Weekend Fishing

[Red Childress]

The river was high over the weekend with levels dropping slightly over the 2 days. Trout numbers are still low for my boat but we sure are getting some above average browns. We also netted 6-8 big smallies and lost a small musky at the boat on Saturday morning. Our largest trout was 23" and was super girthy. We have only caught 1 trout this entire Spring that has been under 20 inches!

[Red Childress]

We tried a little trout fishing on Saturday afternoon even though the river was cranking. As soon as we launched the boat, the river levels increased even more. My buddy managed to stick and big pre-spawn smallie right at boatside on a half circle. Other than that, we had 2 pike follows (one of which I pulled my bait away from so I could focus on boat control).

Dry week coming up so hopefully we can have some decent water levels this weekend!

[ttabaleulb]

We had a rough start to our trip. That cold front and all that rain caused some serious temperature drops and stained water in the bays. Fished hard for the better part of 2 days and didn't even see any pike. Decided to check some steep shorelines and the baitfish and Musky started showing up. Over the last couple hrs of one evening and a couple hrs the next morning, we were moving fish consistently. I proceeded to pull the fly out of one mouth, lost a fish that actually bent the hook on my fly and the last one was right at the net when the fly popped out. As usual, it takes me a few lost fish before I start putting everything together each year. Tough part was that these were all some really nice fish. Was pretty great at least getting some action after such a slow start. Was a bummer that we had to leave so soon after finally putting together some of the pieces of the puzzle but thats part of the game. Get to start all over again on the next trip, can't wait. LOL


Jay

[Red Childress]

Sounds like you guys had some good action after using your noggin' a little and changing up your program. So many guys would have likely stayed in the bays and 'waited for the fish to start biting'. Nice going!!

[ttabaleulb]

Thanks Red. Yep, it was tough to leave the bays since we were actually seeing quite a bit of baitfish activity. We just weren't seeing any of the toothy critters around. Since we were getting short on time, decided to make that move and check some spots along the main lake basin with easy access to the deeper water. Got our first follow about 10 minutes after starting to fish those areas and then it just kept going. Some fun stuff. I think my damn knees are still shaking from the one that blasted the fly 6 ft from boat and ended up losing it at the net. LOL

[Red Childress]

We ended up putting together a pretty decent weekend with a couple dozen nice smallies (mostly pre-spawn but very ripe) and a few walleye sprinkled around. Fishing got tougher for us after about 1pm Sunday.

Ralph drove in from New Jersey to (hopefully) check-off one of his last species on his bucket list.....the walleye. So we launched the boat at 7:15, motored to the first spot and made about 15-20 casts then "fish on". I saw the white spot and knew he had the right species. After a few tense moments, he bagged his first walleye which was the first fish of the day. With the monkey climbing off both our backs, we were able to relax a little more and enjoy a nice day on the water.

[ttabaleulb]

Congrats to you guys. Thats pretty awesome to be able to get another fish off the bucket list. I mainly have one fish left on my bucket list and thats a Peacock Bass. Still no idea how I'm gonna get that one set up. LOL

[Red Childress]

Peacock for me too but I am shopping for a 20#. Was going to do Brazil but may do Peru since my wife teaches Spanish and all of a sudden wants to go with me now. We were just looking at prospective outfitters over the weekend but I have been looking at these guys for a couple of years now:

www.riverplateanglers.com

South Florida has 3-7 pounders and easily accessed.

[ttabaleulb]

I'm with ya there, definitely have to go for the "real" Peacocks in the areas that are listed in that link you sent. Thats some great info, thanks. I've heard about the ones that they have in Florida too, but that won't quite do it for a bucket list item.

Sounds like you guys should be able to put together a kick ass trip. I bet it would be a blast.

[Red Childress]

After I saw the episode of Bassmasters (or something very similar) several years ago, that had the top bass pros fishing for giant peacocks, I was sold. These guys could only take 5 of their bass rods with them each day and it was in a tournament-type format. After all 5 rods were broken, you had to come back to camp. I am not sure any of these guys made it through the entire day!

