Chief Grey Bear

Did you work the old Mike and Ike Jeff?

Sweet! The offer still stands!

These came from that place. I don't think they use them anymore though. Or so I thought I heard. I'll have to check on that.

Hit the water again about 9:30. As I was putting in, the wife asked me if I brought my lead. I had forgot it on my last trip and sure enough, I forgot it again. My lead it is about a 80lb ingot from Doe Run that I use as a weight in the front of my canoe so the nose doesn't stick up in the air so much. I actually have two of them but can't find one of them. On my trip last week, someone had left some larger logs for a fire, so I tossed them in the front and they worked just fine. This time though, there was no wood. I did know of a spot up stream a little from where I put in that should have some big rocks. So I paddled up stream a ways and found one. I liked it so well and it was such good company all day long, I brought it home. As with most fishing trips, it seems, the action was slow to start. I tried topwater again and periodically throughout the day. Nothing. So as always, I began tossing my favorite Tadpolly to see what was going on. And it wasn't long and I was on the scoreboard. Then nothing for a little while. I get out one of my favorite shad cranks and it is game on! I started picking fish right and left! Brownies and LM. Funny thing though, in the last month, I have not caught one Kentucky. So I am now about 45 minutes into the float and I am working a log along a high bank. Then I hear the strangest noise. I look up and right down stream in front of me, a flock of turkeys is flying across the river almost at the point of my canoe. I could literally see the pupils of their eyes. I thanked them for the arial display and I went on about my business as they did theirs. A few fish and about a mile later, I am quietly floating and casting to the other bank oppisite from where I am. I don't usually do that but didn't really care so much about boat possition at this particular time. This is also though, a great way to pick up some brownies from the middle water. As I slowly floated with the current, I passed by a River Birch and just on the downstream side of it was a patch of willow weed. In that patch I came face to face with a fawn. We both looked each other with a surpised look and it seemed to finally realized that it needed to get the heck out of here! It retreated up the bank and I lost site of it. About a minute later I heard the doe sounding off. I kinda chuckled at the thought of the feller getting a butt chewing for being so close to such imminent danger! Either that or she was yelling at me for scaring her baby! So know I am about 5 hrs into this trip and I don't have a clue as to how many fish. I come up on area that has a sharp bend but it is slow water. There are logs and brush in this bend but nothing even remotly close do dangerous. I make a hook up and release the fish. I make a few cast and then move on to the next set of logs. I make another hook up and as I am reeling him in, it gets wrapped around a stick. A nano second later, its free. The bad part though is, the fish kept my Tadpolly. And it was my all time favorite, go to, customized it myself, fish catching machine, when they would bite nothing else it would produce Tadpolly! I was sick. I almost didn't feel like continuing on. I had a back up but it was a different model in that it had a narrow bill. The narrow billed Tadpolly's don't have anywhere near the wobble as the wider billed ones do. But it was of the same color pattern that I customized my favorite from. So I got out a skirt, put it on the belly hook and began trying to force myself to use it. I will give it credit though, it did produce fish. But it just doesn't work like the other one did. So I am off to Ebay to score TWO more for some customizing. I forgot to mention that when I first pulled into my put in spot, the wife reminded me that there was a huge log jam down stream that was very difficult to manuver. We had encountered it earlier this year when we all took a family float. I told her we have had some big floods since then, maybe it has a hlol blown in it. NOPE! even worse now! But someone has been through there with a chainsaw and made it some what better. There is a hole just wide enough to get a canoe through but you still have to get it up and over the jam. And! AND! The Poision Ivy on the back side of this hole is bigger and thicker now! And the strange thing about the place, and I wish I could have gotten to my camera at this point, there was a female snapping turtle up in this hole that you had get through. You talk about a workout! I do not know how this ol' girl done it! I think she was going to lay he eggs there. But holy cow! I can not describe to you with words how difficult it had to have been for her to get to where she was! So I get through that and the sun is making its daily run for the horizon and this fishing is still good. But I think to myself, I am getting bored. How can a person get bored with fishing? Heck if I know. So I decide I am going to take a little break and just slowy float with the current. I kick back in my seat and throw my feet up. I lay the paddle across my waist and adjust the trajectory of the canoe as needed. Boy that spot looks good. Down go my feet and up comes a rod. I can't do it. I have to fish. And so goes another day on an Ozark stream. Here are some highlights from the trip. Catch of the day!

OMG! He is going the way of the Hippie Liberal Commie Scumbags! Next thing you know he'll be moving to San Fan and hugging trees!

Thought I would throw these in for fun.

