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It wasn’t too bad, we beached the kayaks and proceeded to
get out ,side saddle, and drag them along the edge of the bank. We both managed
to stay dry at this point. About 5 minutes later we ran into a series of
riffles, probably 100 yards long. This set of riffles was deeper and Amanda managed
to make it through them just by paddling, however I did not. As I was taking
the first rapid I noticed that I was headed toward a huge bolder so I adjusted
to the left and in the process I lost speed and my kayak started to drift back
down stream. All I could do was hang on, until I noticed myself going toward a
rather large limb sticking out above the water…which would surely break a few
rods if I hit it moving as fast as I was. So I did something I shouldn’t have
done, I tried to stop myself with my foot, and as my foot caught a rock my kayak tipped and my butt
became wet. It was worth saving my rods
for though. I quickly walked along the bank pulled a scupper plug to drain
water and caught up with Amanda. Here's a picture looking back at the lower
section of the 100 yard long riffles.
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We fished a couple more spots that produced a few small
spotted bass, but nothing like the previous spot. We decided that it had to do
with the current. The current on the first tree was very slack, almost
stagnant, and the current on the trees we fished that didn’t produce many fish
was almost to hard to fish. So with that in mind we developed a game plan and
decided to fish the slack water behind fallen trees and boulders.
Our last spot of the day was actually 2 trees that had
fallen in the water just downstream of a massive boulder that had fallen of a
nearby cliff. The water was so calm that we could have gotten away without
anchoring. I let Amanda have the downsteam side and I took the area just behind
the boulder, just upstream of the trees.
Before I could anchor I heard drag slipping and she soon asked me for a
hand. To our surprise she had landed a huge stream largemouth on a 5'
ultralight rod spooled with 6lb test in some rather nasty structure. We really
debated on calling it a spotted bass because its lower jaw did not extend
passed the eye, it was super short and fat like a football, and its mouth was
much rougher than most largemouth. I can’t say for certain if it had the rough
patch on its tongue. However going off of appearance we decided it was a largemouth
and a dandy at that. It went a short 18" and 3lbs 8oz.
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We took a few pics and released her back into the
water. I finally got back into position
and threw out my anchor. I set my float at 5' and started probing the
structure. We quickly found out that this tree was holding a school of crappie.
The largest of which went 12".
We managed to pull fish out of this spot until dark at a
rate of 1 fish for every 5 minutes... failing to hook 2 out of every 3 bites. We
presumed that it was small crappie trying to eat our large minnows. It was aggravating
but we were catching fish.
We fished for as long as we could, and probably longer than
we should have. It was my fault, I told
Amanda that we had waited all winter for a bite like this and that I wasn’t
going to leave just because it was getting close to dark. I took a picture as
we were heading back to the bridge and you can see that it was dark….real dark.
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We then realized that we had to pull the kayaks up the hill
in the dark. You can imagine how that worked out for me. If Amanda hadn’t
caught that bass, I’m pretty sure I would have heard about it all the way home. She
did fall one time, busting her knee up pretty bad, but she got back up and
helped me get the kayaks the rest of the way up the hill.
When we got home we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then
filleted the crappie we kept.
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Sean I'm glad you two had a great day. And man you are a lucky to have a partner in life asyou do with Miss Armanda.
ReplyDeleteGreat catch nice bass lil Lady.
WES
Louisana boy lost on Rocky Fork Lake.
Thanks Wes. I was very surprised that she landed that bass by herself without a net. Its hard enough to land a sizeable fish on an ultra light rod, but in a Kayak its even harder yet. She's becoming very independent....which means more fishing for me. LOL.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading.
That is some real nice fish there.I been fishing for crappie in a small feeder creek near my house and have got a few but nowhere near that many.Tons of gills bu not many crappies.I been fishing a crappie jig under a float and letting it drift twitching it every now and then and they just tear it up.I am a bank angler for now.I need to get a boat or a Kayak looks like a lot of fun.Well gratz on your catches.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Most of the fish have been coming off of large minnows under a float set around 3 feet deep suspended deep structure. They are really starting to heat up.
ReplyDelete