Up From Hootentown Access 8-12

[Jack Jones]

I put in at Hootentown around 4:00 p.m. and paddled up river about an hour. It wasn't as low as it has been but there is quite a lot of algae all over the place. Floating around the gravel bars and littering the bottom. It made it difficult to fish because everything kept coming up fouled. I found several spots where it was a bit lighter than others and in some of the deeper pools it wasn't a problem. I tried spinners and crankbaits for a bit, but got nothing. Settled on a Texas rigged finesse worm because my jigheads kept picking up scum.

I pulled in a few dinks and one very chunky 15 in largemouth. Also caught a google eye, first one I've caught on the James.

One sad part of the trip was that I saw a heron that was caught up on what appeared to be kite string. I couldn't tell if it was wrapped aroung the wing, or if there was a hook at the end of the wing. The other part of the string was caught in a tree branch. I didn't get close enough to the bird to see the wing, but I was able to cut the line from the tree branch and at least free him up. Given what that wing looked like, with the loss of feathers and the way it was hanging, I doubt that bird's gonna live much longer. It was just an unfortunate sight.

When I got back to the access, someone had built a fire near the boat launch. I didn't see anyone else around, but there was a fire going and a canoe paddle (blue with the name "Pettit" on it). Don't know what that was all about but knocked out the fire because I just found that irresponsible.

[Arofishing]

That sucks about the bird and the fire.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Hopefully some idiot didn't cast at the bird and snag it.

As far as Pettit goes there is one on the NFOW, I wonder if they're missing a canoe?