Warmwater 2023

[RiverbumCO]

You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.         

[RiverbumCO]

Need to fill this up with smallie pics

[RiverbumCO]

Scouted a local boat ramp for raft take out


Then hit a local spot after work yesterday for an hour and a half wade

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.


Best of the year so far. 19"

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.
The "spawn craw" with a couple variations 

[Onslow]

I recognize the weeds, lol.

Awesome catch!

Did you see my white mini van, or were you somewhere else?

[RiverbumCO]

I didn't see your van

[Onslow]

It has been a rough few weeks. MIL has been residing with us for the last 15 years, and has been remarkably healthy for a 90 year old until she was beset by a severe case of shingles that affected her head, neck, and eye socket a few weeks ago. Mom passed away two weeks ago, then my wife came down with shingles last week.  Thankfully my wife is vaccinated, and the symptoms are not severe.  MIL has been in severe pain, worse than what would be experienced from a knee or hip surgery.  Opiates only worked for a few days and were only marginally helpful when they were effective. Thankfully intervention took place before the actual eyes were affected which can cause one to lose their eyesight. If you're advanced in age, and shingles run in the fam, get the vaccine!.  My wife's cousin had it for 6 months. The severe cases of shingles are far worse than a bad case of covid.

I really didn't want to fish this weekend.  Had too much to do, and really wanted just to chill with the lady, tend the garden and process the crop.  Tranny had reached out about fishing this weekend but declined.  Jeff texted me about a half day trip.  Maybe I can manage this.

We went.  Fishing was painfully slow for the first three hours.  We were doing one fish per hour until about 3 PM.  Caleb cares little about fishing, but I talked him into participating today.  He caught his first smallmouth pictured, and later a 16 incher that didn't make it due to the rain.

There was a brief pause after the first rain, then a thunderstorm rolled in.  We took cover for a bit, but the torrential rain persisted. We carried on, and Jeff caught his two best in the rain.  The second one was 19" on the hawg trough.  That was a top 5 rank for the Fishwhisperer.
You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

The fish were gun shy.  Saw a lot of sore mouth on the fish which made me sad.  Treble hooks are great for catching, but damn, they are sure hell on fish. I caught a few, but no pics.  Saw many, moved many, but the fish were gun shy.

 

[Dougfish]

Damn, Ken.
My condolences. Tough circumstances. Big hugs, dude.

Got my shingles vaccine finished up recently.
Take care of yourselves, peeps.

[RiverbumCO]

Haven't been out in several weeks due to vacation and rain. Finally got a chance and decided it best I take the boy. This could open up a lot of opportunity for trips if he enjoys it. I've had a tire leaking so a quick stop for air and we notice someone had partied a little too hard the night before....
You cannot view this attachment.

Everett really doesn't care about fishing but he is pretty task-oriented so we decided he would be net-man.

You cannot view this attachment.
You cannot view this attachment.

There were several groups of recreational kayakers ahead of us, plus we would later find out there were 3 fishing kayakers that were hoovering fish on soft plastics right in front of us as well as another raft. Needless to say fishing was spotty and the kid got bored a few times. It was hot so we took a couple swim breaks. The secret is plenty of snacks.

You cannot view this attachment.

We ended up with 24 fish, 3 were caught at the put-in before we launched. One bud got his PB around 16"

You cannot view this attachment.




Need to get him casting soon

You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.

[Woolly Bugger]

Nice floaty boat trip 

[Onslow]

Elliot will change his mind if when he catches his first whopper on topwater.  Give it time.  He will be helping you with shuttle work before you know it, then college will ruin everything.

Get him a high end closed face reel and tie on a mid size perch whopper plopper on the end.  He may end up with a musky on the end, lol.

[bmadd]

Hope to see more episodes of the Farthouse Family Fishing Adventures in the near future

[RiverbumCO]

Did a mob float on kayaks. Fishing was great. 3 of us fly fishing caught 50 combined. Several 3 pounders. Lot of fish on poppers. Cruised up on a pool with a pod of big fish at the surface eating hatching bugs. Picked one off on a streamer.

You cannot view this attachment.
You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.
You cannot view this attachment.

[Onslow]

Dayum

[rbphoto]

I've wanted to make this trip for several years now, but something always got in the way.  First it was weather.  Then uncooperative governmental restrictions on public participation in unnecessary activities.  This time, I was worried that my stupidity was going to prevent it from happening.

This is the stupidity to which I refer:



But it's been nearly a month since I shoulder-dove onto concrete from a semi and while my fly casting is good, no strip-setting could occur.  That meant I had to watch fishing buddy fly-cast while I was stuck with a spinning rod.

But, I was determined this was going to happen.

So . . .



2pm put-in & shuttle, 3pm launch!

I did get to watch this happen all afternoon:



But I also got to see this happen a couple of times - both fly and spinning:



Catching stripers in the river is an absolute blast.  The water is very clear and the fish will follow for a very long time before they hit.  You can't slow down the strip or they will spook.  Fishing buddy watched 5 or 6 follows before he hooked the first one.

I had a monster follow but turn away at the boat, so I cast back again and came up with:



This is a great summer alternative when water temps are too much for trout.  And this is an hour from my house, which makes me think harder about a fishing kayak.

Let's see how the shoulder heals and maybe by next summer!

Raymond

[Dougfish]

39

Numerous 1 - 2 hour trips to the pond on our friend's Xmas tree farm @3900' in WV.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

The wildfire smoke was pretty bad 2 weeks ago.

You cannot view this attachment.