Should Have Come Here Before, Report 5/22/13

[jgentile]

The title says it all. I was a little concerned about the water since we had those storms come through on Monday, but I called HV and they told me barring a major storm on Tuesday that everything would be fine.

We loaded up and hit the road needing to pick up some new line for CJ's spinning reel. We stopped at the Wal-Mart in Sullivan and to my surprise their little fishing department had EVERYTHING on the list and then some! That place is loaded properly and even have a few necessary goodies for the fly fisherman.

Back to fishing. We arrived at HV around 0745 and by 0815 were on the bus with 6 other fisherman

By 0845 we were at Harpers ready to float. We decided to be the last in and gave everyone a good lead. Once we started fishing it was game on. Lots and lots of dinky smallies were the rule of the day, but they are fun nonetheless. Here is a pic of my baby boy with one of the many.

The baits of the day were the Rebel deep craw (courtesy of the aforementioned Wal-Mart) small Rapalas and my size 6 supper bugger in olive. I was hoping that the fluke bite was going to work because I tied up this baby. Maybe next week

It has neutral bouyancy and sinks/suspends just under the surface. Twitch it and it comes alive. I will have to try it out again when the bass come off the beds.

All in all we caught a ton of fish and not only smallmouth bass. I believe we caught 10 different species of fish. Smallmouth, Largemouth, Pumpkinseed, Longear Sunfish, Bluegill, Goggle Eye, Chubs, Suckers and a variety of what I will call minnows.

I am so looking forward to another trip down this beautiful little Ozark creek. We were so surprised that the water and beaches were so clean and devoid of trash/litter. Huzzah Valley is a monster operation and that place must be packed on the weekend. As I mentioned earlier, we were one of four canoes that put in around 0845. We had two more come up from behind us later in the day and a flotilla of canoes and kayaks as well. Maybe it is just early in the season. I think I will pass on any weekend floats here. But next Wednesday is looking pretty darn good!

Tight lines for now.

Joe