Big Piney Float 5/31 - 6/3

[cdog222]

I know that I have scoured these forums for floating and fishing information prior to previous trips, and many of the fine reports posted by other members have always been quite helpful. This report won't be in terribly much detail, but hopefully it will be of some use to someone considering floating the BP.

Me and my small group of float and fishing enthusiasts have been doing a 4 day 3 night float on the upper Jack's Fork every spring for the last 10ish years. That section of river has ruined me for any others, but unfortunately with the low water levels we were forced to try another river. I am always up for new experiences though, and this was a good opportunity.

After doing much reading, we decided to hit the river on Thursday afternoon at the Mason Bridge and float back down to Wilderness Ridge Resort. Tim, the proprieter of WRR was certainly a character, but most accommodating. He has us loaded up and on the road within short order after arriving, even though we called only 15 minutes out. Definitely a bit risky, but it worked out.

The weather worked out perfectly - we hit the water only a short while after the rain showers ended, and had all beautiful weather after that.

I certainly don't claim to be an expert fisherman, but I do know what water looks good to me for smallies. I didn't see a lot of it on Thursday and Friday. We had some luck, but the good holes seems few and far between. There were a few nice long pools with big boulders and such, but the fishing was hit and miss. I think on Friday we went a good portion of the day with very little action. It could have had something to do with the weather front that moved in on Thursday though, I dunno....

I will admit I was a bit underwhelmed until we got around the Slabtown area, when things started to pick up, and we came across good holes more frequently. We pulled in several nice goggle eye and some scrappy smallies around 12-14". The prized catches were a fat 18+" largemouth, caught by my buddy and a 17+" smallie caught by me. Talk about a thrill! It certainly never gets old.

Due to our lack of experience, we wound up passing 6 Crossing early afternoon on Sunday. As it turned out, we had a LOT of paddling to do to get back to WRR. In doing so, we passed up a LOT of nice holes. It killed me not to drift slowly by and drop my line by every boulder, but live and learn.

As a group, we decided next time we hit the BP, it will be Slabtown back to Ross over a 4 day, 3 night period. We like to go slow - it seems we could easily spend a day in some of those nice long stretches of fishy water.

All in all, a great trip. A nice river, some smallies, buddies, and a few beers - what could be better??

[2sheds]

Thanks for a highly informative report.