We pulled up to our launch, which granted, is in the middle of nowhere, to find a truck already parked. The straps in the back indicated we would probably have company on the water. On this small river it made me a little nervous, but we decided to give it a try anyway. We launched around 2:30 PM in 95+ degree heat. Immediately I was re-thinking my choice of an afternoon trip.
I set Alex up on the shady side of the river and we started fishing our way up the flow. It was a little more stained and probably 6-8 inches above normal conditions. However, you could tell from the mud line in the trees that it had been close to 2 feet higher earlier in the week.
Within 5 casts Alex had her first fish of the day - a solid 1.5-2 lb largemouth. Less than 10 minutes later I hear her let out a yell and she had a giant fish, suspected to be a bass, swipe at her bait right beside the boat. As we fished up river she was getting bites fairly consistently and mine were few and far between.
About mid-way to our turn around point we ran into the two other kayak anglers. They said their day of fishing was slow and that they had caught a few, but nothing to speak of. I didn't really know what to think of their fortunes. It was now over 2 hours into the day and I had scarcely had a bite. Alex was still getting bit every now and again. Finally we got to a pool near the top of the stretch and I was able to land 1.5 lb bass on back to back casts. Alex paddled her way up to me and mentioned that she had landed 3 and had quite a few small bites. We took a moment to enjoy the shady pool, grab a drink, and stretch our legs before heading back down river.
We switched banks on the way back down. By now the water was mostly shaded by the trees that line its banks. The bite was picking up as well. First, I landed a couple solid 15"-16" bass then I hear Alex call my name and hear her drag peeling. She hooked a nice fish and was about to get a taste of her first true river giant. Most people overlook the difficulty of landing big river bass, around thick wood cover, from a kayak. It requires a balance of using one arm to paddle your boat away from the cover and using the other to hold your rod and try to pressure the fish toward the channel (typically as it pulls drag). Combine that with a 6 ft., medium action rod and you have a fight on your hands! This bass, after a 10-15 second fight, would jump and throw the bait. He appeared to be over 5 lbs and would have been Alex's biggest to date.
We kept fishing and catching decent size fish. Finally I hooked and landed a nice river bass on a weightless plastic. The next cast I had another big fish hit the bait, run me into cover, and snap my line. I was a little deflated, but no sooner did I tie on a new hook then I heard Alex hook into another good one. This fish hit hard and came off fast, but made a brief appearance at the surface and looked to be around 4-4.5 lbs. Needless to say, my feeling of deflation was nothing compared to hers.
Alex would lose 2 more fish over 3.5 lbs and another that was around 2.5 lbs. She also had a few gar come up and swipe at her bait on the way to the boat. It was a frustrating day for her, but she is now asking when we are going to go back to that spot and is eager for some payback. In total we landed around 15 fish - all bass except one mean little mud cat. Fish were caught on texas-rigged creature baits and weightless worms. Except for the fact that all but 1 big fish eluded us, we were content with our day and enjoyed our time on the water. I couldn't help but think about how good the fishing might have been had we not been fishing behind others, and of course, had we managed to land those 5-6 bigger fish. A return date with this spot may be in the very near future! Tight lines!
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