stream fishing – Page 3

I’ve Decided to Try a Vest…

I am constantly trying to streamline my gear to become more efficient. I prefer to carry what I think I need for a day on the river and not much else.

For reference: I do own a Patagonia Convertible Fly Fishing vest already. And for honesty’s sake, I’m too lazy to pull all of the stuff out to reconfigure it for a different purpose. Once I get something dialed in the way I like it then I tend to leave it alone. So for that reason, I bought something different.

The LittlePresents Strap Vest Neo V-23. This is a Japanese company that designs various items that are fishing related. I’m not into the tactical look but this had what I was looking for without being over the top.

I will still continue to use the Yeti Panga 28 backpack, but I wanted something a little more “user” friendly. Having my essentials up front and accessible will increase efficiency which will allow me to fish more. I will no longer have to stop and take off my backpack and dig into it to find what I need.

Both front pockets are spacious and hold plenty of lure boxes and terminal tackle boxes.

There is a single large zippered pocket on the back to hold raingear, licenses and various other things. Even my coffee brewing kit.

My criteria was for a “thin” vest as opposed to one with a gazillion pockets everywhere that stick out too far forward. I didn’t want my casting to be impeded so I got a vest that could hold only the essentials. I also wanted it be lighter and cooler than a regular fly fishing vest (I know they make mesh vests) because summer is here and temperatures are climbing. I also wanted a vest that still had the potential to be modified by me if I deem it necessary.

Two things I still need to sort out are: a spare rod holder and a water bottle holder. I can always toss a water bottle in the back pocket but I’d like something easier to get to.

I love fishing…but I also love tinkering with fishing gear and tackle! Hopefully this will work out and I plan to test it soon so stay tuned for that. Thanks for reading.

Old School…

The other day when the wife and I were fishing a river that we frequent often…we heard something and looked upstream to see two kayakers approaching.

Usually we have the river to ourselves for the whole day but this day was different. The first thing the older gentleman in the lead kayak said was, “this river sure is crowded!” I thought the comment was rather odd and I could tell the guy was genuinely upset that we were fishing the same river as them.

I will digress a bit here to explain to the reader that I myself am not a people person. I prefer to get as far away from other humans as I can. I like to fish or hunt completely surrounded by the sounds of nature. And I don’t take kindly to incursions from the outside world/other humans. Also, I am tired of cleaning up after other humans no matter where I go. Now back to the story…

I could’ve gotten upset myself at THEIR intrusion since obviously we were on the river well before them. Instead I let the old man vent for a bit and genuinely agreed with most of his complaints/observations. For reference, this particular area became available to the public in 2019. However, most of the people who accessed it kept it pretty quiet because they knew what would happen once word got out. It wasn’t until recently that the Fish and Game Commission decided to advertise it on TV as well as holding fishing clinics here. None of the “regulars” were happy to say the least.

Anyway, the 4 of us sat on the river and talked. We had honest conversations regarding this river and our respect and concern for it. These two gentlemen were from Arkansas and had purchased land on the river just so they could have access. Once they realized that my wife and I were just like them in the fact that we deeply cared for the well being of this river, they relaxed a bit. They were amazed that we fished up and down the river on foot…deeming it too strenuous so they opted to fish out of kayaks. Respect was earned and given both ways as the conversation continued. We could’ve parted as enemies but instead parted ways as fisher-friends.

Give and take goes a long way. I’d rather fish in harmony with others when possible. And I really don’t have a problem with others trying to protect their waters as long as they allow access to people who feel the same way. I don’t pick up trash for awards or recognition but because I CARE. In retrospect it was kind of funny…as we talked and shared stories about some of the rivers we fished, we ended sharing new locations and access points with each other. I shared my knowledge of BFS and JDM tackle and showed them the gear we were using as we clearly had different concepts of what constituted “ultralight” fishing gear. If both parties of a conversation are not learning something…is it really a conversation?

Things to ponder on…

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!

Bait Finesse System Tackle…

BFS or Bait Finesse System styles of fishing were developed in Japan to help catch highly pressured fish…Largemouth Bass in particular. It soon morphed over into the Trout world in regards to both Area and Stream fishing. This method uses specially made rods and reels to cast lures down to sub-1 gram weights. Using 2# test line on a BFS baitcaster has become pretty commonplace for those who use this type of gear.

I was intrigued by the method but having never really spent any time using a baitcaster, I was pretty intimidated. There was a definite learning curve for me to become somewhat comfortable using this gear. My Dad tried to get me into it back in the 80’s but for some reason I couldn’t use a right-hand wind reel very well. Fast forward to the past few years, and in Japan you will find every reel made today comes in a left-hand reel version.

For me…this style comes into its own when you pair a BFS reel with a fiberglass rod. It is a lot of fun. The accuracy is better, the speed is better and it really shines when you have limited casting space.

Practice, practice, practice! I did just that…casting my baitcasters in as many different scenarios as possible. Standing in the driveway, standing in a boat, standing waist deep in a lake or stream. They all require some subtle nuances that are different enough to affect casting. Adjust the braking system and spool tension until you get to where you are comfortable casting. And it will change with different weights.

