mzrealfish

I just got back from visiting my daughter in Columbia, SC. Left KC with a Samsung came home with an IPhone so lost some photos. Samsung quit taking a charge even on a pad. I walked the river walks and fished the Saluda and Congaree in Columbia. Pretty frequent access on both rivers if you are willing to walk. I had a blast scoping out sights for my daughter who just started grad school there. Caught 2 little stripers and 2 little smallmouth all on white swim shad on a Ned. I floated the New river in northern NC with my dad for Father’s Day. We caught some goggle eye, rainbows and smallmouth all on white tiger cranks and senkos. I then went to to French Broad and kayaked for the 1st time in my life. Chris at Lazy Otter was a great host. Sadly, the river was up and chocolate milk. Fun float, zero fish. I hit a couple of accesses between Asheville and Hot Springs. Water was better quality. Caught 8 smallmouth all on a rainbow trout print rooster tail. Lost a big 1 in the current. Bent out 2 of the hooks in the battle. I got to see her jump before she said goodbye. Easy 3 pounder. At that point, my Samsung died its last death. Headed to Knoxville and spent 2 hours at tmoblie. Not the highlight of my trip. Stayed the night in Corbin, Kentucky. Sat at the bar at a pizzeria by my hotel. Was almost involved in a bar fight. 2 guys, 1 on each side of me talking about the Piston’s coach getting fired but still getting paid 65 million left on his contract. The guy on my right was with his wife. He said “man, what I could do with 65 million!” Guy on the left said “you mean 32.5 million because she sure as hell would be taking half and leaving you!” I unrolled the silverware set and thankfully there was a steak knife. I casually placed it just to my right. I learned from that experience to always sit at the end of the bar. Always. Got on the Cumberland river with Sheltowee Trace Adventures the next morning. Mostly pastureland there. Not many riffles but good spots with big boulders. I didn’t catch anything big but had a great time. 18 smallmouth and 8 spotted. White senko weedless with no weight and top water mouse were very effective. Probably missed 60 strikes on the mouse but that is a me problem not the lure😏 I was supposed to head home the next day but decided to kayak the Elkhorn Creek outside of Frankfort, Ky instead. This was an expensive float but worthwhile. White swim shad on Ned and green senko weedless and no weight were the best performers. I did catch a few on white cranks and craw cranks. All smallmouth. 25 total. Tops of riffles were the most productive areas. Especially if there were weeds. I tried loading 2 other photos. Says my files are too big. There are lots of fun waters down that way. If you have the time, pull over. next year I am skipping the upper French Broad. 2 Junes in a row flooded. Might try the New in Virginia then work my way back west. Peace

Upper Little River is a good option as well.

Upper Little River is a good option as well.

Flatheads love crankbaits

Do not bring up: Should furries get litter boxes in their school?

Funny. Ruthless but funny. Thank you all. I needed this right now.

Polo fields off Kenneth Road ( not even sure if those are there anymore...might be soccer fields now) all the way to 95th Street used to be a ton of fun. We walked fished those areas from 1990ish until 2000ish. We caught and released some pretty amazing fish. Started seeing too many people with buckets keeping everything they caught. Good fish became fewer and further between. Boat landing behind the softball fields at 135th and holmes good put in for kayaks. Think about going back but I live at Lake Quivira now. I have all the fishing I really need seconds away.

Caught maybe 18 goggle eye. All on cranks. None much bigger than that 1.

So we spent the night at the Rodway Inn in Waynesville Thursday. Woke up and were at the Roubidoux access by 6 am to unolad. Watch your vehicle on the drive down and back up. Rutted and rough is the forecast even when dry. Ground clearance is an issue. My pathfinder loved the descent and the climb. My low front bumper guard did not have the same sentiment. So we unloaded the vehicle and my friends stayed to gear up the canoes. I went and picked up Andy at Rt. 66 canoe rental. He was ready and waiting. He dropped me off up top and I walked down. We were on the river by 8 am. River was up and moving but still had great color. We floated just past Riddle Bridge on Friday. Stopped at 4 pm. Overall fishing was slower then we had hoped for and expected though it was difficult to target fish. We literally caught them in every possible place just not regularly. Winning presentations were baby bass crank and texas rigged hula or Biffles. A few were caught on wild eye swimmers and senko style worms. Saturday we hung around camp until 11 and feasted on breakfast burritos and sipped on some coffee spiked with Dumond liqueur. Delicious! By 3 pm there was a significant discoloration and a ton of small debris in the water. Top, middle or bottom fishing resulted in something other than a fish on your hook 1 in 3 casts. Even weedless setups. We camped on a narrow bank because we were so close tl Hwy. 28. Tent was 8 feet from the river at bedtime and 2 inches from the river when we woke up. Still a great time. Friday I cooked burgers and brats. Saturday grilled steaks and gyro meatballs and served them all with a Thai noodle salad. We got to the bridge at 10:30 for pickup at 11. Andy was already there waiting for us.

Pictures will be up as soon as I can

Awesome! Thank you all. I will report my findings.

Good afternoon all. Floating Roubidoux to Hwy 28 this weekend. I've been watching the usgs gauges. Looks very nice. I'm wondering if anyone has driven by or over the river this week? Just wanted to get an idea of how it looks. The anticipation is killing me 😆 Thank you in advance, Mark

Great report. Thank you for sharing. I'm hoping to get a canoe trip in tbe weekend of March 12th. 🤞 Spring break at my school. Won't get another shot until mid May probably. Until then, I'll continue living vicariously through you all.

CV-69 Better to be 1st to an eventual party than 2nd. We all know Wuhan Red Death 69 is already in clinical trials in Seattle and San Francisco and Chicago and Minneapolis and Philadelphia and DC. Claim it and own it and copyright it before China creates it.

I call all of my boats “The Royal Debacle”. Sooner or later, I, or they make the name appropriate.