Spring Break Trip Report

[Hirsch]

Maybe some others will have some good campfire pics. For some reason my flash was inop and that put the quibash on night photography.

Thank you for the report, Paul......I was hoping you would throw in a campfire picture.....glad y'all had a good trip.....I'll have to check out that section of river before too long.

[DNR]

It is about time for my spring haircut, Robert.

It was a fun trip. Beautiful part of the river, great people to see it with, some unruly catfish. I had a blast.

Work sucked today and if I don't get out of here I may kill some people so I'll put up my report and some photos tomorrow.

[Iamdamoder]

Thanx for the great river report. Good pics Paul and Linda too.

Don't fret David 3 to 4 haircuts per year should do it .

[Mojo227]

Yep,3 to 4 haircuts a year is plenty. I have had 2 since Ive been married. I have been married 13 years this May! Dang hippies!

[fryemup]

Great report.

[DNR]

Yes, I like to let my freak flag fly, but with warmer weather coming I usually cut it off. Of course then my neck gets sun burnt making me, well, a Red Neck.
Oh well.

It was a great trip. Nobody in the group had been through this section of river so it was cool to see something different. Each section has it's own personality and this one did. As we went down we entered the prairie land. I was surprised to see that the top soil was setting on sandstone. Made for some interesting cliffs. I think we all took photos of this one.


The neon prairie above our first camp.


Fishing was tough the first day, bass were hard to come by. I did get one decent one with in sight of camp.


I tried quite a few different flies but this one worked.


Big footed bird -


The camp spots were all pretty nice. Lots of them at first but as you go down they are fewer and farther between. Here's the first nights camp.




Jerry asked for some wild flower shots and I always take them.
A favorite of mine is Spiderwort. You can alway find them on the river though they hide in the shade.


The Blackberry are every where right now. About mid - April they should be ripe.


I don't remember what this one is, I wrote it down once.


Camp #2 wasn't actually an island but a sandy spot still in the flood plane. During higher water you couldn't use it.


The campfire shot -


A Pine Siskin feather perhaps?


The first two days the fishing wasn't great. We caught a few but I was expecting better. I knew this was a good catfishing area and finally on day three they came out. One thing I love about fly fishing is that it's multi species. I saw a little swirl on the water and casted at it. I felt the bite and set the hook, all the sudden my 5wt rod bend over in an U. I honestly thought it was going to break my rod. After a massive fight I got it to the top of the water.



It was actually 26" (but thanks Linda), I didn't pull it into the boat - I've been stabbed in the leg too many time by big cats and dangerous to the flyrods when they go crazy in the boat - but I stuck my HogTrough ruler down to measure. My biggest fish on the fly and the best fight I've had.

We came around a bend and Paul was checking this out.

Had to be an eagle nest. You can see a head sticking up.

Then more cats -




That 22" went home with Paul who still had some ice. I tied this fly after seeing something similar on a national fly fishing fourm. It did the trick. I had four over 20" by the time it was done.




Day three was a long one, 12 miles when we had planned on 5 or 6. We had a hard time finding a place to camp. We pasted on one at mile 5 or so thinking there was a better one just down river looking a Google Earth on the phones. You can't always trust the maps, with lower water levels the islands weren't there and cattle had taken over one spot we had in mind. It was a work out.

Really enjoyed seeing everybody again and meeting Jay. It is a beautiful section of river and with the great company we had, it's a trip to be remembered.
Thanks everybody for coming.

[Hector]

Seems like a great time! Nice pics!

[texan4ut]

It was a great trip. Enjoyed meeting everyone. The weather was great, fishing so so however that didn't matter. Once we got started the river was flowing pretty decent so we moved along pretty well. According to my GPS we covered 7.7 miles day one, 7.6 day two and 12.2 day three. As DNR explained we passed up a suitable camping area day three, however I think it worked out ok as although we were tired we were a few 100 yards from take out day four. I think we all slept good night three as everyone was up earlier Sunday morning than on the previous two mornings. Each campsite was good, although I did like camp one the best. Need DNR to let me know how he post his pictures so he has that many in one post. I can only post 3 at a time. Here are a few. Will post more later.

[larry long shadows]

AllI can say is WoW I wish I could have been there ...nice report guys Thanks for sharing ....

[texan4ut]

More Pictures

[texan4ut]

More Pictures and will post some more later.

[fisher of people]

Outstanding report! But then again, I expected no less!
By the way, the flower in question looks like Blue Phacelia. The feather is almost certainly from a Northern (Yellow-shafted) Flicker.

[texan4ut]

More Pictures

[texan4ut]

More pictures

[yaktipper]

DNR for some reason I never can see your pics. Will you email me the ones you think I might like? If you need my email, let me know.

[Hirsch]

KayakQ asked that I post these for her.

[Hirsch]

[Hirsch]

tn.jpg (35.32 KiB) Viewed 3798 times

[Wolfman57]

Wow what a great trip. I love the pictures gang!

Wm