch bronzebacks and 50 fish days, you would have to travel west to the Susquehanna or south to the Shenandoah, where I've fished in the past and where smalljaws are tucked behind every ledge and boulder of their shallow rocky waters. Some people blame snakeheads, which I am skeptical about. Some people blame flatheads, which I am slightly less skeptical about. Others say it's pollution causing a lack of crawfish, as well as flood conditions during peak spawning season for too many years. Those are the two I find the most compelling, although with all conservation issues, there are too many factors to be able to quantify. While we don't know for sure what's happening to the smallmouth, I do know for damn sure that I want this fishery to stay healthy all my life and to be able to pass it on to a new generation of anglers. 

Cheers fishy people