April brings by tradition a long overnight float with the Jackson three. It's always an adventure this early in the year - cold fronts wind and rain and other unpredictable occurrences make for interesting times on the water. It never fails to rain on these kind of trips. Never. We have pretty much deemed it up to fate that it will rain and we weren't disappointed.
High flows caused us to reschedule from last week to Good Friday. Flannel and myself were off but unfortunately our friend SMBHooker had to work. The forecast looked excellent so we have to push forward without the 3rd member of our crew. It was heartbreaking but of course he had to put the pressure on us by catching a 19 before our trip even began.
So we got off to sort of a rough start and had to call a audible, putting in at a different location than intended due to unforeseen circumstances. Getting on the water later rain drops began to accumulate quickly. Then heavily. Weather man said 0 percent chance of rain. It poured. The temperature dropped. We froze. But the fishing really began to heat up..
We hit a fast water area that spilled into a whirlpool like hole and accomplished a rare feat.. a two species river triple !!!
Notice the looks on our faces... smiling but as soon as we put the fish back in we were not smiling so much... wet and cold!!! But the fish were biting and biting very well. We caught lots of fish on seams and fast water areas, including tons of small largemouth. We have thus determined that all largemouth under 15 inches are in fact stupid.
The rock bass were fat and aggressive...
Each of us Landing FOs and me completing master angler for the year. Fun fighters and as Flan said they are the crack heads of the bass world !
The day wore on and the rain and cold turned to sun and heat. The fishing really slowed down but we still brought fish to hand. One of the real keys was focusing on seams and with the higher water levels we were able to do well on small plunge pools...
It was getting late after a long 10 miles on the water and we were famished. Absolutely beat. We pulled into our home for the night .. small island with rushing fast water on each side. Makes for a lovely evening fishing the island pools where more fatties were found ...
Absolutely exhausted after hanging our hammocks we settled in to a night by the fire and gourmet burgers slow cooked over glowing coals..
I think we set a record going to sleep much earlier than any other overnight. But we were beat. And we slept well hanging from the trees with the water as melody.
The morning brought overcast skies and wind and of course Jetboil coffee and biscuits and gravy. We launched out and paddled a short way before shuffling trucks and hitting another two miles of prime real estate. The fishing was much slower but some fish still came to down. I caught a beast of a 17 incher after seeing one small minnow jump from the water and immediately casting. I injured my thumb Thursday night and couldn't hardly move it ... (I was unable to use a bait caster the whole trip lol) and when I tried to lip the fish for a measurement and photo he escaped. But that's how the big fatties live long I suppose!
We ended with a few decent fish and a very nice specimen on the deep seam pattern...
Takeout was a welcome spot and another spring overnight was in the books. Not sure how many we caught over a two day trip but the numbers were high even though most were small. Quite fun using light spinning gear on small craw imitations!
High flows caused us to reschedule from last week to Good Friday. Flannel and myself were off but unfortunately our friend SMBHooker had to work. The forecast looked excellent so we have to push forward without the 3rd member of our crew. It was heartbreaking but of course he had to put the pressure on us by catching a 19 before our trip even began.
So we got off to sort of a rough start and had to call a audible, putting in at a different location than intended due to unforeseen circumstances. Getting on the water later rain drops began to accumulate quickly. Then heavily. Weather man said 0 percent chance of rain. It poured. The temperature dropped. We froze. But the fishing really began to heat up..
We hit a fast water area that spilled into a whirlpool like hole and accomplished a rare feat.. a two species river triple !!!
Notice the looks on our faces... smiling but as soon as we put the fish back in we were not smiling so much... wet and cold!!! But the fish were biting and biting very well. We caught lots of fish on seams and fast water areas, including tons of small largemouth. We have thus determined that all largemouth under 15 inches are in fact stupid.
The rock bass were fat and aggressive...
Each of us Landing FOs and me completing master angler for the year. Fun fighters and as Flan said they are the crack heads of the bass world !
The day wore on and the rain and cold turned to sun and heat. The fishing really slowed down but we still brought fish to hand. One of the real keys was focusing on seams and with the higher water levels we were able to do well on small plunge pools...
It was getting late after a long 10 miles on the water and we were famished. Absolutely beat. We pulled into our home for the night .. small island with rushing fast water on each side. Makes for a lovely evening fishing the island pools where more fatties were found ...
Absolutely exhausted after hanging our hammocks we settled in to a night by the fire and gourmet burgers slow cooked over glowing coals..
I think we set a record going to sleep much earlier than any other overnight. But we were beat. And we slept well hanging from the trees with the water as melody.
The morning brought overcast skies and wind and of course Jetboil coffee and biscuits and gravy. We launched out and paddled a short way before shuffling trucks and hitting another two miles of prime real estate. The fishing was much slower but some fish still came to down. I caught a beast of a 17 incher after seeing one small minnow jump from the water and immediately casting. I injured my thumb Thursday night and couldn't hardly move it ... (I was unable to use a bait caster the whole trip lol) and when I tried to lip the fish for a measurement and photo he escaped. But that's how the big fatties live long I suppose!
We ended with a few decent fish and a very nice specimen on the deep seam pattern...
Takeout was a welcome spot and another spring overnight was in the books. Not sure how many we caught over a two day trip but the numbers were high even though most were small. Quite fun using light spinning gear on small craw imitations!
