Gavin Posted January 9, 2012 Posted January 9, 2012 Bad Phone Vid, 22" AM Brown Great Float this weekend. I had my best day ever on Thursday. I didn’t catch my biggest Current River brown, or wack a ton of fish on Thursday but the day’s events topped the charts on many levels. The day started with a zero dark thirty dawn patrol on the upper river with Coldwater. The big fish were in the mood to play! We caught several nice ones; 22" brown and a 19" brown for me, a low 20” range brown and a really big brown that got away for Coldwater. Met our buddy Hoff at Baptist at 9:30am and run our shuttle down to Welch Spring. We were loaded and floating by 10:30am. We took our time floating. Hoff arrived Wednesday and we waited around and had some coffee while he broke camp about a mile below Baptist. It was a warm, bright, clear afternoon and some caddis started to hatch. Coldwater had fun picking off risers with the fly rod, but I wanted to catch some smallmouth. It took me awhile, but I eventually did find the smallmouth. They were still biting consistantly when I called it quits at ten. I tried to recreate the smallmouth pattern downstream in a couple spots. Didn’t catch anymore smallmouth, but I was rewarded with my biggest brown of the trip! Fat as a football, and Coldwater was kind enough to paddle down to get a picture of it! We were still a good way above Parker Hollow at 3pm and thoughts turned to a camp spot. We had planned to camp in the Blue Ribbon, and then meet a bunch of friends down below Cedargrove on Saturday, but we decided to paddle down and meet them on Thursday instead of Friday. We made it to the Cedargrove bridge around 4:30pm, were we met Barry & Mike. We finished dragging our stuff over the bridge by 5:15pm or so, and had a great float down to camp in the dark. The moon was almost full and high in the sky. It backlit the trees and bluff faces beautifully. The need for artificial light was minimal and all made it safely to camp by 7:00pm. Friday & Saturday’s fishing was good too! Guess they stocked down below Cedargrove recently, because the fishing was downright silly for stocker sized bows. There were 12 guys in camp for the fish fry on Saturday. We fried trout & hush puppies until we were all ready to burst on Saturday afternoon, and those who fished went home with a bunch more on Sunday. Great Eagle viewing to boot…we saw several on the upper river, and there was an adult pair and a juvenile hanging out between Medlock & Welch Spring all weekend. Seemed kind of tame, because we got within 75-100’ of them on several occasions. Bad phone vid by me, pictures by ColdwaterFshr.
hank franklin Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Gavin, always enjoy your WFT reports. Did you put that tent up in the dark? Was that your below Cedargrove spot? My cousin and I hit Cgrove to Akers Dec. 29 and had the exact "silly" fishing you describe. Literally a fish a cast at times.
Nortrad Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Another great trip for the books Gavin. Nice to see there are still a few big browns left in the river.
ColdWaterFshr Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Was indeed a great weekend. Had the fish of a lifetime come unhooked after 5 seconds of play. Watched it swipe at the bait twice, and then when I slowed it down, it nailed it. It looked the size of a german shepherd. Gavin was tearing the smallies and big browns up all day. Biggest for me was 20 inch brown, and a couple more around 17. The EHC took a few dinks, and then stoneflies and globalls were the ticket down below Cedargrove. Lots of good times on this trip. Woke up early one morning, stood up out of the tent in the early dawn light to see 2 bald eagles flying very low on the water and straight upriver, so close I could hear the swoosh of their wings.
duckydoty Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Looks like another great float. I seen Jack Roy and the boys made it this year. I'm gonna have to go on one of them someday. Too busy duck hunting this year A Little Rain Won't Hurt Them Fish.....They're Already Wet!! Visit my website at.. Ozark Trout Runners
stlfisher Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Looks like another outstanding trip with lot's of nice fish brought to hand! The warmer weather sure has been nice for winter fishing this year.
Smalliebigs Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Sounds like some sweet action......I know that sandy area of the river too well!!!! I have often wondered over the past 15 years or so why there is always a school of Brown Trout in that specific area???? Gavin and Andy you sure know how to make a dude jealous......the eagles soaring upstream as you get up, close enough to hear the feathers, well thats like something out of a movie. Sounds awsome to me, we had similar sucess a week before christmas on the same float but, we stopped @ Cedargrove.
laker67 Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Looks like another great winter float with better than normal weather conditions. Some nice fish caught and unfortunately a very large fish lost. How big was he coldwater? Thanks for the report and the photos.
fishinSWMO Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Nice! Sounds like you guys had a great trip on the river this year. Sorry to hear the big one got away from you Andy. Jeremy Dodson
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