9/23/06 Float

Wool(Mike) and I got out for a yak on Saturday, got started about 9 or shortly thereafter. Flow was up a bit, and there was green stain to the water . Visibility was 2ft.

I didn't know what to expect with the rain and change in temps lately. We decided to go for it despite 80% chance of rain and 20 mph winds. Had a new kayak that needed to smell like fish.

Fish were aggressive, but hard to locate with the flow up early. Picked up some nice early fish on tubes (multiple colors). Success came when I went to 3/16oz vs 1/8oz jighead. Fish were caught near calm water areas next to current and occasionaly in the middle of nowhere chasing them down. Pop it and drop it worked well. Caught this nice 18" on a smoke tube off some riprap. I was actually targeting a small point when some small voice told me to toss over by the dumped sidewalk section. This fish fought like a maniac.



Thanks to Josh, I worked a lot of cranks today. Picked up 10 fish in the last .5 mile of the float off mid river bolders and current breaks behind wood. On a blue/silver LC crank. Fish were slamming the bait. They wanted a tight wobble over loose. One was another 18" from behind more mid river bolder action.



Then this guy happened.

Mike managed to shake it loose with some plyers. That's when you know you have a good fishing partner, takes pictures of your fish and unhooks angry reptiles! Cheers, Mike!

I ended up with 21. 3 LMB in there. Plenty of size, too. 2 18", 1 just short of 17", a 16", 2 15"s, and a mess of 14's.

Mike stuck with the buzzbait most of the day and had some good fish on it.

09/09/06 Clusterfrick X

Met up with Matt, JasonII, Gary, and JoeHoward for a Clisterfick (X?) this morning at 8. Got on the water 9ish.

The water was stained, with visbility about 18". Wading felt good in the low 80 air.

JoeHoward, Gary, and myself fished a section of stream in the midst of a clean up, which was not a problem, but for the AIRBOATS that passed a dozen times. Headache. The fishing seemed off.

Joe caught a smallie on a red crank that had lampreys attached to it.

A fish ambushed a red Lucky Craft CB 1-2 foot diver off one bank near current, jumped and peeled drag like crazy. By the time I landed it, it was my largest fish from this flow, 19".





Not long after that, I was casting downstream at the start of a chokepoint in current when my Red Lucky C CB stopped again. I thought it was a big cat at first. It turned out to be my first 20"er of the year and my new record for the stream!



My pics are not so great because the sunlight made it tough to see the lcd, Joe snapped a couple that may have turned out better.

What the hell was going on?

The rest of the day we picked up fish here and there. Slow. Gary caught a Sauger, a couple of Bluegills. Around 10 fish total which were mostly dinks. However, Gary had a fight with a mamouth something under a log that broke him off. Good news was JoeHoward started catching a few more too. Joe caught 5 or 6 on cranks throughout the day.

At the end of the day (6 hour float), I caught only 7 bass, 5 on red cranks and 2 on tubes. But I could care less. Fish wouldn't touch the buzz for either of us.

Both Gary and Joe are good guys to float and shoot shit with. By the end of the float, we were burnt. Between sun, parents yelling at their kids, and AIRBOATS VRRRRRROOOOOOMMMMM! It was great to see people cleaning up the river. Good job guys.