Well you start by fishing a river that is so low and has so many exposed rocks that you never knew ever existed and then you do your best to crash into or drag over as many as you possibly can. This seemed to be the case this past Sunday when me and my partner for the day Andrew AKA Piratewader set out to fish one of our local flows here in Georgia for shoal bass.
The past few years we have experienced some of the worst drought conditions that we have ever had in the state and this year is no different. In fact this has to be one of the worst that we have seen. On this day we set out in hopes of finding the shoal bass in the places you would typicality expect find to them in the beginning of the fall months but there was no water there. The usual pattern that we had hoped to see was none existent. We did eventually find fish and both of us managed to catch a fair number but the fishing was just not what we expected it to be.
By the end of the day I had managed to bang into and get stuck on so many rocks that I developed a half moon shaped cracked around one of the scupper holes in the bottom of my kayak under the seat area. By the time we were a mile or so away from the take out my boat had taken on so much water it had become very unstable and kind of mushy feeling and hard to handle. Felt kind of like driving a 70's model Vista Cruiser station wagon with 10 drunk teenagers in the back on the way to a Ozzy Osborne concert. Trust me I know what that feels like.
Anyway..Got back home and made contact with the fine folks at http://www.oceankayak.com/ to find out if they sold a repair kit to fix the leak. Sure enough they emailed me that same day and offered to send me some welding rods free of charge. Thank you good folks at Ocean. Hopefully I can patch the old girl up and get back on the river real soon. My drifter has been a good boat and taken a lot of abuse for 5 years now so it was just a matter of time before this happened. You cant expect a plastic boat hold up to that much torture and not develop a leak eventually.
So there you go... No big fish to report at this time although we did manage to catch a few decent ones and salvage the day. I had a great time fishing with Andrew. He is a great guy to fish with and I look forward to fishing with him again. We are currently planning a 3 day float in south Georgia this fall that I believe will turn out to be an exciting trip.Here is Andrew with a very nice spotted bass the he caught on our trip.
The past few years we have experienced some of the worst drought conditions that we have ever had in the state and this year is no different. In fact this has to be one of the worst that we have seen. On this day we set out in hopes of finding the shoal bass in the places you would typicality expect find to them in the beginning of the fall months but there was no water there. The usual pattern that we had hoped to see was none existent. We did eventually find fish and both of us managed to catch a fair number but the fishing was just not what we expected it to be.
By the end of the day I had managed to bang into and get stuck on so many rocks that I developed a half moon shaped cracked around one of the scupper holes in the bottom of my kayak under the seat area. By the time we were a mile or so away from the take out my boat had taken on so much water it had become very unstable and kind of mushy feeling and hard to handle. Felt kind of like driving a 70's model Vista Cruiser station wagon with 10 drunk teenagers in the back on the way to a Ozzy Osborne concert. Trust me I know what that feels like.
Anyway..Got back home and made contact with the fine folks at http://www.oceankayak.com/ to find out if they sold a repair kit to fix the leak. Sure enough they emailed me that same day and offered to send me some welding rods free of charge. Thank you good folks at Ocean. Hopefully I can patch the old girl up and get back on the river real soon. My drifter has been a good boat and taken a lot of abuse for 5 years now so it was just a matter of time before this happened. You cant expect a plastic boat hold up to that much torture and not develop a leak eventually.
So there you go... No big fish to report at this time although we did manage to catch a few decent ones and salvage the day. I had a great time fishing with Andrew. He is a great guy to fish with and I look forward to fishing with him again. We are currently planning a 3 day float in south Georgia this fall that I believe will turn out to be an exciting trip.Here is Andrew with a very nice spotted bass the he caught on our trip.
Here is my best best of the day which I am sad to report only weighed in at 2-5 but it was fun to catch none the less.Shoal bass always put up a good fight no matter the size.
Until next time folks when the old Drifter is repaired and I get back on the river again.In the mean time lets all pray for some rain and hopefully the river rises and rocks sink and the fish get back into the usual fall pattern that we all love to fish..
Take care and be safe out there.
WJ
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