Good Friday Trip, looking for suggestions

[Seth Clarkson]

I think I ask this every year and still don't really know what would be best to do. Some guys from work and I have this Friday off and want to do a fishing float. Water is not slowing down as much as I'd hoped as always for this time of year, so wondering if a section of James would be better than another especially with one less experienced floater. I'm open to another river, just not sure if there would be another one fairly close that would be much better. Flat creek is another option I had considered but not sure how it would be by comparison. If anyone has suggestions for a river less affected by the previous rains or a specific section of James that would be easier to fish and float based on the spees I would appreciate it. Will report back as well if we end up getting to go. I've had the most experience on James from Galena to blunks and think it will be manageable if it keeps dropping but I haven't floated it above 1000 cfs which looks like it will be still by Friday. 

 

Thanks 

Seth 

[ollie]

I wouldn't recommend the Flat for someone inexperienced. I hear it has some obstacles, but then again I haven't floated that in like forever. Galena to Blunks is fairly short though and I doubt that it would have any real issues even though the water is up some. JMO though.

[Seth Clarkson]

20 minutes ago, ollie said:

I wouldn't recommend the Flat for someone inexperienced. I hear it has some obstacles, but then again I haven't floated that in like forever. Galena to Blunks is fairly short though and I doubt that it would have any real issues even though the water is up some. JMO though.

Thanks, I think we have decided to go ahead and do Kerr down to Cox Access and then depending on how fast we get pushed through, we might move a vehicle down to blunks and do that section also. 

[ollie]

Let us know how it goes!

[Seth Clarkson]

9 minutes ago, ollie said:

Let us know how it goes!

Definitely will! Hopefully I will have good news to report back. 

[Seth Clarkson]

We ended up doing cox access to blunks. Had a good day everyone caught fish, mainly 8 to 10 inches spotted bass, biggest was a 12 inch smallmouth on a ned rig. Didn't run into any Whites but ppl have obviously been catching them because blunks was an absolute zoo. Ran into a bunch of flat bottoms that had put in at blunks and cox. A purple slider, finesse swimbait underpin and a yellow rooster tail did the damage. Water pushed us through just a little too fast to fish comfortably at times and the wind didn't help. Towards the bottom end of the float it really died off, probably because it had been hot so many times already through the day. We had a good day, was a little warmer than we expected to start, got a late start after meeting for breakfast. Didn't hit the water till 1030 ish and got off about 5. 

[ollie]

Nice. I take the water wasn't too high? Yeah, Blunks is a zoo this time of the year when the whites start running that's for sure. Glad you had a good time. I've been thinking about that float for sometime now and just have never got to do it. Hopefully this will be the year.

[Seth Clarkson]

1 hour ago, ollie said:

Nice. I take the water wasn't too high? Yeah, Blunks is a zoo this time of the year when the whites start running that's for sure. Glad you had a good time. I've been thinking about that float for sometime now and just have never got to do it. Hopefully this will be the year.

Nope not too high, its still slowing down too. Of course it will probably rain again before you get the chance to go though.