Cedar Grove To Aker's Ferry

[FishinCricket]

The wife decided (on Saturday night) that she wanted to come with me to the Current (which of course totally changed my "wading at tan vat for the first time ever" plans, shucks), so I quickly drummed up everything that we neede for a canoe trip. We arrived at Jadwin's Canoe Rental at 9:30 am and didn't get onto the water until 10:15 am. I figured the fishing day was pretty well shot and I was in for quite a bit of paddling through good fishing spots.

I was wrong, and pleasantly suprised. First allow me to say that you really need to address this particular section of river in two manners, and even give it two names, "Above" welch spring and "Below" it.. Above it seemed like the best spots (from a canoe) were in the deep blue holes, and more importantly the top and bottom of those holes. I was able to drum up one good sized smallie in the middle of a deep hole, but that was abnormal, it seemed. Mainly smallies and Goggleye competing for food, so alot of goggleye and perch hook ups with a smallmouth chaser...

Only one trout above Welch, and it wasn't exactly a large one (6 inches). I was just casting the "pinkie" around at the edges of the weedbeds at the end of one of those long slower holes and he came out from underneath the brush. I thought it was a minnow or something at first, then he fought like a bulldog baby smallie, but it was a dang rainbow! My wife was impressed...

Anyways, the highlight of the "Above Welch" portion was the rock bluff just upstream from the spring itself. It had a tree hanging down into the river, and the water was a real pretty deep blue, it looked like ice. I sat in that same spot catching Goggleye for a good twenty minutes, one every cast. Only one was a lunker by Gogglie standards (10 inches), but he sure felt like a two pound Smallmouth, a truly enjoyable fight on an ultralight rod. Also another highlight was the wife hooked a very good sized smallmouth dragging her rebel teeny craw behind the boat through one of those fast moving deep holes, but she couldn't land it. ("Baby, keep your rod tip up, quit pointing it at the fish! Don't lean that far, give it some drag! Did you move your drag? Oh, you were playing with it before cause you didn't know what it was, huh? <- All things I didnt say to my wife, lol)

Below Welch: Actually, at the confluence it's a totally different river! Big swirls on both sides produced a couple smallies a piece for us and one trout that fought like the dickens and jumped twice before doing me the favor of releasing himself.. From welch down it was TOTALLY different habitat for the fish. Big blue holes here and there, and every depression seemed to hold a fish or two. Immediately we started seeing big trout chasing and even a monster smallie or two coming out from the still spots and depressions. Lots of schools of bait fish and big suckers. Just all in all very beautiful territory...

The wife used the same teeny crawl all day and I used the same two lures (1/16th oz White maribou with pink head and a 1/8th oz Rainbow colored Kastmaster spoon) on my two ultralights. Deep and slow seemed to be the key. All in all my wife quit counting at 40 fish to the boat (Seems like a caught almost that many goggleeye, though!). No trophies by any means, but a great float trip and some really defined fishing waters... Spoke with alot of friendly locals and all seemed helpful in offering advice on what to fish with and which other stretches of that river (and other nearby rivers) we should try out next. We didn't see much in the way of trash, but we still managed to fill up both our trash sacks they provided (we always do, even though it usually means a swim or two).

Thanks to Jadwins Canoe rental, and a Special thanks to Scudz_Rule for suggesting which river to hit, I'll look forward to my return trip soon! Next time I'll bring my waders and my fly rod.....

[ozark trout fisher]

The wife decided (on Saturday night) that she wanted to come with me to the Current (which of course totally changed my "wading at tan vat for the first time ever" plans, shucks), so I quickly drummed up everything that we neede for a canoe trip. We arrived at Jadwin's Canoe Rental at 9:30 am and didn't get onto the water until 10:15 am. I figured the fishing day was pretty well shot and I was in for quite a bit of paddling through good fishing spots.

I was wrong, and pleasantly suprised. First allow me to say that you really need to address this particular section of river in two manners, and even give it two names, "Above" welch spring and "Below" it.. Above it seemed like the best spots (from a canoe) were in the deep blue holes, and more importantly the top and bottom of those holes. I was able to drum up one good sized smallie in the middle of a deep hole, but that was abnormal, it seemed. Mainly smallies and Goggleye competing for food, so alot of goggleye and perch hook ups with a smallmouth chaser...

Only one trout above Welch, and it wasn't exactly a large one (6 inches). I was just casting the "pinkie" around at the edges of the weedbeds at the end of one of those long slower holes and he came out from underneath the brush. I thought it was a minnow or something at first, then he fought like a bulldog baby smallie, but it was a dang rainbow! My wife was impressed...

