3.25.07 TR - Cowskin<>Buffalo Creek

[fly.flinger]

I floated from Cowskin to Buffalo Creek, Sunday, 3.25.07 looking for White Bass. Apparently still a bit early. It was a great morning, although overcast and rained a few times on us. Lots of bug hatching (stoneflies 1" long, yellow thorax with black wings and abdomen, unidentified grey mayflies ~#12-14, BWOs #18) and bird singing. Also saw several bald eagles. I mostly paddled/guided and let my partner throw his grubs and paddle-tail shad to see if we could find any WB at all. We saw and caught none. We did managed to find a few smallmouths, one ~3 lbs or so, in the deeper holes, but the river is only just now waking up to spring. I caught a couple SMB on a bronze/rust pigboat. Water was flowing well with recent rains. Cowskin gauge reported 4.66 feet at noon sunday, which is decent flow with no dragging.

we'll try again in a week or so and try to post a followup...

[Rusty]

Thanks for the update fly.flinger.

[ollie]

I was there 2-3 weeks ago and my neighbor got his windshield smashed in! Thanks for the update, thinking about floating it real soon.

[fly.flinger]

Sorry about our buddy's windshield, Ollie. The mouth of Buffalo creek is not necessarily the safest place, day or night. Not that it is dangerous, but it fairly remote and is certainly not patrolled by any officials.

Did you leave the vehicle there during the day or overnight?

It is a popular drunk hangout and giggers use it to access the lower Elk also.

Sunday morning when we arrived there were 2 large snapping turtles they had gigged, smoldering on a fire. Also lots of uncleaned, gigged fish (carp, buffalo suckers, etc) they had tossed into the water there. Unfortunately there were also several 3-5 pound black bass in the mix. It is illegal to gig black bass.

[ollie]

Yea flyflinger we were there just for the day. This happened at dusk when we came upon the punks. We Did the small float. Trust me,I know a little about the drunks down there. I'll give a little example. When you pull-up at sunrise to get out and launch the yak your greeted by a man who tells you in a slurring voice, "WWWWhhhhhatsss up" and then you notice this guy has nothing on but a beer in his hand! There were all kinds of people around there too that day including kids. And they always leave behind TRASH! I wish GRDA would patrol that somehow.