Floated Shelvin Rock To Hootentown - Saturday Aug. 30

[Flysmallie]

Put in a Shelvin around 9:30am with a lot of cloud cover. It was pretty quiet and the fishing was good until the sun came out. All that sun caused a major aluminum hatch and both of those pretty much shut the fishing down.

We did get checked by a couple of conservation agents that had themselves a nice little setup in the shade. It was nice to see them out there checking everybody that was fishing.

Talked to a man and woman that had been checked. They put in the same time we did. They received a ticket because they had 2 smallmouth under the length limit. We had ran accross them several times during the day and it looked like they were keeping everything that they caught.

It was nice to see the MDC out there doing their job and catching a couple of poachers.

[RSBreth]

I was fishing from H.L. Kerr to Galena. Put in way before anyone else, about 5:45 A.M. I was on a quest for a monster Smallie that I didn't see today.

The fog was awesome.

Caught lots of green fish, some nice Smallies, but didn't see any MDC or any other "official" folks. That's too bad, I could have handed out several tickets myself, thankfully none for keeping illegal fish- just for being drunk and stupid.

Galena was a madhouse this afternoon, good luck anyone who goes down to launch this evening, I've seen biker keg parties that were more well-mannered.

Kudos to MDC on checking that part of the river where you floated, it's bad there too these days. Just sorry it screwed up your fishing.

I whiffed on the hookset when a nice Smallie finally hit, and it's all my fault.

[Flysmallie]

If they gave out tickets for drunk and stupid the river would be a traffic jam.

Kerr to Galena has been very busy a lot lately. Most have seemed well mannered but you always find a few idiots out there. A few weeks ago I was down there with my 9 year old daughter. We passed this gravel bar that must have had 30 of the rivers finest just hanging out. My daughter looks back at me and real quietly says; "Look Dad, it's a whole redneck family". Gosh, I love that girl!

Yes it was nice to see MDC out. That's the second weekend in a row that I've been checked. Last weekend was at Pomme de Terre. If he would have checked the boat just down from us he could have written a ticket. When we got close to the next boat they asked if it was MDC. They were real nervous since they didn't have fishing licenses.

I just don't get these people. If I was going to break the law I wouldn't tell everybody about it. I guess that's one of the problems with drunk and stupid.