And I’ll be honest…2.5 grams is the lightest I have felt comfortable casting so far. I have had my fair share of bird’s nests to date and some have required cutting line off and re-spooling. But keep in mind that I came to baitcaster’s rather late in life ( around 50yrs ) so I am still learning to master this technique. For me, throwing minnow type lures with a baitcaster seems to be the best method and that was why I got into BFS.

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!

Issue Resolved! 2022 Shimano Stella C2000SHG…

Awhile back a did a post about the issues I was having with line twist on my new 2022 Shimano Stella C2000SHG. It was kind of embarrassing really, since the new Stella had super-slow oscillation and a “twist buster” polymer fin on the rotor. Not to mention this is THE top of the line Shimano reel and is a favorite worldwide. Needless to say, I was getting major line twist. Meanwhile, my wife who has a 2022 Shimano Stella C2000S was happily fishing along without a single issue.

To make a long story short…she was using a 6ft 1in rod while I was using a 5ft rod. Once I delved into rod construction and the proper placement of line guides according to the formulas…it became evident. My rod was too short for the reel I was using and the first guide was placed too close to the actual reel which resulted in the line coils being smashed against the guides while casting. Normally, with proper line guide placement, the line flows through the guides relatively easily.

It is hard to get a picture of this concept so please bear with me. In essence, you install the reel onto the rod and rig the line through the guides. Then bring the line all the way back to the reel without tensioning the rod. If the line does not touch the first 2-3 line guides…you have a good match. If it rubs on the first 2-3 line guides, you will probably have issues.

I’m sure there are exceptions to every rule…but this actually made sense to me from an engineering standpoint. And switching to a 6ft 1in or 6ft 3in rod resolved the Stella line issues. I try hard not to delve into the minutiae of things very often…but when I buy a high-end reel and have issues…I want to know why and fix the problem.

And I learned something during this process, which is one of the main factors I love about fishing…learning something new! And we spent several hours trying our favorite rod and reel combos to see if they were properly matched or not…it was quite the eye opener.

Thank you for reading and I hope that made sense…

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!

Back Surgery…25 Years Later

I have told this story in a previous blog post…so I will do a brief summary for those who haven’t read it.

I was hit head on by a drunk driver on Feb 14th 1996. I was pretty banged up but seemed to function. I progressively lost my ability to walk and after finally getting an MRI…the orthopedic surgeon informed me that my back was broken in 2 places and was astounded that I had made it 2 years (April 1998 is when I couldn’t take the pain anymore.) We’re talking broken bones and blown discs! Sciatica SUCKS! The 2 damaged discs had blown out into my spinal cord and the broken vertebrae were smashing my sciatic nerves badly. Not to mention that I was diagnosed with spondylolisthesis…which means your backbone is sliding off the pelvis and could snap your spinal cord.

I ended up having surgery and it was a long one, at about 7.5 hours. I had a neurosurgeon and an orthopedic surgeon working side-by-side to fix me. I was informed by them both that I was a “1 percenter” which meant that of all the back surgeries performed, mine was in the top 1% of the worst damage and the most repair work. Don’t I feel special! All I can say is that those two saved my life and got me back on my feet. It slowed me down some, but not much. So if you notice that I stand funny in some of our fishing pictures, that’s the reason why lol.

So these X-rays are from last week. They show that everything is holding up well but they also show that I have degenerative disc disease between L3 and L4. It will require another surgery to add more hardware to further stabilize the spine. I plan on putting it off for as long as possible. Besides, the 2023 fishing season has just started and I don’t want to waste it!

We’ll catch you on the next one.

April Fool’s Day Outing…

After working overtime this past week and not even seeing the sun for 3 days…I had to go fishing. Friday the temperature reached 82F and the winds were blowing 35mph plus. Saturdays forecast was calling for cooler temperatures and only 5-10mph winds. It seemed like the perfect day to go fish one of the rivers.

As you can tell from the pictures above…we were bundled up more than usual as the temperature was 45F and the winds were around 18-20mph. We stepped into the river at around 0730 and we were both shivering. Once the sun was fully up, it wasn’t too bad as long as you kept moving. Even Zip would start shivering if her and I stopped to talk and make a game plan.

We stopped at 2 places along the river. The first was quite a bit further upstream and we wanted to see if the smallmouth were active or even if some sand bass were that far up during their spring spawn. We didn’t see any fish nor did we catch anything but a chill.

Second stop was much the same except a lot windier. We fished upstream about a half mile and about a mile and a half downstream without so much as a bite. Water temperature was holding at 52F so we were a bit early this year. With time being limited and opportunities being rare…we took the chance.

We ended up taking the scenic way home since we quit fishing at about 1030. My pedometer showed we covered about 4.86 miles so at least we managed to get some exercise. I will add this entry into the fishing journal for future reference so eventually perhaps, a pattern will develop.

Sorry there are no fish pictures in this post but it was out of my control. We did manage to test a new rod and 2 new reels so that’s always a plus. It’s fun to keep trying to get our setups dialed in and both of us are pretty satisfied with where we are at.

Thanks for reading and we hope to have some fish pictures in the near future!.