Anyone check out the new article? It sounds like a lot of fun.
ShenandoahRR, Yakbow & Dirty Ed if you’re tuning in, I think we should work on something like this for a rodeo. Talk to Charlie or Al to see if we can get the “one lure” donated. Whaddayathink? Maybe not even an entry fee, but just bragging rights.
The New and the Potomac are both in good enough shape to support something like this among our less than sensible friends.
I’ve been doing this for a while…
but never really gave it much thought… I began to bring too much gear on river floating trips and sometimes i’d do more floating than fishing so I decided to only bring a rod, with one lure attached (usually a mepps spinner or plastic worm). If I loose the bait or the fish don’t want that bait, i’ll quit fishing.
I started doing it to cut down on gear, but I like the tourney idea too. It adds to the simplicity and minimalism of kayaking imo.
Make it a Rooster Tail in your chosen
color.
I’d go nuts!
One rod I could handle, but only one lure, as in a “single” lure! I’d loose it in some simple fashion, on the second cast, get pissed, and vow never to attempt that idea again.
Cold/hot/wet or otherwise miserable has never sent me home from a fishing trip…lack of essential gear just ain’t gonna happen. I could handle “one lure” as in only rooster tails, but enough to last the trip. Getting skunked doesn’t bother me at all.
I prefer Mepps over Rooster Tails, they
do as good of a job, if not better, but the Tails are much cheaper. I can get two Tails for the price of one Mepps.
Not Mepps and not rooster-tails
I haven’t fished those in our ledgy, limestone karst rivers in years. Unless that water is really up, you get about three casts before you get snagged.
Nah, among the “group” there are some guys who produce lures or are pro-staff for lines. It seems like the proper, loyal thing to do to keep it in the family and select a lure from among one of these friend’s product lines.
If you’re into soft plastics at all, I recommend going to www.madtoms.com for Case Plastics and picking up some Jack’s Worms. These are named after James River smallmouth guide Cap’n Jack, who passed away a few years back. They are terrific! Like a senko with a small tail that wriggle in ANY kind of current.
Snagged lures?
I’m fishing much small rivers than you guys, obviously… If I snag a lure I paddle over to it, reel the rod down and push it off with the rod tip… most of the time wading and picking it up is an option too. I rarely lose one.
I use rooster-tails and mepps both, but feel the mepps are a little stronger, and tend to last longer and run true longer, but both will catch those lively spotted bass.
White Mepps with Red streak to look
Like a blood trail works great in Rivers or lakes. I also like a yellow Roostertail with a gold blade. I agree that a Mepps is a little better quality and the hooks seem to remain sharper longer.
Chris
Chartruese rooster tails work better
in the murkier waters of Texas rivers and lakes. Most are tannin stained and the green seems to work best. I’ve had good luck with the Mepps squirrel tails though.
Pretty big rivers
On the smaller one, the mean for this date is 1600CFS. On the larger one I usually fish, the mean for this date is 5660CFS.
Plus, there’s pretty strong current on each. Sometimes it’s possible to get back to the lure. But other times having the lure snagged like an anchor is a flip hazard and trying to fight the current, only to get slack in fishing line (otherwise known as ‘make-your-own invisible strainer’), to get up to the snag point with strong current pushing you while you’re NOT paddling because you’re diddling with the rod and the snagged lure is not a good safety plan. In those instances I paddle back as close as I can or above the snag and try a couple releases. Often just getting above where the lure is allows it to release easily. If that fails, I cut off as close as possible to the lure to have the least line left in the river. Frequently we can retrieve, but most of the time to do as you suggest would, you’d be lucky to get away with only a broken rod tip.
