Yesterday

[MOFishwater]

Did our annual work outing @ Blue Springs Ranch yesterday. I'm the only one in the group that does any fishing so it's sort of a different trip than I'm used to but you wont ever hear me complaining about the boss giving us the day off work to go floating. 

Weather was perfect, river was a bit choked up with all the falling leaves, especially in the slack water areas. We ended up having another canoe tandem head out in front of us and a gaggle of kayaks behind us along with one small raft. We had 5 other canoes in our group so we were not exactly a stealthy bunch, my brother and i quickly settled in at the back of the pack and he kept me in position to make quality casts most of the time.

Topwater started off quite slow so I was mainly sticking to a fairly heavy Chomper rig in a darker green color and a brown/orange craw rig. The dark green was def the ticket yesterday, ended up with 6 smallies by lunch on Chompers and one that came unbuttoned on the craw. While we stopped on a gravel bar for lunch I was wading and casting to some deeper holes. Had a small largemouth following every cast but not ever taking any pops on the craw...I spent 3 or 4 mins goofing around with it and couldnt irritate it enough to strike. I went over for a sip of my beer and swapped to the chomper rig. The small bass was still finning around in the same spot, so I tossed the chomper out in front of it and it it immediately dove on it and I quickly landed it and threw it back. Kind of funny how a simple color change can make all the difference.

As the day went on the small whopper plopper started to produce quite a few fish (sorry for not taking a single photo, had my phone in a dry bag and didnt feel like messing with it). I had one big bruiser follow all the way to the boat and come blasting up when I lifted the lure out of the water, wish I could have hooked into that one. Had a number of small fish on the zara spook puppy as well until I lost it and didnt have a backup. Tied on a smaller green plastic popper and it was working more on bluegill than bass but provided a bit of action.

Normally have a good day with the buzzbaits on that stretch but they just weren't interested in any size or color i had in my limited tackle selection. The leave litter on the water surface made the treble hooks a bit of a pain but the fish seemed stacked up under the spots with lots of leaves so it was worth dealing with. 
 

Always a good, easy float from Blue Springs. Close to home and scenic enough to 'get away' for a few hours. Saw a bunch of bald eagles, a very late dropped fawn that was laying about 2 ft off riverbank thinking it's spots were good camo for the dirt I guess, some noisy kingfishers... River never really produces much size for me in that stretch but there's always a good number of fish to be caught if you just want some fun action. Be sure to bring some green/pumpkin plastics and some topwater lures. 

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[MOFishwater]

Had a hot minute to toss the kayak in the river after my daughter's soccer game on Saturday and decided to give the same small stretch of my 'backyard' another once over...decided I'd hit the usual spots and switch things up next time I can get out and start picking apart the opposite bank. 

Got the last parking spot in the lot, beautiful afternoon and the boats were taking full advantage. 

Only mustered one thump but finally got the bass skunk off, sure isn't anything special but felt a little vindicated after coming up empty on the green fish time after time. 

Fish was hiding WAY under a big blowdown and sucked in a green Chomper. Crankbait, ned rig, spinner, plopper were of no interest. I didnt see any movement on the water, no boils or jumping fish, no wildlife of any kind. Pretty dead afternoon but perhaps the steady stream of boats had something to do with it. Beers were nice and cold though! Headed back to the house after an hour and change to fire up some venison tenderloins. Probably should have been sitting in a treestand instead:)