Fishing Trips/ Outings – Page 2

Back on my Feet!

These past few weeks have been hell. It took almost 2 weeks to see my doctor and getting pain medication seemed to take an act of Congress. I was essentially bedridden for 8 straight days due to intense pain. It took a full 12 days before I could actually sit in a chair for more than a minute. Once the MRI was done and the damage became known, things seemed to move a bit faster.

It is frustrating to be treated like everything is either a minor injury or it’s psychosomatic. The MRI ultimately showed that I had a serious tear in my gluteus minimus origin as well as a minor tear in my hamstring origin all located in my right hip. Speaking with an Orthopedic doctor, he really didn’t want to do surgery given its location and instead gave me a steroid injection into the hip socket. Needless to say, the pain is still there but the injection helped and I’m mobile finally and able to do things.

So the first thing I did was hit the trout pond at the crack of dawn! The weather has been weird to the say the least. One day it was 87F and the next it was 31F. That’s Oklahoma weather for you!

I did pretty well and managed to catch 8 Rainbow trout…or Pellet Pigs as we call them since they’re hatchery raised. It was good to feel the tug and hear the drag sing.

I normally do not take the trout out of the water and instead release them. But on this day there was an older gentleman who asked if he could have any trout I didn’t want so I gave him 3 which is the limit. It was 33F and I could tell he didn’t really want to get his gear out and stand there for any length of time so I obliged him.

The trout season is winding down and this pond was stocked for the last time on February 28th. We had a decent winter season all things considered. And I’m sure, like so many others, that we all are looking forward to Spring and warmer weather. See you on the next one.

Outing 4 February 2024…

The day started off rainy and cool but we were really wanting to hit the trout pond again. We figured with the rain, hardly anyone would be at the pond fishing, and we were right. There were a few diehards but they stayed on the floating docks under the metal roof.

We started off by throwing spoons. We tried several different colors but other than a couple of bumps, they just didn’t seem to be interested. Mrs. VeloxSeeker opted to try her Veles Handcrafted Lures and immediately got a hit and reeled in a nice rainbow.

I was lucky enough to see the hit and watch the fight while standing on the bank holding the net. It was obvious that she was onto something. And for the record…dummy me only brought spoons so I begged a Veles lure off of her.

I chose a different color scheme and it proved to be effective as well. At that point we decided to try as many different lures as we could to test out their effectiveness on trout.

She switched to the lure pictured above and was into her second trout in no time. We could see the trout swirling from time to time and occasionally one would leap 2 feet out the water chasing something, so we knew they were actively feeding.

I will digress here for a bit: I was using a Daiwa Presso ST 62ML rod which was designed for “Area Trout” fishing i.e. trout ponds. And I’m here to tell you, it was dead in the sensitivity department. I could only feel the heaviest spoon or the biggest Veles lure. It excelled in the casting department as it easily cast lures as far as you would want to. I was fortunate to even catch the trout that I did.

Shortly after catching my rainbow, the rain kicked in and she wasn’t feeling much like fishing. She offered to let me use her rod ( the lovely DreemUp Dreem Con Three 62) and I jumped at the opportunity. Four casts later and I’m into another rainbow finally. Score is 2-2!

I literally couldn’t get enough of that rod. I kept casting and managed to hook a third rainbow and the fight was on. After a short scuffle, the trout rocketed out of the water, spit the lure and gave me the “middle fin.” I was grinning from ear to ear and decided that it was a good time to leave. What a perfect ending to a 2-2 game!

Today Was HER Day…

We woke up to 30F and pea soup fog but the forecast said it would clear by 10AM. I’m up early every day so I was back in the fishing room getting my gear ready and changing some hooks out. And I can’t really blame her for sleeping in since the weather was cold and damp.

We finally arrived at the trout pond and it was good to see several others already out there fishing. And it didn’t take her long to hook into her first trout. It was a nice battle and she handled it perfectly.

