7/22 To 7/27 Float

[steve l]

Annual float with the wife, the brothers & a couple of their kids going Greer to 142.

As always, kudos to Hufstedlers for the canoes & shuttles.

Let's see - it was hot.

Fishing was ok. Trout were fairly plentiful in the blue ribbon water, although nothing large. White ribbon water was fair - seems most of the the stockers have been ripped out by the corn chunkers, dough dunkers & Powerbait tossers. It did seems as though the trout action slowed the further downstream from Greer one got.

Smallie action not bad about Boze or so to 142. But still the size was smaller than seen in last years. Between the three of us doing the most fishing (and it was a lot of fishing), caught only two over 2 lbs. But one was a 2.9 pounder by one of the brothers - will take that any day.

Plastic craws the lure of the trip, with Rebel craws a second.

One the good side, the always feared jetboat swarm did not appear. I think we saw 4 or 5 the entire trip. Not too bad.

Stayed up & enjoyed the stars one night. Six nice meteors through the course of the night.

Very very disappointed to see the spread of purple no trespassing posts around Halls Bay. The landowner there seems to be clearing trees on both sides of the river. To what end I have no clue, but thinking we're not seeing a good steward of the river here. KIndof of curious to see what will happen to all of that should a 20+ foot flood occur. From what we understand this person has bought land on both sides a mile up the river from Halls Bay and the purple postings may be spreading upriver. Hopefully that is not the case.

And we did not drink any of the spring water. OK, couldn't resist that.

One question for you all. My wife & I walked up Turtle Island Spring. Or it may have been Paul Byrum Spring. In any event, it enters on the right at the base of a bluff a bit above Boze.

We found what you see in the picture - the remnants of an old dam. Anyone have any history on this? The spring flow does not seem to be large enough to drive a mill. But other than conjecture we have no idea.