After a cursory search online, I was able to determine that Yeti did indeed make a larger version of their Water Bottle Pouch/Sling so I ordered one. I was wanting one that would hold the Sawyer Squeeze water bottle since I use that the most when fishing. Plus it would get it out of the backpack and be more accessible.
I added a bit of shock cord since the pouch was a little big for the Sawyer bottle.I think this option will be perfect for river fishing.
I know everyone complains about the prices of Yeti goods, but when actually comparing similar items, it’s just about on par with everything else. The quality on every Yeti item we have purchased has been outstanding and I feel it was money well spent. I have no affiliation with them and have purchased everything with my own money…I’m just saying that their stuff is pretty damn good. And again, I’m not selling anything, just showing what we use. Fish can’t read so find what works for you and go with it. Take care and Happy Easter.
This morning I got out early and started practicing my fly casting. I feel that one can never practice enough. And since there was very little wind this early in the day, why not practice?
I started with a Fenwick Fenlite 5wt which is a fast action rod. I do not feel that my casting ability is up to the level where I can achieve the full benefits of a rod like this. So I switched over to a Redington Classic Trout 9ft 5wt which has a medium fast action that is more suited to my casting style.
I am really beginning to like this rod.
And before anyone starts calling me out on practicing over gravel…it’s the straightest, most open place I have to practice on. Also, I don’t throw out my old fly lines, but rather save them for practice use.
Remembering the lessons my Dad taught me when first learning to cast…I set up a feed bucket and began practicing. To me, accuracy is more important than distance so I focus on that. In time I will increase the distance.
First distance is 30ft…I moved up to take the picture.
After about 30 minutes I was able to put approximately 3 out of 10 casts into the bucket. The rest were either over and past or right beside. I am trying to focus on accuracy, minimal effort and consistency.
Success!
I’ve probably watched every Lefty Kreh casting video on YouTube which to me is a good thing. That legend could CAST. But everybody is different so it takes time to develop a style you are consistent and happy with which is why practice is so important. I hope to take what I learn to the river and fine tune it some more.
And I agree with Lefty… “clocks are for telling time”
Well, the good news is that the wind stopped howling out of the South. The bad news is that its howling out of the North. Temperatures yesterday were 84F and sunny but today it was 51F, rainy and overcast. That’s a typical Oklahoma spring…the weather is always terrible on the weekends.
Between gusts of wind and rain showers, we managed to get out and fish for an hour. She caught 2 little largemouth bass and I caught one. And I do mean little. We figured that the front that moved through would push them back into deeper water and we were correct.
The look on my face says it all
What can I say…it beats staying at home. Some times you just have to go fishing and that’s exactly what we did. The weather looks great next week but my weather app shows more chances of rain for next weekend. Go figure.
Nothing to be done but to muddle through it and wait for better conditions. Besides, soon enough I’m sure I will start complaining about the heat! Catch you on the next one.
I apologize for not posting anything to the blog that was fishing related. We have been dealing with high winds for the past 6 days which has made fishing almost impossible in our area. Average wind speeds have been around 17mph with gusts up to 48mph and after this next round of storms moves through tomorrow, we are hoping that it will calm down some.
Today the wife and I were on a mission. We were trying to find 2-piece Medium Power Bass Spinning rods and weren’t having much luck. We hit Bass Pro and Academy in Tulsa to no avail. The rods they had were either 1-piece or super cheap rods. We like to purchase stuff somewhere in the middle. We ended up heading home empty handed to get some chores done around the property.
Fast forward a couple of hours and I mentioned that I was hungry and sought her opinion on grabbing something to eat. We decided to head over to the next little town to eat. After that, as we were driving to the highway, I offered to drive over to Dick’s Sporting Goods. We both kind of laughed since we’d never had much luck buying fishing gear there. But we said what the heck and drove to it.
We did manage to find an Okuma 2-piece Medium power rod and as we were walking to the checkout stand…we stopped at the Yeti area to see what was new. I told her that she should get the Yeti Sidekick to go on her Panga 28 since it adds room to hold regular use stuff like soft plastics. She snatched one up. As she was checking it out I noticed something on the bottom shelf of the display and asked her to hand it to me. It turned out to be the Water Bottle Pouch/Sling for their 18oz Rambler. I looked it over and we decided to each get one. We have been trying out various methods to attach a water bottle to the side of the Panga 28 but never really liked any of the options.