I should take a moment to clarify something about yesterdays post. The DreemUp Dreem Con Three 62L is her rod. I was just giving it a quick test when I caught the trout yesterday. Very impressive rod and she got to experience what I was trying to explain yesterday. She REALLY enjoyed fishing with it and catching trout.

Her first trout was chunky and put up a great fight.

I managed to hook one but I gave it some slack and it slipped the barbless hook. My rod was the Soare SS Ajing S58L-S and is quite a bit stiffer with an extra fast tip…which is not ideal for trout ponds and trout fishing. Sometimes common sense is over-ruled when it comes to wanting to test out a new rod. Lesson learned.

It didn’t take long before she hooked her second trout. I reeled in and raced for the net, all too happy to help since I wasn’t catching anything but a chill. Once safely in the net it was time for me to take pictures.

Once the sun came out and the fog cleared off…the bite was over. We fished for another hour without a single hit. We didn’t even see a trout rise or swirl anywhere. At that point we decided to grab lunch and head home.

And yes…I earned a good ribbing on the ride home! Skunk Boy-that’s me!

Finally!…

The weather has been conspiring against us for most of January it seems.

Fortunately we had a small warming trend and some rain which “de-iced” the trout ponds. Today the temperature was 37F but with 18-20mph winds so it felt like 26F. Come hell or high water…we were hitting the trout pond, and we did.

We had two new rods to test and hopefully give them a proper workout, but sadly we only caught one rainbow trout. Granted, it was a decent one at around 3 pounds.

For those interested…The rods were a DreemUp Dreem Con Three 62L spinning rod and a Shimano Soare SS Ajing S58L-S spinning rod. Both are fantastic casters and I caught our only trout on the DreemUp. The rod performed flawlessly and really helped keep the trout under control.

DreemUp DCT 62L on top and the Shimano Soare SS Ajing S58L-S on the bottom.

Wish we could have stayed longer but the wind and cold made us head for home. Talking with a few of the regulars, they confirmed that it had been stocked this past Thursday so hopefully we can return tomorrow.

It felt SO GOOD to hear the drag sing and feel the pull on the rod. It has been too long for sure. And once again, the trout spoons came through for us. Of the 6 anglers present, ours was the only trout that we saw being caught. I can’t stress enough how effective these spoons can be.

Hopefully we can return tomorrow and do a bit better…

Today Was A Bust…

We have been really wanting to go trout fishing but a recent winter storm and below freezing temperatures have forced us to wait. A new rod has been sitting here waiting for me to give it a good workout and it is probably just as frustrated as I am.

The weatherman assured us that it would be 32F by noon so we made plans and gathered our gear. But we all know that they are about as trustworthy as a politician! Temperatures ended up dropping by noon as a new round of winter storms approaches. The rain, sleet and ice are supposed to start falling by 6PM.

We pulled into the trout pond and noticed that there wasn’t a single person fishing. Never a good sign! We can’t actually see the pond from the parking lot so we parked and walked down to the edge. This is what greeted us…

The aerator/pump was running and that was the only open water, but casting and getting a fish would’ve been tough…too much ice to contend with. We put Plan B into motion and opted to drive to another pond.

Two pockets of open water well out of range and socked in with ducks and geese. Not a chance!

We gave up and headed towards home. We ended up detouring a bit and checking out one of our local lakes and it was iced over too. Something we had never seen before. After that we called it a day an opted to relax for the rest of Sunday. The weather forecast looks bleak for next week but maybe we will get another chance come the weekend.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Outings…At Last!

We finally managed to get out and fish a bit yesterday morning. Temperatures are cooler early in the morning and we arrived at one of the nearby lakes shortly after sunrise.

The wind kicked up just as the sun rose over the hills so we had some issues casting our light lures. We managed to pull out 7 bass and the one perch. We were expecting a package so opted to head home early to be there for its arrival. Long story short…it never arrived so we wasted our time. Had we known, we would’ve stayed and fished all afternoon.

Fast forward to the next morning and we were once again waiting for the package to arrive and it finally did at 0905.

This is classed as an Ajing rod and is listed as a saltwater super ultralight rod. It is a bit stiffer than ultra light rods that are made in the States.

