Indian Creek - 4/3/10

[hoglaw]

Beautiful day on Saturday. Thought I'd take my brother up to the Elk and go from Noel down to 43. I called Russ at about 10 a.m. to arrange a shuttle. We headed to the Heaven and found him moving around without another soul in sight. I asked if he'd run a shuttle for us and he was a little reluctant. With no paying customers around, this was going to be Russ' float day too. Glory Daze was set up camping down by the river, and Russ indicated they were thinking about heading up Indian Creek. He offered to run us up there so we could get a headstart. We thought we would take it slow and bump into them on the river at some point that day, but some folks are a little quicker in the mornings than others. They must have stayed up late singing songs or something.

Anyway, I'm not sure where Russ took us, but it was about 12 miles or so up the Indian. The water was MOVING. We loaded up the canoe and put in around 11 I think. We were clipping along at a pretty good pace, but the fish weren't moving for us. We fished pretty hard and only managed three bites and three smallmouth on the whole float. I caught a dink, and my little brother caught a bruiser female and a dink. Not sure on the length, but she was pushing 3lbs.

Like I said, the water was really moving. We portaged a low water bridge about half way through the trip. Not far below that, we rounded a bend in a narrow fast chute. Dead ahead was a huge tree completely across the channel with a bunch of other brush piled on it. We were freaking out at this point because there was no turning back and we were in a good 6 ft of FAST water surrounded by big cut banks. We managed to grab onto limbs and ease up to the tree. After a good five minutes of planning and balancing acts, we managed to get our canoe over the snag and got safely in it on the other side. I was pretty much 50/50 that I'd never see the Loomis again.

In low water, I'm sure Indian is no thing. Saturday though, it was cruising. There were a couple of other tricky spots, but we managed to stay dry. Fishing was pretty poor in the fast water, and all of our (make that, all three) fish came from slower spots along the deepest pools we could find. All in all it was a beautiful day and I have the sunburn to prove it. Thanks for taking time out of your float day to put us in Russ. The Elk looked like the Mississippi when we got there. Was it still on the way up?

[eric1978]

Man, downed trees in fast current just freaks me out...the only thing that really worries me on rivers. What'd you take that big smallie on?

[GloryDaze]

Great to meet you and your little bro' Hoglaw. We didn't fair much better, we put in the same place as you did and managed 2 dinks between the three of us. And of course the local pro (Russ) landed both of them! You're right, the water was up and moving pretty fast- we didn't get hung up on that "iffy" spot but it definitely got the heart pumping as I jumped over the last log that was submerged.

The section just above the Elk, where there is about 200 yards of big waves was fun. Both Rob and Russ had to pull over and empty the water out of their boats... man, I don't know how they didn't flip since they were both half full of water.

We finfished the evening with a nice fire, couple of frosties and some big ol' T-bones Rob grilled up for us- it was a great trip!!

[hoglaw]

I wasn't sure if we could clear that tree or not. The last thing I wanted to do was get hung up on it in the middle and start going sideways - would have been a disaster.

First dink was caught on a spinnerbait, second dink was caught on a hula grub, and the big fish was caught on a trick worm fished weightless and slow.

If we didn't have nice gear with us or if we were in yaks instead of my giant coleman, we could have had a little more fun on the wave train. We stayed way to the left and managed to avoid taking on any water.

[wacky worm]

thanks guys for all

it was a very nice trip

i just looked at the chart and the tempature had dropped three degrees that day from rain

i think that was the determining factor for not catching many fish

cause i was there a day before the rain and the bite was on

i dont remember going by that narly spot

Glory daze did we take a different chute than they did?

i remember telling you and your brother about the chute by indian summer campground

just down river from the low water bridge on the right

is that the same spot you are refering too

i glad you didnt tip over i would have felt bad

keep floating

Russ

[GloryDaze]

I think we are talking about the same spot??? I remember going right and dodging some stuff and at the very end there was a log crossing the chute. We just put our heads down and jumped right over it. One thing I know for sure is the drop in water temp didn't keep me from getting sun burnt as hell!!