What A Trip!

[Chief Grey Bear]

Took a hell of a trip with an old friend that I hadn't fished with in a while. I'd love to tell you guy's about it and post some pics of midget Neosho's but, I just found out the other day from the good Dr. of Physiology that I am just doing it for the oooh's and ahhh's. I never realized that sharing reports with you guy's was just me really looking for a pat on the back and acceptence. I am starting to feel better now though. I think anyway.

[405z06]

Cool story, bro

[Feathers and Fins]

[Chief Grey Bear]

Why is he spanking a sleeping horse???

[Flysmallie]

[exiledguide]

So ,what about the trip????????.........I waited until today to open the post when I would have time to savor in your fishing adventures and where is the tale......

[Chief Grey Bear]

Had a good friend get a hold of me early in the week and wanted to do some floating. Well, sure thing. He wanted to take the same float I took him on earlier this spring. Sounded good to me, I hadn't fished this creek again since that trip either. He asked what time to meet up. I think he was quite surpised when I said 9:00am. I think he was expecting something much earlier since we had a bit of a drive and getting vehicles in place.

We meet up at the aformentioned time and I then say to him that I need to stop and get some beverages and snacks. I could tell he wasn't real happy with that move either. But I knew on the inside we would be just fine, the fish will wait on us. I did end up telling him that after about 1:00 the fishing will really heat up and we won't miss a thing.

So its now 11:00 and we have set sail. We negoitate a little dead water and soon find a canoe of two and yak of one right a head of us working good hole of water that I had hoped would jump start our day. I tell him we will paddle on down and let them have this hole. As we are working our way past them, the guy in the yak makes a connection with a brownie. Doesn't look very big to me. He paddles over to the canoe and hands it to the guy in the back. He seemed to be the leader of this expedition. He appeared to measure it and yelled out 12incher and promptly strung it up.

We got past them and began our days challage of getting the skunk off. Didn't take long and we both had scored our first brownies. Very soon, the party we passed, was gaining on us. I paddled us on down. They promptly caught us again. I soon tire of this game and decide that if they want to lead this bad, go ahead. I have caugh just as many behind a group has I have in front of one. So as they are getting very close, they string up another one.

Now this is maybe an hour into the trip and there is a long way to go. I start having thoughts of calling the number and having someone waiting at the take out. We also thought of confronting him, but it was legal, and he looked to be well on his way to severe intoxication. We both decided to just let them pass and continue with our day. I am not proud of that decision I will tell you.

We started right in behind them and quickly resumed catching fish. For a moment it seemed they just wanted in front as they slowed to an almost stop. It was at this point I was tired of dicking with them and I think they knew it. I was fixing to go by them again only at a much slower pace than I did the first time. They decied to get on down the way and and we didn't see them for the next 7 hours when we finally took out. I didn't get to see if they had a stringer though. Probably a good thing.

So, our trip. After getting some space between us, we started working certain holes and not messing much with others. I knew on this float I only needed 2 rods at the most. But I again packed 4. I had a blast using the spinning and one bait caster. Water was gin clear and lower than I expected. It was superb for taking dips in the heat and we did numerous times.

Soft plastics was king today. Soft craws, ned's, worms, you name it. We worked the brush in strong current and just caught one after another. Wading these areas was the most effective way this day. We would catch 8-10 or so at every one. At most of the slower water areas, we would just drift with the current and pick off fish. When we got to slower areas with lots of boulders we started catching a ton of Goggle eye. They were biting anything you would toss at them. As the day wore on, we actually tired of catching them. We got to where we would just kind of rest and float on through these areas. I know, it sounds crazy. And it is!

Neither one of us counted how many fish we caught. But if I was to put a number on this day, it was in excess 100 a piece. A good portion of those were, close to 50%, were goggle eyes. The last couple of hours of the trip we just kind of floated and hit a spot here and there. Then we just decided to call it a day and and paddle on. The sun was getting low, we had to get vehicles together and make the long drive home. So the last mile we just kept moving.

One oddity. As we floated that last mile we encountered a lone fisherman that was doing a little wading. As we made small talk, he made the comment that he couldn't big ones in here like he used too. I agreed and we drifted on. Out of ear shot, we began talking about his comment. I asked my friend if he noticed that stringer he had. He said yep. Case solved. So anyway that is about it. You know its a good trip when you get tired of catching fish.

Was that too much drama?

[Flysmallie]

Was that too much drama?

Close but I will let it slide

[Chief Grey Bear]

Close but I will let it slide

[2sheds]

Drama-schmama. I was reading to learn about the bikini hatch.