Paired with the Shimano Soare XR 500SPG reel.

The bending curve on this rod is fantastic, as is the sensitivity.

We were at another local lake by 0930 with the purpose of putting this rod through its paces. We had a narrow window of opportunity as storms are expected early this afternoon.

Much to our surprise, they had cleared all of the brush from around the lakeshore so we had a few more chances to cast from the bank.

Think this was the smallest bass I have ever caught.

This is going to be a tangle of poison ivy soon.

We managed to catch 5 bass before the rain started. I am impressed with the new rod and can see it being almost perfect for the trout ponds. It would definitely be fun to use on the rivers for smallmouth.

It looks like it will finally start cooling down after tonight which is a great relief. We want to fish the river at least one more time before trout season starts. It will all depend on how much rain we get tonight and what the temperatures are going to do. Stay tuned for more and thanks for reading.

Outing 24 June 2023…

It was a beautiful start to the morning. After a 2 hour drive just talking and drinking coffee, we hit the river running. The temperature was hanging right around 70F and the skies were grey and cloudy. We could hear some thunder way off in the distance but we opted to fish anyway.

MajorCraft Fiberglass rod with a 2017 Shimano Scorpion BFS reel.

She opted to try her Teucer fiberglass rod as well.

She used her Daiwa Silver Creek Stream Custom 8.5L reel.

I was a bit surprised when she told me she wanted to try using a baitcast setup on the river. She has practiced with me many times before so I knew she could do it. She was worried about bird nests and I told her it was going to happen and was inevitable…so don’t worry about it.

First fish on a baitcast setup for her. YEAH!!!!

We had a really good morning session on the river. We managed to catch 73 with about half of them being decent. I hadn’t spent a full day behind a baitcaster on the river before and thoroughly enjoyed it. Watching the smallmouth rocket up from the bottom to smash the lure was a sight to see.

Her efforts were ended early due to a weed! There was a piece of Johnson grass at her side and when she cast, she hit it which resulted in a reel spool full of mayhem. And try as I might, I couldn’t pick it out. I offered her my setup but she was quite content to fish on with her spinning outfit. I was and am, very proud of her. I think she sees that there is some value in that method in regards to how and where we fish.

It wasn’t long before the wind picked up, the skies grew ominous and the sound of thunder got louder. We decided to call it a day and started heading back upstream to the car. And of course we weren’t fast enough and we both were absolutely soaked by the time we made it back. Zip? He could’ve cared less and was having the time of his life!

It was definitely good to be back on our home waters. We are not looking forward to the heat that we know is coming, but there’s nothing to be done about it. Stay tuned for the next one!

Outing…June 15-21, 2023

We couldn’t get a full 2 weeks off of work due to the wife’s work situation. We tried to shoot for a long weekend instead.

We headed back to the Cossatot River for a quick camp and fish outing. Our planned itinerary was to camp and fish the Cossatot, the Ouachita and the Kings Rivers. Needless to say, the week was a blur and we put 975 miles on the vehicle.

We got lucky in the fact that the Ed Banks #2 Campsite was available, so we grabbed it. There are zero amenities here other than a place to pitch a tent. The fishing was tough due to the thunderstorms that were rolling through on a continous basis.

This picture was taken just moments before a severe thunderstorm hit. A torrential downpour, heavy lightning and rapidly rising water forced us to cut the day short.

The river level fluctuated on a daily basis. The mornings started off cool, especially with the dampness. We never built a fire but had a small “heater” that fit on top of a single burner backpacking stove.

We caught several decent smallmouth, but only one good one. With the weather we had and the river conditions, we were happy with what we did manage to catch. Quite a few of the smallmouth were decent sized and put up a great fight in the current so we had few complaints. Snakes were abundant on this trip however. I think we quit bothering to count after 10 were spotted in close proximity.

Sometimes you have to share a good fishing spot!

Saturday and Sunday night we rented a cabin and were very glad we did. It stormed quite hard that night with heavy rain, lightning, thunder and wind.