[ttabaleulb]

LMAO Thats hilarious. I might have to try and find some video of that on the web. Good old Larry Dahlberg videos put them on my radar. Early on, it seemed like every other episode had him fishing for them. I seem to recall seeing Roland Martin chase em at some point too. They just look like they would be one hell of a fun fish to hook into. From the way they attack to the wicked fight, sounds like my kind of battle.

[Red Childress]

Just watched Dahlberg's Peacock bass episode on Sunday for the ump-teenth time. His giant Amazon catfish episode is a cool one too.

I really want to stick with the Amazon river basin to ensure the best opportunity of landing a 20+ pounder. That is why I listed Peru as well (Columbia and Venezuela may be a bit too unstable for my liking). The Negro flows thru Northern Peru and converges with the Amazon in Manaus, Brazil. Manaus Airport is where I will likely fly in.

[ttabaleulb]

Sounds like you've definitely done your research. I might have to pick your brain in the future when I finally start to get serious about a possible trip. Right now, I'm having a tough enough time even getting short travel trips for Musky set up. LOL

[Red Childress]

Jay,


A little Peacock teaser.



https://youtu.be/axfosMumI0c

[ttabaleulb]

LOL Oh man, I better start saving some money and fast. That kind of trip just looks too awesome!! Pretty wild how they string all of those "house" boats together like that. And, those are some amazing looking fish. I'd definitely have to get a reproduction done of one.

[Red Childress]

The coolest thing is that they follow the schooling fish while you sleep so when you wake up, you jump in your boat and begin fishing. No 2-3 hour boat ride each day (from a stationary location) to get to the hot spots.

Not a cheap trip for sure but when I do this, I will do it the right way.

[ttabaleulb]

Wow, thats pretty crazy and very cool. I guess they have that whole scene down to a science.

I definitely agree with ya there too. When I'm gonna do a once in a lifetime trip, I'm gonna do what I can to do it up right. Another place on my radar is a Musky trip to Lake of the Woods. I e-mailed one of the resorts up there a year or so ago asking about flyfishing that lake. He stated that not many have really tried it at that point and the few that have didn't seem to do to well. But the legend of that lake makes me want to try it even more after hearing that. LOL

[Red Childress]

We chased bass/walleye on Sunday and could only put several bass in the net. All were nice specimens except for 1 runt. Saturday was yard work day plus a few other commitments. Water levels are finally back down to the semi-normal zone.

[25homes]

you sure are right about water levels...Went to Lock 2 couple weeks back 2 sundays prior....water was stupid high and temp dropped 9 degrees from week prior..skipped last week on alleghany went to Mon and then Went back to Lock 2 On Sunday the 21st....so in 2 weeks exactly water level dropped like 7-10ft on the shore line and clearity was 100% better and temp was back to around 64 degrees so up from 56 degrees...so had water clarity go from Mud to 3-4 ft visability with water levels way down....had action 2 weeks ago and this Sunday though things were looking good fishing Sunday Morning before huge front came in...Just Nothing..no follows no nothing thinking water levels and clarity have them messed up...was only seeing fish in one deep hole in the channel like they were setting in deeper water maybe in thermocline looking for stable water...Im not sure but fishing was very slow Sunday for my boat

[Red Childress]

It sure has been some crazy river levels this Spring! Looks like we are on the upward temperature swing now so the fish should be responding accordingly. I started seeing some small juvenile bait pods cruising around last weekend so it looks like there has been some successful spawning going on. It appears the waterfowl have had to re-nest a time or two with all this crazy river fluctuation and I hope it did not have a negative effect on the spawning muskies and walleye.

[ttabaleulb]

Definintely some crazy weather so far. I am hoping to get out for a few hours tomorrow. However, each damn weather site shows something different at this point. I have no issues with the rain, but thunderstorms are a whole different story. Conditions just seem like there could be some major activity.