These are very well made and seem to be really practical. They’re easy to put on and take off and don’t flop around all over the place. Now on to the pictures…
We think these will work out really well and plan to test them out thoroughly. I need to do some research and see if they come in a bigger size. That would be nice for the Sawyer Squeeze Filter Bottles we use a lot.
On a side note: I tried to talk her out of getting a Yeti Panga 28. Instead I suggested she get the Yeti Hopper Backflip cooler so she could carry the ice cold beer while we were fishing but she was having none of it. Can’t blame a guy for trying! Catch you on the next one…
We decided to fish a local lake that we hadn’t fished in quite awhile. It requires a boat so we loaded up our Jon boat and headed out. I know that I did a post previously where I explained why I don’t own a boat…but I consider this a glorified beer can more than a serious boat. But they do serve their purpose. Besides, we can’t tow much behind a Subaru.
And of course it was windy
This was going to be Zips first outing on a boat and we were curious as to how he would do. It ended up being nothing to worry about as he really enjoyed being out on the lake. I like this dog more each day!
After inspecting the entire boat…he decided to curl up and relax.
I took my new Smith TRMK-423UL rod and the 2021 Diawa Presso 1000 and I have to say…it performed really well. A couple of times it should have broken and didn’t. I’m impressed!.
This bass made multiple runs underneath the boat and the rod held.Nice Crappie! They were on the beds so we released them to fulfill their duty of creating a future population.Several chunky little Largemouth Bass were caught.We each caught several Crappie.We caught several little bass.I was constantly manning the tiller. Most of the time I had the stern pointed into the wind and the motor on Reverse #2 just to hold our position to some extent.We even caught a few perch.Zip likes boat rides.Another CrappieCrappie
Once the sun fully came up, the wind really started building and we decided to get off the lake. We have a storm system rolling in later tonight. Typical Oklahoma Spring weather. We fish every opportunity that “time” and the “weather” allows. Thanks for reading…
I have been looking at this rod for months and decided to just get it. I want a short rod for some of the creek fishing I have planned. What drove me towards this rod is that it’s fiberglass in the last section. This should allow more flexibility in the tip to make several different types of casts with really light lures.
Fiberglass tip sectionZippered nylon case with end pockets and velcro keepers for the tip sections.Tip section ends in fiberglass where the rest are graphite.Don’t ask me…I have no idea why. Youse-guys??Specs of the rodShown with a 500 size reelShown with a 1000 size reel
This is the first 3-piece rod I have owned. Supposedly it is stronger than a 4-piece since it does not have an extra junction. Also, It should be lighter because of that. I think at some point we will be splitting hairs when it comes down to specs. Per the manufacturers website, it lists this rod at 74 grams. Although I will note that their spec sheet says it’s FULL GLASS but also states “with solid glass only in one tip section.” I will probably have to pony up for an Anglo&Co. G411 rod to get the full benefit of fiberglass. Maybe someday…
Also, something that I have been kicking around is doing pictures of bending curves for each of my rods. Not sure if there is any interest in that…if so then I will give it a shot. Take care out there and get out and fish.
After a full night of rain, we didn’t have much hope of catching anything but decided to go anyway. If nothing else, we’d be able to stretch our legs as well as letting Zip run all over.
We decided to take our bigger rods since we were hoping for White Bass or even a Striper. In the end, we caught nothing but rays of sunshine.
Her first time out with her new Yeti Panga 28 backpack.Zip on “Alert”
Interestingly enough…in the picture above, Zip keyed in on a Beaver that we didn’t notice.
Beaver (Castor canadensis)He wasn’t scared of us and never went far from that tree. We left the beaver alone and continued on our way.Changing lures.Zip always stays pretty close…so that’s good!Retrieving a stuck lure. Water temps right now are around 54F.Mission accomplished.
