It’s 48 degrees out and the leaves are starting to change. Most anglers are thinking about chasing fall brook trout, but I’m thinking big smallmouth.
Many see smallmouth as warm-water fish, but I’ve found they behave more like trout in the fall, when some of the biggest fish of the season show up. Like most species, they know winter is coming. They feed heavily, building up fat reserves as their metabolism slows for the colder months ahead.
My last trip of the year wasn’t for trout but with a father and daughter from New Hampshire. Tom, the father, has been a client on and off for nearly 20 years.
I usually finish guiding by the end of September, maybe taking a musky trip or two after, but I mostly save October and November for my own fishing. Tom said his daughter, Tapashi, had talked all year about going fishing, and with the season nearly over, he wanted to take her on one last adventure.
I told him to come up the night before and hang out in our tiki bar. Normally, I offer free lodging for anyone booking two or more days, but since it was a long drive for a half-day trip and I didn’t have lodging available the last time he came, I invited them to stay anyway.
After a night of stories and laughter in the tiki bar, we planned to hit the water by 8 a.m. It was the first weekend of October, and the morning was cold. The water temperature had dropped ten degrees in a week. I started in the deepest part of the river, where smallmouth should’ve been moving into their wintering holes, but they weren’t.
We spent the first hour searching, expecting an easy four-hour trip, but it turned into a hunt. Once we found them, the action picked up fast. The fish weren’t in the deeper water as I’d expected. They were in the shallows, where the sun hit first. Most were in one to three feet of water, and some were even in faster current. Looking back, it made sense — they were in full feeding mode, not staging for winter yet.
We weren’t fly fishing this time, but spin fishing, since Tapashi had only ever used a worm and bobber. She had an incredible day — caught more fish than ever, landed multiple species, and her biggest so far was a solid 16-inch smallmouth. But I had one more goal: to get her a real trophy.
As the air and water warmed, the fishing only got better. Tom and Tapashi even doubled up a few times. I took them to a stretch of fast water lined with logs where I’ve caught bass, crappie and pickerel. Shadows moved among the wood, and if they worked their lures just right, the fish would flash and strike.
Tom shows off a solid smallmouth, a highlight of a memorable father-daughter fishing trip.
Tapashi proudly holds one of her many catches of the day during a memorable fishing trip.
We were running out of time, and Tapashi was getting tired. The trip had already been a success — she’d met every goal — but I still wanted that 20-incher. It’s never easy, but this year I’ve landed more 20-inch smallies than ever, so I liked our odds.
I moved us to a shallow run that dropped from a few inches to about three feet, with slower water below. The stretch ran about 200 feet, so I had them cast toward the deeper side and work their lures back to the boat. The fish were biting right at the boat, following the usual pattern, but nothing big had shown up yet.
We inched closer to shore until we were by a big rock with a log wedged against it, a spot that often holds solid 16- to 18-inch fish. Tapashi cast well, hooked up and lost it immediately. I told her to keep casting to the same spot.
On her next retrieve, her lure stopped dead. As she was saying she didn’t think she was snagged, her line came alive.
The fish erupted from the water. I turned to Tom and told him it was a 20-incher. I grabbed the net and coached Tapashi through the fight. She kept the pressure on, and after a few tense moments, we slid the fish into the net. It measured exactly 20 inches, a true river trophy.
We bumped fists, took a few quick photos and released the smallmouth to fight another day. It was the perfect ending to the trip. Guiding moments like this are why I love what I do — being part of a father-daughter adventure filled with laughs, firsts and a trophy smallie. I hope to help them make many more memories together in the years to come.