Monday and Tuesday we spent in a cabin on the Kings River up by Eureka Springs Arkansas. This river was on our list but didn’t pan out. I think we caught 7 or 8 fish the 2 days we were there. We rented a canoe and fished a 5 mile section of the river to limited success. Supposedly it was a “Trophy Smallmouth Section” but we never saw anything decent size except carp. Not to mention, every deep hole had someone swimming or throwing rocks. We were NOT impressed and to keep from throwing shade I will say no more about our stay. I’m not sure we even took pictures.

For me…the dead giveaway was when I asked the outfitter what strain of smallmouth this section of the river held, and their reply was “the Northern strain” which I thought was odd. I should have known better and cut my losses.

Anyway…we are cleaning and stowing our gear and getting laundry done so I will close now and get back to the task at hand. Thank you for reading!

Outing 6MAY2023…Back to the River.

After a long work week, we decided to hit the river this morning. We had a few days of rain earlier in the week but it didn’t affect the river level. Also, the temperature took a dramatic uptick and was forecast to be in the mid-90’sF this weekend. All systems go!

I’m not going to lie…I was worried because after almost 2 hours of fishing, I was sitting at ZERO and had lost 3 lures already. Meanwhile, she was up to 3 fish and way up the river ahead of me. She wasn’t waiting on anyone!!!

She caught the biggest of the trip. As usual…

It took us quite awhile to figure out a pattern. It ended up being the troughs. They wanted an upstream cast to the head of a trough. And all of the troughs that produced were below rapids or choke points. Even changing to a different jighead made a big difference as well. I ended up redeeming myself with a personal total of 12 whereas she ended the day with 8. But it doesn’t really matter…her bigger fish apparently counts for an extra 25 points or something. Well played.

All in all, it was a great day. We both “needed” the outing and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Woke up late, took our time, and still managed a relaxing day on the river. Catching fish is always a bonus and “keeping score” is nothing more than an inside joke between the 2 of us.

We definitely want to go back to the river as soon as we can. Thank you for reading and maybe we’ll see you on the next one.

Outing 23 April 2023…

We took some time today to hit a local lake since the wind was supposed to be pretty mild today. The day started off at 36F so we had a leisurely start and enjoyed our coffee until the temperature hit 45F.

We opted to take our ultralight gear because we decided to target perch/panfish. In all honesty…we fished yesterday morning too with our ultralight gear and caught 6 fish…but the wind was so high we bailed out and headed home and we didn’t take pictures.

We had a good outing until we walked up to something that made our blood boil. We found 2 Largemouth bass intact and thrown up into the edge of the woods while another one had been hacked to pieces while still alive. To top it off, the dumbassses left their machete imbedded in a log.

We cleaned up the crime scene since getting a game warden out there was practically impossible. Neither one of us had anything nice to say about the perpetrator(s). And of course, per our usual routine, we picked up quite a bit of trash and headed home.

It gets really frustrating when our fellow “fishermen” are complete pigs and leave trash and beer cans all over the place expecting someone else to clean up after them. Not to mention that last weekend there was a party on the boatramp and they burned pallets. Once the fire was out there were nails and screws everywhere. Brain-dead is the only thing I could call them.

Anyway, we’ll keep fishing and cleaning up trash no matter where we go. Thanks for reading and we’ll catch you on the next one.

Outing 15APR2023…

Time was of the essence today. The weather forecast called for winds out of the WNW at 25mph with gusts over 35mph starting at around 11am. We were at the local lake by 0830 and were into the fish right away.

We managed to catch 6 fish total, 3 Largemouth Bass, 2 Crappie and 1 Perch. I’m sure we could have caught more but I stopped fishing to pick up trash and ended up talking to another fisherman for almost 2 hours.

