3 day Ozark float - SMB on the fly

Wow!  That's about the best way to describe the past weekend.  Me and a buddy were fortunate enough to talk our wives and family into covering all our grown up responsibilities while we cut ties with the real world.

We packed up Thursday night, dropped the kids off at school Friday morning, and made the 4.5 hr drive north into the Ozarks for some canoe camping and smallmouth bass catching.  Around 2 pm on Friday we were waist deep and the catching started shortly after.

We packed light...sleeping, eating and fishing required gear only.  This trip was all about the fishing, so we brought as many SMB patterns as we could carry and just enough food for calories.

We wanted to fish from first light until last light.  So setting up/breaking down elaborate camp's and cooking gourmet meals was abandoned for MRE's and a cot beside a camp fire.  It got a little chilly 45-50f each night but nothing to complain about.

Each morning we would pack our gear in about 10 mins and be wading in ~60f water with a mouth full of breakfast bars.  The water was much warmer than the air temperature at 6am, and that took a little "1, 2, 3...go team" encouragement.

Neither of us wanted to be wet wading that early but you didn't want to be "that" guy standing on the bank while your buddy was toughing it out.  So we'd both inch out slowly making sure to not throw down a man challenge.  Every guy know's where the line is when you're wading in cold water...neither of us were going to cross, "the line".  We went just far enough to avoid suffering any brain freeze.

If a nice fish hadn't been caught in the first few minutes on Saturday morning I'm not sure we'd have repeated the process.  But, a nice fish was caught...so it was a race on Sunday.  No need for any motivational speech's...last man in get's to take his buddies picture holding a nice smallie.

I had barely blinked, when I noticed my buddy had packed his gear and set out 2 breakfast bars on the canoe seats.  Game on!

We paddled down to the nearest shoal and before I could get out of the canoe, he was in the middle of his deep breathing exercises, slinging and stripping.  Wait up bro....

So I did what you do when you're the last man out of the canoe...I walked down and did the wade of shame.  The river was loaded with fish so it wasn't that big a deal.  But I could hear him laughing as he watched me seek out new real estate.

He was even gracious enough to capture it on camera.  And wouldn't you know it...it's a cool pic too!

A conversation we had during our time on the water was about those few special trips that are so great, you're always trying to repeat them, but seldom do.  The kind of trips that motivate you to wet wade w/o hesitation, on mornings when the air temp is ~50 degrees and the water isn't much warmer.  We called it, "trip chasing".  This was one of those trips.

The photos tell the story better than I can.  Enjoy...

strainer

another strainer

Cast from the Past - Ozarks

It's that time of the year when the days are short, the weather is fickle, and I'm missing my time on the water.  When I can't get out, I start dreaming about my spring adventures.  Which causes me to relive some past adventures.  Decided to share a few of these, pre-blog, adventures under the title, Cast from the Past.

April 2012,  2 night solo float trip in the ozarks.  It started out as a fishing trip with friends but as the weekend got closer, everyone found something better to do...hard to imagine.  Guess it's my...fish all day...eat when you can...sleep if you want...WINNING personality.

Streamside B&B (won't find in the phone book)

I can honestly say it was their loss...some of the best fishing I have ever experienced.  It was the beginning of the spawn.  The SMB were either on beds or feasting in preparation of bedding up.  Soft plastics were all that was needed...flukes and craws...1 on each rod.

3lb

2.64lb 

Measured and weighed most of what I caught before releasing

I would throw the fluke between shoals in the calm water and watch them attack it from 10ft away. They were on a search and destroy mission....as soon as the SMB heard a splash they'd key in on it and go on the hunt.  Several times I would see the wake before the fish....a second later I'd feel the heaviness as they found my fluke sinking slowly.

2.66lb

When I got to a shoal with a protected backwater, I'd look for bedding activity...

Off the bed

It didn't take long to locate a few and the craw didn't stay in the water long.  There were usually 2 or 3 beds in an area.  I didn't fish all of them...just a few b/c I don't like fishing over beds.  But I couldn't pass up on the opportunity.

Chunk of a bronzeback

My favorite time to fish the Ozarks is anytime but I really like, March - early May.  Very few people are on the water.  The ones who are, are anglers...too cold to get drunk and swim!  Just the way I like it, early and empty!

 

Back to the good ol' days - Ozark float

It's been a few years since I fished from our family's canoe, used mainly for family outings now.  That changed last weekend as my brother had a free weekend to fish.  He doesn't own a kayak so a good ol' fashioned canoe trip (this is how our dad took us some 30 yrs ago) was planned.  So we loaded the river barge and headed out at 2am was on the creek by 5:30 and floated/fished for 13 hours.  A 13 hour float by canoe really makes you appreciate a kayak and all it's features...what I missed most was my Cuda's comfortable seat.  But I'm not complaining, I was able to fish with my brother and that doesn't happen very often these days.  The fishing made the day even better:

Brother and the 1st fish of the trip, 5:45...not a bad start.

2nd fish of the day.  My brother thought he had a monster for a few seconds...but reality set in and he knew it wasn't a SM....next was the guessing game, catfish, carp, or gar.  It was a great fight and he ended up trying to catch a few more during the float...no luck.

The float was very scenic, the water was low as expected in July, but the cool mountain water was welcomed as the afternoon temp's got to 97.  I think I waded about half the trip and had to walk the canoe down almost every shoal.