It’s still early in the season and our weather patterns are all over the map from 84F down to 31F…and sometimes, that swing is in one day. Factor in the spring rains and its a toss-up if we can go fishing. And being back to work hasn’t made it any easier. We’re relegated to only fishing weekends at this point.
Her setup.My setup.
Zip is getting better on the car rides so that is a huge plus. I feel like I’m starting to ramble so I will finish this post up and say “Thank You for reading it.”
We had planned to go fishing today as the weather forecast called for sunshine and about 70F for the high. We waited for the temps to hit 55F before we headed to the lake.
I was using my Apia Grandage Lite 61 with the Abu Garcia MGX Theta 1000s and she opted for her Daiwa Iprimi 62UL and her Daiwa Presso LTD 1025.
I REALLY like this rod!
When we arrived there was one other car there, a guy who was taking pictures of the lake. As we were gearing up, another car pulled in and they bailed out to claim “their spot” while their dogs ran leash-less all over the place. We find that weird since there are plenty of good places to fish along the shore. To each their own.
Little bass with voracious appetites.Water is still pretty cold…but the bass are definitely moving up.Zip is coming along nicely…Eventually he went for a swim.Our total for today was 7 bass in the hour we were there.He was torn between myself and my wife.
After the wind started picking up and more people started to arrive (it’s a really small parking area) we decided to call it a day. We picked up trash on our way back to the car and visited with a few fishermen along the way. It was great to get out, the fishing is beginning to pick up and the sunshine felt great.
We have had some decent rainfall recently and as you can see in the picture, the lake level has come up about 2 ft. Outings like this are enough to whet the appetite, but we are still waiting for things to stabilize.
On a sidenote, we went to the MLF (Major League Fishing) Expo yesterday that was in Tulsa. We walked around and saw a lot of interesting products. Even though we don’t do that type of bass fishing, some of the items were really neat. I got to talk to the Abu Garcia rep and play around with the new Zenon Baitcast reels (VERY NICE) and the Zenon spinning reels. The Abu rep was very sympathetic in regards to the JDM tackle they make but don’t import into the US. He didn’t understand the reasoning behind it…and like us, orders it from Digitaka and other places.
We also visited the Daiwa booths and asked about their range of JDM gear and got several silly excuses in response. They blamed shipping and other such nonsense. Their US catalog is completely void of the gear we like and use, which is to be expected. But we knew before going that it would be highly unlikely that we would find anything for our needs at this expo. In fact, just inquiring about ultralight rods raised eyebrows in every booth we visited. They were politely dismissive but it was still kind of funny. The tech-centric approach and the sheer cost of gear was astounding. And it blows my mind that there are boat motors that cost as much as my car! If I was still fishing bass tournaments, I’m sure I would’ve seen things differently…it’s just not my thing anymore.
(This dog was abandoned at a campground. We have no firm idea of his actual age and the vet estimated him to be about 4 years of age, hence the question mark.) It was the end of August and temperatures were over 100F. We noticed him hanging around the bathroom facilities while the entire campground was empty except for us. We put out a bowl of water for him and hoped somebody would return for him.
My wife and I were there to do an ultralight backpacking trip and were staying one night at the campground before starting our hike. This dog wandered over to our tent and slept beside it all night. Early the next morning we didn’t see him and after putting out water for him, we started on our way. We ran into the camp host on our way to the trailhead and asked him about the dog. He said people dumped dogs there quite often and that if this one wasn’t gone by the end of the day, he’d take care of it. We knew what that meant and didn’t like it.
About 2 miles into our hike I heard something coming through the undergrowth and stopped to see what it was…it was the dog. My wife and I looked at each other because we knew we were in for a long hike and were concerned that the dog wouldn’t make it. But considering his alternatives, we opted to let him hike with us.
Needless to say, this hike turned into a disaster. All of the watering holes had dried up as we kept hiking from one to the next hoping for water. With the temperatures hovering around 105F we were burning through water faster than expected considering we were sharing with the dog. At the 18 mile mark I began to develop issues with the iliotibial bands in my legs, which made bending my knees very painful.
The 2-mile long forestry road we used to hike up to the scenic overlook.
