Current River Tr 5/02 - 5/05

[Troutnut69]

Spent 4 days down on the Current River floating and fishing (maybe drinking a little as well) with a great group of guys this past week. A few more people hanging around than I would have expected for a midweek trip but once we got on the water and away from the well known accesses we had it pretty much to ourselves. Did a couple of floats....Baptist to Parker and then Parker to Cedar Grove both of which are short floats for most people. We planned it that way and took the time to enjoy this incredibly scenic river and still had the time to fish any spot we decided to stop. I just don't enjoy those paddle-fests anymore where you have to rush the last 1/3 of the float to make it to the take-out.

Fishing was pretty much what I've come to expect from this river , lots of rainbows with some browns mixed in for a bonus. While no big fish were landed , I had my chances while swinging streamers on a couple of occasions. You know how the story goes...the big ones always get away!!

All in all we had a great time on one of my favorite float rivers in the Ozarks.

Full TR and some pics on my blog......

http://highplainsfly...r.blogspot.com/

[Nortrad]

Once again, great report and pics, getting hungry looking at the camp pics. Uh, yep, never go under 0X for streamers.

[Gavin]

Think I spoke with someone in your party around 8:30am at Baptist on Friday AM. Fished up from Tan Vat between 5:30am & 8:15am....Pretty good for numbers but not much in the way of size, only one worthy of a photo...17-18" maybe. Not very long but very fat....lots of 14" fish. Had an hour left to fish...so I ran to Baptist to make a deposit, and get a few more casts in. Saw the Jadwin Bus and some cars driving up the hill, and what looked like your group at the put in, so I went back to camp. Sounds like a nice trip!

[Buzz]

Another great report. I really enjoy your blog. Keep it up.

[Muddler4]

Unknown to me it was kids fish free at the park Saturday. Combine that with the weather forecast and as early as Thursday/Friday camping in the park was apparently filling up fast which put the overflow into the surronding areas. Some of which decided to camp right next to, practically right on top of me. Way too busy for me but still got some decent fishing in but nothing magical, a couple of fat 16 inchers were the high points.

My fishing weekend went down hill from there in a bad way. Completely unplanned I broke camp and went over to Mill Creek. Fished for just a short time and caught 6 just upstream of the picnic area. there were multiple other vehicles there. I was putting my stuff away when a gentleman walked up and we ended up chatting for about 30 minutes. I had set my vest next to the car on the passenger side while arranging gear from camping and such. Yep, drove off without my vest. Realized it when I got home, went back (hours later by now) and it was gone. I know it happens but not to me in many decades of fishing. I guess I was due for a bonehead stunt.

[ozark trout fisher]

Unknown to me it was kids fish free at the park Saturday. Combine that with the weather forecast and as early as Thursday/Friday camping in the park was apparently filling up fast which put the overflow into the surronding areas. Some of which decided to camp right next to, practically right on top of me. Way too busy for me but still got some decent fishing in but nothing magical, a couple of fat 16 inchers were the high points.

My fishing weekend went down hill from there in a bad way. Completely unplanned I broke camp and went over to Mill Creek. Fished for just a short time and caught 6 just upstream of the picnic area. there were multiple other vehicles there. I was putting my stuff away when a gentleman walked up and we ended up chatting for about 30 minutes. I had set my vest next to the car on the passenger side while arranging gear from camping and such. Yep, drove off without my vest. Realized it when I got home, went back (hours later by now) and it was gone. I know it happens but not to me in many decades of fishing. I guess I was due for a bonehead stunt.

Goodness...I can certainly relate. It seems like I also run into a bit more than the usual trouble with inconsiderate folks on that river, but I suppose that's just how it goes sometimes. A couple trips ago I was camping on (relatively) secluded stretch of the river where there is PLENTY of room to spread out, and a couple of guys decided to set up their camp about 20 feet away (I might be exaggerating a little, but not by much!) I thought about saying something about it, but ended up being glad I didn't... They turned out to be nice guys that I guess just didn't understand the usual unwritten rules that most go by on the river, and we ended up shooting the bull around the campfire for a few hours.

But it doesn't always work out like that, and it sucks when the person who crowds you like that ends up being loud and obnoxious. I've also had that happen more than a few times. There are few things worse than being on a wild river, 10 miles from the nearest public access and hearing Nelly blaring on some genius's boombox. But I digress...