Truth be told, the real reason we went to the local lake was two-fold, 1) to test out two new rods and 2) to find out if the fish had moved up and started spawning. The Largemouth Bass were indeed on the beds and starting to spawn. We will avoid them for the next 2 weeks and let them propagate the species. I am not so sure what the Crappie are doing because their bites were so subtle that I couldn’t tell if they were guarding nests or not. Our temperatures here have been in the low 40’sF at night until this past week where they climbed up into the upper 50’sF and low 60’sF with daytime highs in the 70’sF and 80’sF. With that data I figured the fish would be biting and was correct.

Her new TenRyu rod. The TenRyu Rayz Spectra RZS61LL.

I bought her a TenRyu Rayz Spectra RZS61LL rod for an early wedding anniversary present. And she ended up buying me a TenRyu Rayz RZ632S-L rod for the same reason. Crazy I know, but that’s how we are!

TenRyu Rayz 632S-L with a 2022 Daiwa Exist LT 2000

We are unabashed TenRyu fans and now have a pretty good spread for various situations we find ourselves in. She has a TenRyu Rayz RZ6102S-LML which is a bit too much for most of what we do and had shown interest in a lighter action rod. I have the TenRyu Rayz Spectra RZ51LL so figured the 6ft 1in version would be ideal for her. She absolutely loved this rod and I could tell while fishing this afternoon that it would be a keeper. Meanwhile, I had the 5ft 1in and a 6ft 10in TenRyu Lunakia ( which is a great Sand Bass rod) and wanted something a little longer than the 51LL rod so she got me the 6ft 3in rod. Since it is almost always windy in Oklahoma, I wanted a rod that could punch into the wind and this proved to be the case this afternoon.

Although I am not a huge fan of cork…TenRyu gets it right.

It was a good day to get out and fish for sure. But we have a neverending list of chores we have to do so we left the lake around noon. We made a quick run over to our favorite garden lady and bought 8 heirloom tomato plants from her and planted those in our garden. The potatoes are already up and growing so hopefully we will have some homegrown vegetables and produce this year.

Anyway, I’m going to close here as I feel like I’m rambling and I’m sure nobody wants a play-by-play from us lol. Take care and THANKS for reading.

Richland Creek Recon…8-9 APR 2023.

We saw a post on Instagram and decided it was worth driving over and taking a look at. It’s a curious thing how one picture can get your mind turning, maps pulled out and plans laid.

The blue lines refer to this trip. It was exactly 500 miles round trip from our doorstep.

With this being a fishing blog, and a stream fishing blog in particular, we wanted to see if the creek was viable for us to fish over a week long camping trip. So that also entails checking out the camping opportunities, which we did. There are approximately 16 campsites at this Recreation Area and a few more scattered out on the drive in. There is no water other than the creek and a single vault toilet, so the accomodations are pretty Spartan.

Just past the tent and down the little hill is the river!

Once camp was set up and we were satisfied, we donned our wading gear and headed to the creek.

We fished for about an hour with nothing to show for it. The water temperature was 51F according to my thermometer, and we were glad we decided to bring the waders. It’s probably still just a bit early.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a trip without Zip.

Later in the afternoon after lunch, we decided to explore further upstream. The trail we followed was sparse at best so we opted to bushwhack down hill and just follow the creek. If I was a betting man, I’d say this was prime Copperhead territory so our eyes were peeled and we left Zip back at camp. Boulder hopping quickly became the norm as we made progress along the creek bank.

We ended up only catching 3 fingerling Ouachita-strain Smallmouth Bass so we didn’t get skunked. I do wonder about the viability of this stream in the summer months. I don’t know enough about it yet to determine if it’s spring fed or relies on a rainwater runoff or a combination of the two. We had A LOT of fun and the scenery was spectacular. The 500 mile drive was worth it!

Jeeps of all sorts seemed wildly popular and we received some strange looks in our Subaru, but there were some similar vehicles to ours and we didn’t encounter anything that required 4WD. Not knocking Jeeps so calm down lol. The Subi is capable, within limits of course, but it has a 400-425 mile range which is what we like the most and it hauls everything we need.

Richland Creek is definitely going in the fishing journal. Hopefully we can make it back that way come summer. It certainly has potential.

Thanks for reading and we’ll see you again soon!