We had a quick pow-wow and decided to call an end to the hike. We decided to hike 2 miles up the mountain to a scenic overlook and hopefully catch a ride back to the campground. At this point, I was walking like Frankenstein and carrying the dog the last mile to the overlook. His paws were raw from the rocky trail.
My wife reached the overlook first and waited for us. As she saw us coming up the hill, it must have been a sad sight because she decided to jog the 5 miles along the highway back to the campground to retrieve the car and come back for us. Bless her! I couldn’t have done what she did.
On the ride home, the dog was curled up on the back seat sound asleep. We talked for awhile and decided to give him the name “Trooper” since he soldiered on and covered the 20 miles with me. He was a tough little dog!
When we got home, we could tell he was grateful for a meal, a bath and a soft bed. I’ve never had a dog that snored as loud as this little guy did.
He got along well with the two other stray pups that our daughter brought home, all the while, we were questioning our sanity and decisions.
The Three AmigosTrooper had a knack for always being comfortable.He even made Zip feel welcome.
As a family, we mourn his passing and take solace that we tried to give him love and a better life than his previous owners. We had 9 good years with him and know that he’s in a better place, free from infirmities and old age. He was truly a member of our family, a gift out of the wilderness. He always greeted us at the door with his tail wagging and was constantly by our side. He kept a watchful eye out the window for anything out of place and alerted us to everything unusual with a bark that was way above his weight-class. You were a good boy Trooper and we miss you, Love Mom and Dad.
We finally managed to carve out some time to make a reconnaissance run up to Missouri to check out the Elk River.
We drove 306.5 miles and were out for 6hrs 47mins.
Again, this idea started with a blue line on a map and subsequent research showed that it had potential. We like to visually check out an area before committing to an extended trip.
Our first stop.Extremely shallow. River channel is on the opposite side.
Access is limited to this river from what we could observe along our routes. There are canoe livery’s everywhere and renting a canoe seems to be the best option if we decide to commit to fishing this river.
And of course Zip went with us.He was quite content to sit and watch us fish.
We proceeded to head on over to Pineville since my wife found an access point to the river on a map. I think it was called the City Of Pineville Elk River Public Access.
One acre of land next to a bridge. It does have a “boat ramp” if you can call it that. Lots of rebar and metal pipes in the river around the bridge.
In all honesty, we weren’t super impressed with what we saw and it looks like this will be a madhouse during the summer. The sheer number of canoe rental companies was astounding and hints to our trepidation. In all likelihood we will fish this river at least once. If we could find a long section to fish without staring into peoples windows things might be different. Who knows, maybe our first impression was wrong. I hope so anyway. It was still fun to get out and explore new waters. Hopefully the weather will begin to stabilize some and we don’t get too much rain in a short period of time. But the fishing season is definitely right around the corner and we’re ready for it.
This is my Kryptonite. I have failed so many times when managing my expectations. I plan something to the nth degree and nothing goes according to plan. Then I get really frustrated and sometimes angry which doesn’t do me any good.
I have made plans to recon fishing areas only to be informed that “we” have other plans for the weekend. I tend to just withdraw and stop making plans for awhile. And that’s not healthy.
I need to figure out a better way to manage my expectations. I don’t want to use the military style PACE plan. Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency to where I have to develop 4 separate plans for a single outing. Obviously this isn’t a life or death scenario for me.
Perhaps I should just focus on priorities and effective communication. Maybe I should just create a “rough outline” and go with the flow. Maybe I should just step back and postpone it. Or decide to go it alone.
So many factors go into a simple scouting trip. Weather is a critical factor in my area. As an example, we were in the 50’s on Thursday but received 3-4 inches of snow on Friday with temps in the teens to 20’sF. And we will be up near 80F later in the week. These narrow windows of decent weather make you squeeze stuff in when you can.
My wife has to return to her office after 2 years for no good reason other than a ” because I said so.” I kind of figured that a road trip might do us some good only to realize she wanted to relax and hang out on her last weekend. Frustrating but understandable.
However, I do need to figure this out and get better at managing my expectations. If you have any suggestions feel free to share them and thank you for reading this.
Velox Seeker 