Anyways, the highlight of the "Above Welch" portion was the rock bluff just upstream from the spring itself. It had a tree hanging down into the river, and the water was a real pretty deep blue, it looked like ice. I sat in that same spot catching Goggleye for a good twenty minutes, one every cast. Only one was a lunker by Gogglie standards (10 inches), but he sure felt like a two pound Smallmouth, a truly enjoyable fight on an ultralight rod. Also another highlight was the wife hooked a very good sized smallmouth dragging her rebel teeny craw behind the boat through one of those fast moving deep holes, but she couldn't land it. ("Baby, keep your rod tip up, quit pointing it at the fish! Don't lean that far, give it some drag! Did you move your drag? Oh, you were playing with it before cause you didn't know what it was, huh? <- All things I didnt say to my wife, lol)

Below Welch: Actually, at the confluence it's a totally different river! Big swirls on both sides produced a couple smallies a piece for us and one trout that fought like the dickens and jumped twice before doing me the favor of releasing himself.. From welch down it was TOTALLY different habitat for the fish. Big blue holes here and there, and every depression seemed to hold a fish or two. Immediately we started seeing big trout chasing and even a monster smallie or two coming out from the still spots and depressions. Lots of schools of bait fish and big suckers. Just all in all very beautiful territory...

The wife used the same teeny crawl all day and I used the same two lures (1/16th oz White maribou with pink head and a 1/8th oz Rainbow colored Kastmaster spoon) on my two ultralights. Deep and slow seemed to be the key. All in all my wife quit counting at 40 fish to the boat (Seems like a caught almost that many goggleeye, though!). No trophies by any means, but a great float trip and some really defined fishing waters... Spoke with alot of friendly locals and all seemed helpful in offering advice on what to fish with and which other stretches of that river (and other nearby rivers) we should try out next. We didn't see much in the way of trash, but we still managed to fill up both our trash sacks they provided (we always do, even though it usually means a swim or two).

Thanks to Jadwins Canoe rental, and a Special thanks to Scudz_Rule for suggesting which river to hit, I'll look forward to my return trip soon! Next time I'll bring my waders and my fly rod.....

Sounds like a nice trip. How long did the float take? That might be a fun one to try sometime.

[FishinCricket]

Sounds like a nice trip. How long did the float take? That might be a fun one to try sometime.

I am a slow floater, so anyone else could make it downstream faster, but we got on about 10:30 and got off around 7:30.. It was a good trip...

Next float will be Baptist to Cedargrove, we'll have to get the wife one of those single hook spinners... lol

[Gavin]

Sounds like a great trip....The river really changes below Welch..Not many trout on the upper end when the water is low because they dont stock it, but it sure is pretty. If your wife is a spinner fisher, I wouldnt get her any single hook rooster tails...They have an incredibly bad hook on them...The lure will draw strikes, but the hook is down eye and its absolutely worthless for hooking fish...Use the one with the treble, its legal,and crush the barbs...Or if you want to go single hook, break the barbs of two of the treble points. Works a heck of alot better. Cheers.

[FishinCricket]

Sounds like a great trip....The river really changes below Welch..Not many trout on the upper end when the water is low because they dont stock it, but it sure is pretty. If your wife is a spinner fisher, I wouldnt get her any single hook rooster tails...They have an incredibly bad hook on them...The lure will draw strikes, but the hook is down eye and its absolutely worthless for hooking fish...Use the one with the treble, its legal,and crush the barbs...Or if you want to go single hook, break the barbs of two of the treble points. Works a heck of alot better. Cheers.

thanks for the advice, I was mainly thinking single hook spinners for her for the next trip (Baptist to Cedargrove), single hooks only there, right? (trophy waters?)

[Gavin]

Its restricted to flies and artificial lures only....Trebles hooked lures like rapalas and inline spinners are perfectly legal. DONT forget to pack some rapalas. Cheers.

[FishinCricket]

Its restricted to flies and artificial lures only....Trebles hooked lures like rapalas and inline spinners are perfectly legal. DONT forget to pack some rapalas. Cheers.

Wowcool! I assumed that all "fly only" waters are single hook only as well.. I've been hanging around BSSP too long, apparently.. lol

[ozark trout fisher]

Wowcool! I assumed that all "fly only" waters are single hook only as well.. I've been hanging around BSSP too long, apparently.. lol

Nope, any artificials legal,except soft plastics.

Cedar to Akers sounds like fun, maybe a good float for the scenery first and fishing second,although the goggle-eye fishing sounds pretty good.

[KCRIVERRAT]

Nice report Cricket! Man, it's been awhile since I floated CG to Akers. Started doing it when I was 16 (50 now...ugh). In the old days you could swim in the springs (naive!). Worked our way up the cave a little ways there at Welch. Pretty neat. Signs posted now I think for not swimming in the springs. Did you check out the old asthma treatment place and do they still have a sign there concerning the Indiana bats?

KC

[FishinCricket]

I did check put the old Hospital, they had a sign there explaining the history.. But I didn't see any signs about bats..

Thanks for all the responses guys, it was a fun trip but if I had to do it again I would seriously consider spending all my fishing time in about 4 select holes.. I saw some really good fish that I either spooked, missed, or had to float past..