LITTLE ROCK — When challenged by my brother Brad, I tend to respond with rash bombast.
We’d been needling each other for a good 20 minutes when our outfitter deposited us and my son Daniel at the Baker Ford access Wednesday on the Buffalo River. The outfitter told us that anglers had been catching a lot of fish on “gitzits,” or tube jigs.
As we rigged our lines, Brad asked, “You got any of those ‘gets-em’ things?”
“We ain’t using that today,” I replied, digging in my worm pouch for a bag of Zoom Tiny Lizards.
“You mean to tell me you know more than a man who’s fished this river his whole life?”
I rose and met his glare. “Yes, I do,” I declared, still smoldering from his abuse over my purple bandanna, a proven fish-catching talisman. “In fact, I’d venture to say I know more about fishing this stretch of water than any man alive.”
Brad shot Dan the smug smile of a man who is certain he’d just handed his little brother enough rope to hang himself. Dan pretended not to notice. No way was he getting tangled up in that.
On a scale of 1-to-10, the weather was a 10. The temperature was in the mid 70s, with a slight breeze and low humidity. Some of the trees along the riverbank were showing traces of fall color, and the sunlight had a sparkling quality that made the water glitter like fine diamonds.
Sunglasses are really helpful for fishing, but because of an astigmatism, I’ve always had to wear fitovers. They have cheap, low-quality lenses, and they make me look like a big dragonfly, so I usually do without.
Now, I finally see what I’ve been missing, thanks to a new pair of Costa del Mar Stringer shades with prescription 580RX lenses. The green mirror lenses have a copper base that seemed to filter out the water entirely while also accentuating terrestrial subleties. I could see every pebble on the bottom and every fish, with no eyestrain. Matched with my purple ’do-rag, they made me look awesome, and everybody knows that to fish good, you have to look good.
We started fishing with soft plastics on spinning rigs. Daniel and I used a Zoom Tiny Lizard in watermelon/ red flake, while Brad used a Zoom Baby Brush Hawg in watermelon/candy. I went about 200 yards downstream, Brad went upstream, and Dan fished near the boat. That gave us plenty of elbow room, and we followed that pattern for the rest of the day.
Fishing was slow, so I switched to a Luck-E-Strike square-billed crankbait. Fish hit it when it landed, but not while it moved. I took the hint and tied on an XCalibur XZ2 with a pearl body and yellow back. This bait is very similar to the Rebel Pop R. I cast it to the edge of a rocky point, and the water erupted as a 16-inch smallmouthpounded it. It was the biggest fish of the day, and it fought like Muhammad Ali.
That’s about the time Brad decided to check the messages on his iPhone. I heard him rummaging around in the dry bag, with increasing urgency.
“This smells awful!” he grumbled. “What do you keep in here, anyway?”
For nearly six years, this bag has held containers of YUM Trout Krilla and bags of Berkley Power Worms. These are intensely aromatic baits that have baked for five summers in the big black bag. It smells like a hamper full of soiled, fermented diapers.
“That’s the last time I stick my head in there,” he grumbled.
The topwater bite was hot, so I gave Daniel a blue/ white Storm Chug Bug and a chartreuse/white Terminator Tiny T buzzbait to Brad. In time, they lost interest in fishing, so we moved quickly through unproductive pools.
“Let’s slow down here,” I said. “I always catch at least one nice bass on topwater in this pool.” I cast toward the bank, and a 14-inch smallmouth smashed the XCalibur.
“Let’s stop and fish this pool awhile,” I said later. “This pool is always good for one good bite.” I caught two with a new Berkley Havoc worm designed by Larry Nixon.
We reached the US-65 Bridge at about 5:30 p.m. The fish hit everything we threw at them, and the scenery and weather were sublime.
As Brad said, “The best thing about smallmouth bass is that they don’t live in ugly places.”
Sports, Pages 34 on 10/02/2011