Floated Dam To Hermitage

[mzrealfish]

I had time to drive down from KC and float from the dam to Hermitage Thursday the 14th of June. The river was beautiful but low. I put on at 8:30 am. In the first 4 miles, I only caught 4 spotted bass and 2 largemouth, mostly on poppers. I punched a hole in my fiberglass patch on my stillwater canoe from dragging so much and had to resort to bailing water pretty regularly. Then, the river changed and got deeper. At the 1st falldown in the river, I threw a powerbait shad into the shade right where the bank and the falldown met. Instantly, the lure shot out of the water in the mouth of a 5lb. ++ spotted bass! I fought it for 4 minutes before it tore through the gears on my light action reel. I was still able to fight it for about 30 seconds before it jumped out of the river and shot my jig back over my head. I switched poles and threw my popper as well as a suspending rogue and a jig and craw back in the hole for about 10 minutes before giving up on the cause.

The last mile and a half had tons of falldown structure to fish. I rigged one of my medium action poles with the powerbait shad and fished every falldown. I ended up catching 24ish spotted bass and 8 largemouth. Almost all in the last mile and on the shad. Best was about a 2 1/2 lb. spotted bass. After all of this, I was still in my truck heading back to KC by 4:00 pm.

I have repatched my canoe. Next time, I am putting in at Hermitage, trolling back up river to the 1st riffle and then floating back down and heading to the Cross Timbers pull-out. I am going to try and get back down the 2nd Thursday in July.

Here are a few of the pictures. All of the bass had nice full stomachs, so even the 12-14 inches were packing some punch.

[Bird Watcher]

Looks like a good trip. What's the contraption you have rigged for your TM?

[Wayne SW/MO]

I camp there every fall, but haven't had the time to do that float. I'm going to be down there on the 13th at the park and I intend to try it. How long did it take you and how much dragging was involved?

[mzrealfish]

That is the mount that came with my boat years ago. Hand-made deal. I will take a better picture and post it tomorrow.

[mzrealfish]

I would skip the dam float entirely. Unless there is rain right before you get there. Angler's resort will charge you $20 totake you to hermitage and drop yur car off at cross timbers. I was floating about 5 hours and bailing water for about an hour of the trip. Dragging was pretty regular through the first 4.5 miles.

[mzrealfish]

I haven't sanded The Royal Debacle down yet, but here is the most recent fiberglass patching session after my PDT float. This is the 6th time in 10 years that I have had to patch it. Keeps coming back for more.

Mark

[LetsGoToTheRiver]

Looks like a nice trip!

[mzrealfish]

Here are the pictures of the trolling motor mount and my Spring Creek stabilizer floats. I bought the 12 foot stillwater, the mount and a trolling motor from a guy at Lake Quivera for $250 back in 2000. It has been an awesome canoe and has been through some serious battles. A couple of years ago we did the Big Piney at 12++ feet. We have also done the Gasconade at 8 feet. Thank god for the floats.

Mark

[Bird Watcher]

Very interesting. Especially the stabilizer floats. looks good.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Here's some interesting equipment. I don't know anymore than that I saw them on a blog.

http://www.kay-noe.com/index.html

Where's Anglers Resort?