So, using a lure that snags frequently is probably not a real good safety plan regardless of how productive it is.
cool…
Mean for this date on my home river is 384cfs… I just checked it. Big difference there. Of course it doesn’t take gradient into account, but thats a big volume of water. Guess you’d call my river a creek! and rightly so…
We’ve got some pretty sweet creeks too
There’s one that runs through the edge of my town that runs about 40CFS in the summer. Nothing wrong with Creeks. Now Pennsylvania, they’ve got some REAL BIG rivers. Susquehanna consistently runs at 10000 CFS at low summer levels. Nearing flood stage it can go over 100k CFS. About a mile wide at Harrisburg. Too big of a place for me to fish without someone along who knows the spots and runs. You could fish all day just ferrying something like that. Plus there’s a bunch of powered watercraft out on a river that big. I run into some on the Potomac, but mostly just jon boats with engines out doing the same thing I am - trying to catch some smallmouth bass. Never had a problem that way.
If you like
the mepps and the rooster tail, give the Blue Fox Flash a try. It can run a little deeper and so far I have caught Sunnies, Bluegill, Crappie, Brown and Lake Trout, Largemouth, Smallmouth, Sand and Guadalupe Bass, Hybrid Stripers, assorted catfish, a 15lb carp, a 6lb small mouth buffalo, Whiting, Sea Trout, Bluefish, a small blacktip shark and a mullet on them. They are a little more fragile than either the mepps or the rooster tail, but they are also less expensive and since I usually fish with 6 lb test, I generally loose them before they have outlived their usefulness.
Before I tried them, I thought for sure that the rooster tail was the overall most deadly lure in my box, but these things blow them away.
Come January, the Blue Fox lures
disappear off the shelves. they’re a favorite for both crappie and white bass in S. East Texas lakes.
I use them when the water’s up
I cast these up to overhanging banks when the water’s on the rise. I get a lot of hangups though. Wal-Mart sells a $1/ea knock-off that I use too.
Havn’t paid much attention…
to this thread since it appeared D…but now that I have… Might be interesting to try it one day at our gatherings. I’d say pick a particular day and everyone do the same float (for ‘inspection’ purposes) and allow everyone…say 5 baits and thier rig of their choice. (Jig heads, T-Rigs, Carolina…whatever) And at the end of the day…compare notes. Loser buys the beer…but the WINNER… buys dinner! BWHAHAHAH!
I’m pretty confident…I’ll get free beer and eats.
Like D said…on the rivers we frequent here in the Mid-Atlantic, we’re fishing limestone karst bottoms most of the time all along the Blue Ridge and Allegheny’s. Anything with a treble hook is prone to get hung up unless you’re fishing deep pools and eddies. For those types of water our 2 go-to crank baits are Bandits/Bombers and jerk baits. But we tend to go with lots plastics (Tubes, creature and Senko-type baits) rigged weedless or with Jig heads with weed guards. Another favorite (especially this time of year) is Hair and silcone Jigs. Occasionally you’ll hang a trailer off of it if the water temp ticks up, but mostly the jigs are used by themselves.
D…we need to talk about this little ‘contest’ more…I can taste my free Guiness and Burger already!
Shoot - that’s easy
If all you want is free Guiness and burger, we don’t even need to have a contest.
I think this would be fun. Would be real interesting too. Some of our buds are flat-out good fishermen, but they seem to have different ways of going about catching fish. Sure would be interesting to see how it worked out doing this sort of competition.
I’m planning to go to Timonium. May even make breakfast. Let’s take a minute to grab a brew and a slice of 'za and figure it out.
Sounds like a plan to me D
Haven’t missed Timonium (or breakfast at Bob Evans) for three years now. That officially makes it a “tradition” as far as I’m concerned.
When you guys gonna have the one
lure challenge?
Since my aunt lives up there, I might be able to arrange a trip up and fish at the same time… Hmmmm… Chartreuse and white Clouser sounds good…
YotF
Spring. Latish spring probably
We haven’t talked about it, but latish Spring seems like the earliest time to do it safely with regards to water temperatures and avoid harrassing the fish during spawning season.
You bring up an interesting point - what about flies? Hmmmmmm. Maybe there can be two categories. A spinning/baitcasting category and a fly category. GREAT IDEA Y-o’-the fly.