ColdWaterFshr

I don't know about you guys, but long floats in the heat of summer, especially any overnight gravel bar camping trips --- doesn't matter what river, unless it is heavily spring-fed, you really gotta hate yourself. And sleeping with your bodies in the water? , Al, wow, thats a new low, I've never been that miserable.

Post up a trip report when you get back, OTF. Good luck!

I agree with everyone. I hate horseflies, but I will go back to the Bourb. Some like blondes, some like brunettes, some prefer crazy redheads. Paul likes em all, and they all love Paul. P. Dallas

I'm in for only Thursday late afternoon thru Friday, heading home Friday evening before dinner. My son has a double header on Saturday that I can't miss.

I sold a few of my extras on eBay, but I'm still a million dollars short of being a millun-aire! fly-tyers have flooded ebay with their own stash . . . the shortage has crested, and the fad soon will too. The sellers market was 2-3 months ago.

Its always good to get out and float and have solitude. But for better fishing on the Bourbeuse, you need to go a good 50 miles upstream of where you put in -- not exaggerating. Get yourself out of that drum and spotted bass water!

There's a spot maybe a mile above Hwy 8 where Windrush Farms spring branch dumps in. I think the trout above Hwy 8 are more likely escapees from there than from Maramec Spring/trout park, but thats just a theory. I'm sure high water mixes them all over the place.

Whoa, son! NICE GATOR!

Topwaters work well in slack water directly adjacent to moving water. And every now and then a fish will chase one out into the current, or rise up from its protected lair that sits in the current. So, yes.

Steve Tyler of Aerosmith and I go way back. He started putting feathers in his hair after he saw the way his groupies were paying less attention to him than me. I used to sport some grizzly furnace hackle in my coiffure all the time. He took it and ran with it, and once again got all the glory. I gave him the idea for tying a bunch of bandanas to his mic stand too. Paul Dallas

Never called the rooster tail a sissy lure . . . just think its the wrong choice for bass-fishing the Bourbeuse, thats all. Rooster tails are great for whitebass, trout, sunfish, and bluegill. I've got a few in my tackleboxes as well and have bought dozens of them over the years. For fishing into schooling whitebass there is probably no better lure. For fishing at the opening siren at a trout park . . . . again, probably no better lure. But for targeting better sized largemouth or smallmouth on a river? . . . c'mon. Okay, yeah it is a sissy lure. The other thing about roostertails that blows is they don't hold up like they used to. Catch one dinky fish and that cheap ole wire gets bent so easy and will never spin right again. So there.

Duh! Ole Paul is gonna get ritch! Thanks, G.

Tell me how you did this. I got a few extras that I would part with. What'd you get for 1/4 saddles? Got several I'd part with -- and not to fly-fishermen. I want top dollar from ditzy stylist chicks.

Mountain lion mebbe, or perhaps a sasquatch.

Used to fish above Linden all the time, right where the lake tails out and becomes a creek. Some good holes back in there, but also a lot of stinging nettle.

Thats a bummer, joeD. I hate to read stuff like that. I tell you - the more I go, especially in the summertime, the more strange and seedy looking vandalous/thief/meth-head type folks I see. You're taking a chance leaving a vehicle unattended for any length of time these days. I would never leave any valuables in my car. And you see funny stuff too. Just a few weeks ago down on the Big River, saw this wooly looking gal that had no business wearing a bikini, bust up a bag of ice for her beer cooler . . . not by dropping it on the ground a few times, but by swinging it several times as hard as she could into the side of her Blazer's passenger door.

And better pack about 10 gallons of drinking water. Thats a long float in this heat.

Paul Dallas is in - but probably only for Thursday afternoon to Saturday morning. Floated Saturday from Lazy Days to Devils Elbow and got blanked, yes blanked. Might've had something to do with the 4 little crumb-snatchers I was towing in the inner-tube behind me. They were throwing rocks, and swimming and disturbing the peace. Saturday night camping at Lazy Days didn't get much better. It stormed for 6 hours straight - from about 11 pm to 5 a.m.. Never seen anything like it.

My thumb was taught by a half-breed Swedish-Mexican engineer named Abu Garcia. Never got its cap and gown or any gold ropes, but Abu's strict disciplinarian style afforded many scoldings of deep backlashes especially during the formative years of instruction and the thumb went onto become a serious weapon of bass destruction. Same thumb lipped many a bass over the gunwales and into the boat. But alas, Abu's bearings finally succumbed to overheating and the relentless punishment at the hands of its young jedi apprentice forcing the search for a new master. Enter Shimano Curado - another half-breed, but this time a Japanese Spanish Conquistador. And his textbook instructions leave a lot to be desired.

Coors Banquet or Old Style are my preferred yellow water beers. And I think Bud products are just fine too, but to hell with that company! Besides, I can't taste much difference between ANY of them, especially when they are ice cold. Do yourself a favor and save your money on yellow beers by getting the cheapest you can buy. Got some PBR in the fridge for my lawn mowing and fishing requirements right now in fact. Right next to the bottles of Stone for my more sophisticated drinking sessions. On to more important things. Just bought me a Shimano Curado yesterday - the 200E7 at BP for $139. Spooled it up with Maxima Ultragreen 10 lb. Can't wait to test it out. But in reading the instruction guide, I'm a little perplexed by the Variable Brake System (VBS). "The casting characteristics of the reel are easily modified by switching all or combinations of the six brake weights "on" or "off". Is this a trial and error type of deal? I gotta open that spool door and mess around with those little weights and find the right mix between that and the cast control knob? How am I ever going to settle on the right mix of all those endless combinations?

Bourbeuse = too slow, dingy, and too much frogwater. If you like horseflies, solitude, being snagged, paddling and or dragging . . . this is your river. I've only floated it 3 or 4 times in various places, but I much prefer the skinnier water way up by Hwy EE, Tea, and Koenig road the best - better fishing, more smallies, but also a lot of dragging. I do like the solitude of it though. Roostertails??? Seriously . . . roostertails?? Get some hardware, son.

Great pictures and report. Thank you. I went up last year for only 3 days and your pictures bring it all back to me. Beautiful up there, isn't it? We didn't have the best fishing, but we managed a bunch of mostly small to mid-sized smallmouth and I had a slightly smaller pike than yours explode 3 feet out of the water on a topwater. Will never forget it. Even though some of those portages were real butt-kickers (we did one 420 rod and a couple of 100 r), I can't wait to get back up there. I'd go tomorrow if I could.

I doubt that he did.

My brother floated the Jacks Fork last weekend with his family, putting in at 17 and taking out at Rhymers. They camped one night on the river. Had the perfect trip . . . that is, until they got to the take out at Rhymers. They found their vans rear axle propped up on a large rock, missing the left rear wheel! Fortunately, the thieves left the lugnuts and the hubcap. Still, had to get air for the doughnut spare and limp back to Springfield. I hate thieves. Hard to imagine that someone didn't see this happening as busy as Rhymers is during the summer.

They make extension cords for that you know. This ain't Green Acres. You don't have to climb the power pole to plug in the laptop. Seriously - glad she's okay.