Road Trip

[eric1978]

Those pickerel are such cool looking fish. I gotta get out and target them some day.

[Gary Lange]

That sounded like a really quiet road trip. When I went out up in Illinois I found it to be quiet and peaceful in the winter but we didn't have those extra warm days. I love traveling those old backroads just to see where they go.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Nice report and good looking fish. 3 good days and the 3 best rivers in the state.

[ness]

Great report, Al -- thanks for sharing it with us. Some of my best trips are the ones like that -- no plan, no schedule, chicken fried steak.

[Mitch f]

That Boone and Crockett shiner is what I normally call a creek chub. BTW, be careful when your floating alone in the winter,I know you're a pro at this but it only takes one little mishap when you're alone. Great Story!

[rps]

I grew up reading the articles in Field and Stream and Outdoor Life. I respect anyone who can remind me of those articles when they describe that which they have seen and experienced. Very well done. Thank you.

[Al Agnew]

That Boone and Crockett shiner is what I normally call a creek chub. BTW, be careful when your floating alone in the winter,I know you're a pro at this but it only takes one little mishap when you're alone. Great Story!

Mitch, that's a very good point. I used to think I was indestructible, but I've gotten older and wiser. Both the rivers I floated were very low and very easy, with no real tricky parts...even Mary Decker Shoal was simple and low volume at the low water level. I was going to wear my life jacket, but after seeing the rivers I never put it on. But I had a dry bag full of extra clothing and waterproof matches to start a fire if I did something really stupid.

There's always a chance that something unforeseen can happen, and one's margin for error is thinner when you're alone, and thinner yet when it's wintertime. I don't take chances with tricky riffles like I might in the summer. There was one place on the Eleven Point where there was a very narrow, curving chute at one side of a wide, shallow riffle with considerable drop. The chute was the only channel deep enough to float without scraping bottom, but it was very fast and curved into logs and rootwads at the downstream end. I wouldn't have hesitated to run it in the summer, because I was pretty sure that a good draw stroke at the right angle would keep me out of the roots, and even if I miscalculated the water was shallow enough there and just below that I could have bailed out of the canoe and walked out. But given the time of year and temperature of the water and the fact that I was wearing chest waders, I opted to drag the canoe over the shallow side.

I kinda got used to floating the Yellowstone in a canoe the last year or two, which both gave me some confidence and taught me caution. It flows anywhere from 1500 to 5000 cubic feet per second and drops more than ten feet per mile, compared to the average canoeable river in the Ozarks, which might flow 150 cfs and drop 5 or 6 feet a mile or less. And the Yellowstone is usually colder water.

Creek chubs have a little bigger mouths and smaller scales and are colored differently. That is a striped shiner, the largest Misssouri shiner.

[Brian Sloss]

I enjoyed the pics, thanks.

[Justin Spencer]

There's always a chance that something unforeseen can happen

Gotta watch out for those mountain lions also when alone.

Sounded like a great weekend, I had big plans for the nice weather and instead spent all weekend in bed with the flu while Amy delivered fishermen to various parts of the river for a great day of fishing. Hopefully I'll be 100% for the winter storm.

[Trout Commander]

Al, I am envious of you in more ways than one. I hope that one day I have the skills and am in a position in life where I can take solo, unplanned trips such as this and have them go off without a hitch and find the successes that you do. However, I am confident I won't ever be able to paint the pictures that you - with colors or with words. Thank you very much for sharing.