Dave Lehman holds two of the nearly 50 smallmouth bass caught and released during a fishing trip last week.

While last week didn't provide weather conducive to deer hunting, the unseasonably warm weather did furnish near-perfect conditions for a late-season effort aimed at river smallmouth bass. Buck season bassin' can be some of the best action of the year.

During much of the late summer and early fall, the Allegheny River has been running high and muddy. About the time it would clear up, another slug of heavy rain would come along.

It's a trend that has continued into the later stages of the fall, and, coupled with the additional flow furnished by the annual fall drawdown of Kinzua Dam, the river has been running both full and off-color — less than ideal conditions for late fall smallmouth bass forays.

Early last week, the Allegheny began to clear. Kinzua's discharge was lowered to a more moderate level. Thanks to daytime highs in the 60s and relatively mild lows at night, water temperatures stopped dropping.

The water temperature was about 44 degrees when Dave Lehman of Titusville and I slipped the boat onto the river. The level had dropped two feet during the past three days, the clarity was excellent and cloudy nights had allowed air temperatures to drop only to the low 50s during that period. The same overcast conditions prevailed that day.

The ride to our first stop took only a few minutes. The main flow through the center channel of the river was strong and deep. Along the eastern bank of the river, though, quiet water was found. A rocky shoal upriver deflected the force of the current and was responsible for the eddy.

Though the bank was a soft one, consisting of sand and soil, in the clear water it was possible to see large submerged boulders in the river itself. Lehman and I began pitching tube jigs to the bank, slowly dragging and jigging them back to the boat as it drifted in the light current. Within a few casts, I set the hook into the first smallie of the day, a fat fish in the 15-inch range. Two more quickly followed. Lehman picked up a baitcasting rod and pitched a light-skirted jig with a plastic trailer. The effort resulted in Dave's first bass of the trip.

Throughout the day, we sampled different types of areas. We fished boulder-lined shores where the fast current swept nearby. Smallmouth would inhale a jig pitched back in the protected areas between the boulders.

Flats covered with fist-sized chunk rock were also productive, especially when a mild current was present. Large, deep holes lacking current didn't produce many smallmouth, though we did take a few nice walleyes in such spots.

The best baits were jig-type lures, including the previously mentioned tube jigs.

Three-inch bodies from Canyon Plastic's Great Lakes series, which feature white bellies, worked great, as did Yum tubes. A quick spray of orange Spike-It Dip-N-Glo dye to the tail of the Yum solid-colored tubes offered a contrast the bass liked this particular day.

Lehman did quite well with a one-eighth-ounce skirted jig dressed with a two-inch Yum Chunk. He also took several bass on a one-eighth-ounce bucktail jig. I stung a few smallies on four-inch rib-style worms, in this case the Northland Ribworm. These were fished on a light mushroom-style leadhead jig.

When the day had concluded, Dave and I had landed at least 50 smallmouth bass. At least half of them were more than 15 inches in length, including several in the 17- to 19-inch class. All of the bass were released.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.