I am still recovering, financially mostly, from my truck being stolen the other weekend. I had a chance to go east and do an overnighter with a fellow member last weekend but declined because I had just a couple of things left to be done to kinda get over this hump. I was however able to sneek in a little floating on Sunday with the help of my wonderful wife. So I did. I told her I would make it somewhat of a quicky, no laughing!, and be home kinda early. Don't know why but I did. I picked a 4 miler and hit the water about 9:15, after getting all of the shuttling done. After I got home, I wished I would have picked it apart a little more. I was only on the water about 5hrs. The rivers were in good shape last weekend and should be in even better shape this weekend. Now before this last bout of rain, I was killing them on top water. I mean an all day buffet! Big fish too! Some up close to 4lbs. Not so last weekend. They seemed to be sticking very tight to brush. I didn't catch a ton of fish, maybe in the high teens, but they were all quailty fish. And of that only one was a brownie. And he was right on a high mud bank with brush. I did catch a couple of pound, pound and half'ers on soft plastics but all other were cranks. And you really had to get them in the brush. I have a method that I use when brush fishing that is hard to put in words but there are a couple on here that have fished with me and I have shown them this technique and it will really improve your catch rates and it is a blast to do. I remember as a kid watching my dad do it and I thought he was crazy. But it worked every time. One thing I did wrong on this trip was I floated to fast. I am fixing to head out here again in a minute and that is my goal today. Slow down, work the brush find those fish I floated right past the other day. Here is some of my fish from that trip.

OH don't get me wrong. I strongly believe he did it Jack. I just kinda got side tracked on the DNA stuff and thought abou this poor kid.

You gotta watch Buzz. These fish grow every year he tells these stories. They started out at 3#'s! I don't know what the suvival rate is or would be for this creek. One thing to remember though is that Browns are mainly a nocturnal species. And none of us are fishing for them at night. It is not impossible to catch one in the daylight, especially during the winter months, but your chances are slim unless you happen to get there right after a delivery. My first brown was actually caught in Shoal Creek.

Mine is in my garage. I don't like them being in the sun all the time.

Johnny Lee Wilson. http://themip.org/JohnnyWilson

Yeah but kid was mentally disabled and they talked him into confessing.

I was trying to think of that young mans name from Aurora back in the 80's that got railroaded into prison. I think it was DNA that set him free. Finally! All the detectives and DA should be in prison for life for what they did to him!!!

Who is that? I really need to start measuring my bass!

If I am taking a trip somewhere, I'll keep an eye on the weather. If they get a ton of rain, I can easily figure it aint worth going. He isn't making a trip. He is fishing water he fishes all the time.

http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_22376_-1__?color=Threadfin+Shad&N=97009336+4294963664 Not that different from these. Kinda makes Joe's point in another thread.

Glad I never got hooked on this guage thing. If I want to fish a creek, I fish it. If it hasn't rained in the last few days, I have never had a problem. If it hasn't rained in the last few months, even better. Ha, I never knew about guages until I signed up on this site. I wonder how I did it all those years.

Define attended? If you have 20, that can cover a lot of ground. Or water in this case. Just saying, if you start gathering up some jugs and a boat starts chasing you, don't be surprised if they are less than congenial.

You might want to be careful about that. You go around cutting trotlines, you might end up as bait. And don't think for a minute that because you see a jug in daylight, it is lost. Lots of people jug in the day too.

Well, not quite. Ollie does host a get together every year on the SUNDAY, my bad in the original post, after Thanksgiving. I started calling it Olliefest years ago and it just kinda stuck. It is a great way for those of this forum to meet, eat, fish, and swap stories.

I swore I posted to this yesterday. Awesome!

Because they don't stock during the summer months. Late Feb early March is the last stocking until November. Mark your calander for the first saturday after Thanksgiving. That is when they have a big festival at Capp's to mark the beging of the trout stocking. People from all around flock to this mecca of trout. They have games and contest and good food. There as also dancing. It is mostly polka and they have a local polka band from Pulaskifield playing. And if you know the right people, you can score a little shine or just enjoy the Beer Garten. They have a trout contest every year too. It seems Ollie always wins as Buzz claims to always catch his fish after everybody else has left for the day. It is always a battle for trout supremacy that usually ends in a fist fight. Quite entertaining actually. They will start posting about it come this November so keep an eye out.

Gee Whiz Jerome, where have you been the last 10 years? Haven't you heard we must eradicate the Spotted Bass from every waterway in the US? Even native waters!!!

Yeah I know. Still doesn't taste better than 1. Walleye 2. Crappie 3. Goggle eye 4. Sauger 5. Saugeye 6. Smallmouth 7. Bluegill 8. Channel cat 9. Flathead 10. Blue cat 11. Redhorse 12. Yellow sucker 13. Night crawler 14. June bug 15. Jitterbug

Well I agree they are not the best tasting fish swimming.