Float & Fish Report 5/16-18

[ollie]

First, I will give kudos to Russ and Jean-ann. Well, mainly Jean, she did all the work! Great service over at the Hog Heaven and if you need current up to date info on the Elk or Big Sugar he's the man to call.

Second, I'll just have to tell a little story of my trip down the Big Sugar. My neighbor decided to go with me this last weekend and I can't stop thinking about it. We arrived right at 11:00 on Friday morning at the Hog and got our stuff all together. I was a little paranoid about the weight of my kayak so I had to take it out of the truck and check the way it looked in the water. I was a little worried that I would be sitting super low in the water. We planned on floating and fishing for two nights and three days and I had never had the yak loaded with that much stuff! After putting it in the water and seeing that it would be ok, we were ready to hit the water. After taking off to Powell we got to our put-in around 12:30 and started our adventure for the weekend. Water had spiked the night before so I wasn't too sure what we would be up against as far as the current goes. I've floated this entire stream at different times of the year and when the water was high so I only had three major worries. The Rock ledge, Craig O' Lea bridge, and strainers! Come to find out it should have only been two major worries. We fished whenever we could find slack water on slower parts of the river. That was sorta hard to find Friday with a good flow going. We were cruising downstream at times and then other times we got lucky and found slack water. Then we came to the ledge. I have had past problems with this part of the creek. About 8 years ago my wife and I wiped out on the ledge and the canoe got pinned on a rock with rushing water over the top. It took everything I had to get that canoe out so I was a little worried when we got to the ledge. When my neighbor and I got to the ledge those old memories came back. Here's how it goes; you go around an s curve then you hit flat water that is picking up speed because it is nothing but flat rock for about 50 yards. Then the waves start. You are bobbing and weaving for about 30-40 yards, then you drop. My neighbor went first and I was really worried about him. He has never run anything like that and his kayak isn't really designed for anything but ponds and slow water. He disappeared from sight since I was like 20 yards behind him. I hit the waves next. That ledge comes up fast and then your there. When the water is up and flowing that is definetly a class II run. We both made it through, but we both got wet also from the bow going down and coming back up. It was GREAT!!! Now the blood was flowing. We kept going on until we got just about to Cyclone and we made camp for the night. After getting set-up, eating, and getting a big fire going we headed back out to fish. Oh yea, just thought I would tell you, if you eat dehydrated meals make sure you don't add too much water. Taste like crap. We ended up catching over 50 smallies for the first day. Not bad for not being on the water all day. When we were setting up camp a big doe jumped into the water and crossed about 20 yards from us. We all just stood there and watched each other for about a minute and then she walked off. When we went to bed you could hear the dogs signing and the frogs croaking. Great first day on the river. I just wished I would have packed a different sleeping bag. I packed a fleece bag and it just didn't cut it. It was a cold night on the creek. Temps in the 40's I heard.

Saturday morning was tough getting up and around since neither one of slept worth a crap. We broke camp and went downstream to camp Tildens looking for ice and water. Man did we luck out. When we got to the campground we didn't see anyone. We went ahead and went up to the store hoping it would be open. The sign said closed, but the door was open. We peeked inside and there was an older woman in there pricing merchandise for the Memorial weekend. She went ahead and let us buy a couple of sodas and bottles of water. What we were really looking for was ice! She said they didn't have any and we offered to pay gas to go into Pineville. Then she decided to look into the freezer for us. You guessed it, the last bag left over from last year. Solid block, but we could care less and we felt lucky to get ahold of it. After that we had to port at Cyclone. Things were picking up as far as people getting on the creek. At the bridge there were at least 4 boats putting in and we overheard a father and son talking about how they had never done this before. Trouble was in store for them we could tell. Sure enough, not even a quarter-mile downstream they had tipped over in a strainer. Luckily for them they were with others who could help them out. Saturday we didn't catch as many fish, but I landed the biggest of the trip at 15". We only caught a couple of goggle-eye and one greenie. The rest were all smallies from 10-14". When we got to the Craig O' Lea bridge we were pretty much paddling and fishing as much. Here's a question for you, "how do you know your in Mac County on a stream"? You float by a truck that is stuck in middle of the stream with the water up to the doors. You know it's going to get crazy when you see this on the river in the morning. That was just upstream from the bridge. When we got to the bridge there was a crowd over on the side cheering on everyone going over the bridge. We decided to port and watch some others as they attempted to go over. Some made it and some didn't, but no one got hurt and that was good. I ended up tipping over in the yak, something I have never done since I have owned it. That has been over five years now. I tipped getting back into the current. All things were recovered and I had dry bags so nothing important got wet. After that it was one canoe after another and the fishing really slowed down for us. Never saw any fish on the beds until Sunday. I'm wondering if the high water moved them off until it started going down. Either way I know we didn't take any off the beds. Let's see, we also saw two canoes pinned under strainers and saw numerous people wipe out. It's a wonder more don't get hurt down there. Some was due to heavy alcohol use and the others to inexperiance. We made camp again on the stream and this time we didn't go back out and fish. We couldn't find that perfect beach until it was too late. I think we hit the hay around 10:00 and slept until seven the next morning. Sunday morning just plain sucked. Too tired and sore from the paddling to even think about fishing, but we did manage to land a couple before we needed to take out. By the time we joined the Elk river the water was really moving. More of a float than a lazy fishing day. All in all we had a blast and we figured the first day we caught 60 smallies between the two of us. Saturday we only landed about a dozen each and Sunday only a couple for both of us. Once again thanks to the Heaven for pointing out the strainers and portages from Cyclone downstream. Oh, I almost forgot, I won't be posting pics because the disposable camera I took along wasn't in the drybag, but up front when I took on the ledge and did get wet. Sorry about that.

[GloryDaze]

Ollie- Thanks for the trip report...man oh man am I jealous after hearing about your weekend!! I can't believe how many fish you caught, I bet the water is real nice right now. I have to tell you that rock ledge suprised the heck out of me when I floated a few weeks ago, but I enjoyed it as much a you guys did. It looks like you floated at about the same water level I did at 4.5 ft on the Powll gauge. I know my float was fast, how did you manage to slow down enough to fish??

Glad to hear you had such a blast!!

[Phil Lilley]

We are heading over to that area on Thursday and float somewhere... I've put that decision on Russ- he's going to take care of us.

Taking the family over- Marsha, Greg and Caleb, Megan and Jimmy and possibly Aaron, our live-in college kid. We're looking forward to our first float of the season.

Am taking a bunch of sculpin jigs... they are smally killers. Well, catch-n-release killers.

[ollie]

We were using jigs also on the first day. A crawdad color and an olive/brown color that I both tie. If you head over that way Phil, be very careful of the strainers. They will eat more canoes now that the river level is going down. Glory, we had to hit and run gorilla warfare style to catch them smallies! When we found an area that was good, we would make several passes at it before we went downstream. I am still pretty sore form all the paddling upstream we did, but of course it was worth it in the end.

[Phil Lilley]

Russ said Cyclone to Hog Heaven... less people.

I'm going to collect as much info about the area as I can and build a section on oa for the Elk and Big Sugar. Any info would be helpful. I'll work on it when I get back.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I ended up tipping over in the yak,

Now I'm really sorry I didn't go. :lol:

I'm glad to hear you had a good trip.

[ollie]

Should have stuck with it Wayne and not bailed, you would have enjoyed yourself. Plus you would have got to laugh at me!

[Chief Grey Bear]

Sounds like a great time Ollie. We are gonna have to hook up sometime.