indiana autumntime smallmouth

My parents arrived on Friday and we dined together and my brother and I drank half yards of Guinness at the Irish Lion. Then we played Contra on his laptop until midnight and drank Wild Turkey Rye. The following day we went to the IU-Penn State football contest where the boys from Happy Valley squeaked one out with the help of four IU fumbles. We tailgated the hell out of that game. Mom and dad rented an RV and everything.

It was good to see them. I'm just starting to realize that my family is funny. Not weird funny, but comical funny. Not goofy comical, but comedically comical. You know, they make good jokes. Here is a good picture of my mom "cannonballing" jungle juice with some other Penn State fans at the tailgate (my father laughing in the background). It's 10:30am. Click for bigger.




I awoke at 7:30am this morning to see them off. The box on wheels literally lumbers down Maxwell into the rising sun. It's early. Might as well go fishing.

8am I'm out the door, heading west on a deserted Sunday autumn morning through Spencer and onto Gosport to try for another beautiful bass. The air is crisp and cool, the sky clear like it doesn't exist, the sharp angle of the sun slices through the void like soft lasers. The West Fork of the White River is big water. And it flows almost exclusively through farmland, for over one hundred miles before Gosport. It was a bit muddy. We got heavy rains on Thursday.

I fished it anyway. But didn't catch nothin'. There are big fish in there. I know it. I will catch one.

This is what happens when you aren't catching fish. As for those of you who haven't seen me since oh, about June, this is what my face now looks like. I guess I do need to trim it up a bit. Although I think a full beard will be something I emphasize in my MIP2K7 speech. Click all for bigger.








I packed it up after about an hour and headed back towards Bloomington and down 37 to Ketchum Road and Clear Creek which is much smaller and had probably cleared by now. It was also during this drive that I heard Robert Plant and Alison Krauss signing together. Apparently they have made an entire album? I will have to purchase it. The song was good.

I've developed a bit of a bond with Clear Creek. Fished it probably fifteen times and I know how it smells and it looks and where to walk and where the fish are. And it was a very pretty little creek today. Click for bigger.








And had a very good day today. I didn't catch any huge fish. I got my big fish on Wednesday. Today I caught a lot of decent sized creek smallies and it pretty much ruled. The fish were really quite pretty (for bass). Not the dull olive-yellow color I've seen there before. They were killing the little Clousers. As far as colors go chartreuse worked the best but I lost the only two I had to rocks. The "weedless" design with the dumbbell eyes is great and all, but those eyes get caught in rocks pretty easily. Caught a couple on orange and fire tiger as well. They didn't seem interested in olive. I picked up fish in deep holes, smaller holes, riffles, wide flat sections, everywhere. I was finally thrilled to be fishing in Indiana. Click all for bigger.








I'm holding a beautiful bass like a trout! Holy shit!