Big fish 17"

 Big fish of the day was 17" but we caught several at 15-16"s and too many to count in the 12-14" range.  I estimate we caught between 30-40 SM and about the same in goggle eye, rock bass, and sunfish.  Really a great day of fishing.

 The fishing was off and on all day but the best bite was early morning and late afternoon.  During the middle of the day finding shade and rapids was the ticket.

Another hard fighting bronzeback.

Cool looking river bluff.  Gravel bar we stopped at for lunch had shade and a view.

The float was good the fishing was great....till next time.






   

650 miles of fishylook'n spots (not in 650 words of less)

 Had a trip planned to the Ozarks in NW Arkansas to catch some smallies with my brother-n-law.  But like any good plan it started off with a change of plans.  The weather was looking a little sketchy so what was suppose to be an overnight float trip starting Friday evening became this:  FISHING 3 bodies of water in 2 days.  Now that's a fishing trip.  But that's not the best part, I had packed my gear and loaded all my stuff the night before.  I watched the weather report and was in bed asleep by 7pm.  The plan was to get up at midnight and drive 2 hours to meet my brother-n-law and load all his gear in my truck.  By 5:30 we'd  be at my favorite Ozark stream.  Too excited to sleep I was awake at 10:30, ready to go.  I killed an hour watching the weather, ESPN, and making my lunch.  At midnight I couldn't wait any longer...better to be early than late.  So off I go.

Leaving the launch in our dust

Best part:  At 1am it hits me square in the face.  I had left my meticulously packed milk crate sitting at the door of my garage. All the gear I needed to fish 3 different bodies of water in 2 days was now 45 miles behind me.  I realized I had left early so I just had to go get it and I'll just be a little later.  Not going to bore you with the details but a launch time of 5:30am became 6:30 (remember I was delayed by 2 hours).  I'm sure this has happened to others but it's a first for me.

Tubes seemed to work best

Crazy start to the morning now the fishing.  Unloaded and gone in seconds.  Those smallies are in trouble now.  We'll lets just say it started a little slower than I had wanted.  Threw buggers, poppers, sneaky's, anything that looked like bait fish for 2 hours without a strike.  Several follow's but no takers.  Finally after watching by brother-n-law catch his 3rd bronzeback I relented and picked up my baitcaster with a craw.

Baitcaster 3 Flyrod 0

Not the biggest I've caught but I don't care I was happy to avoid the skunk

  Spotted a really fishylook'n spot and set the craw down next to a large rock in a deep hole.  Few seconds go by and I feel a hard "Thump", reeled down and set the hook...and heard a "Crack." You guessed it, broke off on the hook set.  BUT, I see my line floating, now I'm confused, if I broke by the fish I shouldn't see line...actually it broke in the reel.  I'm in luck, grab the line and pull the monster fish in...I HOPE! I reacquire my 8lb section of fluorcarbon and nothing.  I guess it had snapped at the fish and the reel.  Now that's crazy, never happened before. So I get up and running again.  Great practice run but now it's time to go to work.  Find another fishylook'n spot, followed by good presentation, and "Thump"...reeled down and set..."Crack." Again...you gotta be kidding.  It's gonna be one of those days.  That set-up goes in the bottom of the cuda (glad to have rod storage) and out comes my spinning rod that I reserve for pulling in redfish in Grand Isle, but I'm losing my mind and I've had 3.5 hours of sleep in the last 30 hours so I'm going All In. I attach a 10' leader to my 20lb braid via double uni knot and start looking for that next fishylook'n spot.  And there it is, nice deep pool with a large rock garden in the middle.  I calm myself and make a good cast, make the craw jump a few times and sit it down...."Thump", reel down and set...fish on.  The fish gods have rewarded my commitment.  So I think.  Fish dives for rock's, line grabs tree branches, and a snake fall's into the water and starts down stream headed in my direction.  I'm not scared of snakes, good try fish gods.  Not sure where it went b/c I was totally focused on landing this fish.

This fishing picked up as the day got older.  The fly rod never produced but tubes and craws took a few hard fighting smallmouth's.

The end of day 1 came after floating 7 miles in 12 hours.  We were exhausted but managed to catch around 20 smallies each just nothing to brag about this trip.

Had a tube in it's mouth but not mine

Never know what you'll run across when in a yak.  Came across this shotgun in the case at lake number 3. It had been in the water a while based off the appearance.   Turned it into the local state park office.

Day 2 started early. I have been teaching my uncle about kayak angling over the last few months (sorta obligated to since he bought my Native in March.  We chased spawning white bass in March, LM bass in April/May but the catching has been slow for him so today we were after bream.  Stopped at the bait shop for crickets on the way to a CentralArk lake known for large bream.  No pictures per his request but it wasn't slow.  Lake number 2 ended at lunch time I dropped him off and made the drive south in search of some LM bass.  I had emptied my freezer of fish Memorial weekend so I needed a few to take home.  Caught 7 bass but only kept 4.  I don't like to keep bass but my wife loves fish and since I'm a stay-at-home dad who gets to enjoy trips like this very often..I know what I have to do. I don't alway's keep fish but when I do it's b/c my wife made me.  Checked my mileage when I got home and I traveled 650 miles in search of fishylook'n spots.  Hope you enjoyed.  Another epic journey is in the works.  Stay Tuned.