Welch To Pulltite Christmas Trip

[hank franklin]

My cousin and I hit the Current from Welch to Pulltite last week. Overnight somewhere above Cave Spring. Caught a couple rainbows below Welch but nothing in the reaches above Akers and nothing at all below Akers. River very quiet it seemed. Great trip despite the poor fishing. No complaints, two trout apiece satisfied for dinner. Bald eagles in abundance below Akers.

The river is very low of course. A few stretches with barely enough draft for a loaded canoe. But only a couple brief instances of walking.

[Gavin]

Dang that looks low....like the light photo.

[hank franklin]

Yeah, we put up a Christmas tree. We prefer to run C-grove to Akers but felt C-grove to Welch would be too low. We thought trout might be below Akers but we didn't see much less catch any.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's been between Cedar and Welch as to water levels and fishing.

[Gavin]

Some friends floated Cedar to Akers after Christmas (Weds-Friday)..Looked like limits for all...with some nice rainbows in the mix.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, we put up a Christmas tree. We prefer to run C-grove to Akers but felt C-grove to Welch would be too low. We thought trout might be below Akers but we didn't see much less catch any.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's been between Cedar and Welch as to water levels and fishing.

FYI, I went back and looked at what the flow was when I floated Cedargrove to Round Spring at the end of November...

It was about 67 cfs at Montauk and 165 cfs at Akers then. It's 63 cfs at Montauk and 157 at Akers as I write this. So it's just very slightly lower now than then. We floated it in loaded solo canoes, and never had to walk, and only scraped bottom in about 10% of the riffles back then. So it would be doable. Back then, there were a lot of trout in the first few miles below Cedargrove. (I didn't have time to stop and really fish for them with the fly rod, but I saw a lot of them as they chased the jerkbait that I kept using as we floated.)

[Gavin]

Jerkbaits dont work for rainbows down there much...Too big for most. Usually some interest but a back hook catch if your lucky. Pickerel and smallies will eat them on the front hook sometimes...but only 3-4 spots were they hold. Better off fishing flies..Light & Dark rig,,,,...#14 RFSN and a Prince on a tandem nymph rig....works better than the cheese that some of my buddies toss.. most of the time. An egg type thingy if nothing else works.