Week June 26 Float

[steve l]

Floated June 25 to 30, Greer to 142. On the river mostly before the latest stocking, and action was slow in the trout water, both blue ribbon & below. A couple in the over 1.5 but under 2 lb range, but not a lot for the amount of fishing my brothers & I did.

I did catch a few using a a jig, as suggested in a previous thread. Spent some time learning to use it, and will be better at it next year.

Smallie water was fair, caught some numbers, but no big fish. Rebel craw & plastic craws worked best.

Weather, with the front moving through Sunday/Monday? Moon phase? Bad luck? Who knows, but it may have been our worst trip as far as fishing in 8 or 9 years.

Couple of comments.

How irritating are the guys in motor boats that sit in a pool, seem to wait until you pass, and then scream past you to the next pool to do it all over again? I know its their river too, but geez.

The gravel in the river seems to be disappearing at a rapid rate. We have target gravel for each night, and have a backup in mind just in case the target is taken. But the backups especially are becoming very overgrown. It seems a couple of good floods are needed soon or the gravel may be lost for good?

[mwkojack]

Couple of comments.

How irritating are the guys in motor boats that sit in a pool, seem to wait until you pass, and then scream past you to the next pool to do it all over again? I know its their river too, but geez.

would you rather them just fly by you all together or slow down to no wake?

[steve l]

In general the guys in the motor boats slow down when passing - there are exceptions to that, but in general that is not a problem.

It is situations such as:

Breaking camp on gravel & the first motor boat goes by.

Get in canoe & hit first nice hole, motor boat sitting there.

The boat goes down & then motors back up, repeat several times.

By-pass that hole and head to the next.

Half way there the motor boat passes by & gets there first.

Repeat step #3 above.

Now add in 1, 2, or even 3 other motor boats & you start to get the idea.

Like I say - it's their river too, and they are doing nothing wrong. But it is still a major distraction of the whole quiet canoe & fish a river experience.

[snap]

....the best way to fish this river...I have found....is to fish the water that the motor boats cannot!!! I like to hit a gravel bar, then wade the river. While in a boat, they miss many very good spots, I have found, that one cannot physically fish while in a boat. I have drift fished from canoes but do not care too much for it.

[mwkojack]

Definetely. You can always catch more fish by wading parts of this river than by just using a boat alone.