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Well I'd planned on fishing Riffe for smallmouth. The forecast called for partly sunny skies and a calm wind becoming 5-9 mph in the afternoon. I drove the hour and forty five minutes to the Kosmo area only to find heavy skies and two foot waves crashing against the bank. I didn't even bother trying to get my float tube out there. Since I was curious about Swofford Pond, I drove back around the lake to have a look.

Strangely enough, barely a ripple on the surface there. A breeze would come up now and then, but not even close to pushing me out of my comfort zone in a float tube. I was prepared for deep, clear water and smallmouth, with more finesse gear, but I decided to try it anyway. Water was fairly clear and there was a lot of milfoil and dollar pads. I got out on the water and found a dead fish finder. I went to replace the batteries and found one of the wires had come loose from the battery pack, so I was fishing blind. I caught quite a few dinks and some decent ones on a soft jerkbait for the first while. Then I tried a Megabass Vision 110 suspending jerkbait in a little deeper water where the weeds were a bit more sparse. Something hit that thing so hard on the pause that it ripped the drag out on the strike. Unfortunately it kept on ripping that drag until it was buried in the weeds and came loose. With the way it hit I'm wondering if it was a big holdover trout. Not too long after that, I had another good fish on on the jerkbait. This one came out of the water and did a complete back flip, tossing the hook. Looked to be about a 5lb bass. I was pretty frustrated. Anyway, the wind came up a little and I was able to get some decent ones slow rolling a spinnerbait. I hooked another big fish that had my rod doubled over. I got it nearly to the tube, and it suddenly pulled free. I must have been cursed that day. Anyway, things slowed down after that, but I picked a few off here and there on the three lures mentioned previously. I got another decent one on the jerkbait and decided to call it a day around 8pm. Part of me wanted to stay until dark as it often picks up then, but I had a decent drive on unfamiliar rods ahead of me, so I called it. Overall a pretty good though frustrating day. I ended up landing 28 bass from 6-16". It's a gorgeous area and the eagles were awesome. At one point there were four circling over the lake nearby. If I'd landed those three big ones I would have given it 5 stars, but those fish definitely caught my interest and will ensure I'll be back again soon. This time hopefully with a working fish finder and some heavier tackle. Time to break out the frogs and glide baits :)

Billm

6/9/2018 11:25:17 AM

I fished Riffe on the 6th. Like you, the forecast was for calm winds, then building to 1 to 2 mph by late morning. Got to the Mossy Rock launch at 6:00 and there were white caps!! Launched anyway. Just got windier until about 8:00, then calmed to 2-3mph. Don't know what is up with the forecast, I live 2 plus hours away. Sorry you lost your three largest, some days are like that.

grubowski

6/9/2018 2:51:07 PM

I kind of wondered if it calmed down later as Swofford was down right glassy at times. It's about an hour and forty-five minutes for me but definitely enough of a drive to be frustrating when it's that windy. I'm in a float tube so I didn't want to chance it.

Losing the fish was frustrating and having a broken fish finder and the whole thing with Riffe just made things worse. Still it was a fun day, just kind of a lot going wrong. I'll definitely take another shot at Riffe and will likely hit Swofford on Tuesday with my newly repaired fish finder and some heavier tackle.

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