Since our trip last week, Tony hasn't been able to stop talking about fishing the river. So we decided to give it another go this week before it gets really cold and it's not an option anymore. We rolled into our first spot and didn't even have the rods all out before Tony had a healthy little blue on the bank, and while we were getting ready to take pictures of that fish, the rod he'd just caught it on and recasted, slowly loaded up again, this time with a flathead.
It wasn't 5 minutes later, the same rod was bending and shaking again, and Tony had another blue on the bank.
Then the rain and cold front showed up. I really thought that would make them bite but it didn't at this spot. I had one rod that kept twitching and shaking but never would take off. When I reeled it in to move spots, it felt like I snagged a stick, but it turned out to be a little dinosaur.
I guess he'd just been down there mouthing that piece of white bass, trying to get it down.
I hadn't covered much water in this area and part of the plan was to not die in one area if it wasn't happening, so we moved around the corner to an outside bend that I always mark a lot of fish. Cast a rod and turned around to grab the next and Tony pointed and grunted, I must have hit the fish on the head.
Had one other good run at that spot that I didn't hook up with, so further down the river we went to another deep hole. Just like the first two spots, didn't even get all the rods out before a fish folded a rod over. This one had a tag in it (can kind of see the orange tag in it's back). Found out it was tagged in 2019 and I was the first person to have caught it.
Got the rest of the rods out, the last of which I put down the sandbar a ways. When I got back to the kayaks and looked back at it, the line was completely slack, like someone had cut the line. Ran over and grabbed it, and landed another nice blue.
There was a bunch of fish jumping, so I cast a little Kastmaster some and caught the biggest goldeye I've ever seen.
As we were talking about it probably being about time to go, one of my rods folded again, and this time it peeling drag in the process. The fish pulled and shook with much more authority and really fought great for the cold water. Wasn't huge by any means, but sure was a great way to wrap up the day.
Except it wasn't, because this one bit before I could get all the rods reeled in.
Really couldn't have asked for a much better day on the river.