Cedar River rat’s secret fishing hole bears many a bass

With broken concrete protecting an eroded bank on an outside bend of the Cedar River, Gary McNeese's secret hole did not, at first glance, look all that auspicious.

In a lifetime of fishing, I had walked past many similar spots without bothering to wet a line.

But Gary, who may be the consummate Cedar River rat, said he had been catching many big smallmouth bass in this 'fish gathering spot” each spring since 1983.

And Saturday, as usual, with a GoPro video camera mounted on the side of his hat, he delivered on his promise of 'live action.”

We stood no more than 30 feet apart taking turns casting crankbaits into an eddy bisected by a mostly submerged log jutting perpendicularly from the bank into the current.

If one of us was not catching a fat, scrappy bass, the other was, and at times we did so simultaneously.

After two arm-wearying hours, in which we failed to find a lure they would not attack, the bass still had not vacated the spot nor tired of the sport.

Toward the end of our encounter, I cast my lure farther out into the stream, well beyond the log, and hooked a fish that seemed larger and stronger than the 14- to 17-inch bass we'd been catching.

Despite my efforts to horse it past the log, its strength multiplied by the current carried it below the snag, around which my line tangled.

I gave the fish some slack line, in hopes that it would swim away from the obstacle. It did drift downstream of the log a couple of times, but I still could not tug it back upstream around the log.

After a 10-minute standoff, it occurred to Gary that he might be able to snag my line with his lure if I again allowed the fish to drift away from the log.

This worked to perfection. With me letting line out as Gary reeled his in, we soon had the fish ashore,

It was not, however, the 20-inch smallmouth we envisioned but rather a 20-inch striped bass - the only non-smallmouth of the more than 30 fish we caught and released.

As we were driving off at the end of the outing, I mentioned to Gary that I had been sorely tempted to wade into the river after the hung-up fish but resisted only because I was unsure of the river's depth and fearful that the swift current would sweep me off my feet.

'Good thing you didn't try it,” he said, adding, as he pointed to his GoPro camera, 'You'd have ended up as live action on a viral YouTube video.