The Skunk River is down to a level where it can be fished but few are even giving it a try. It is probably a combination of the terrible weather through out the entire spring and the fact that a good portion of the fish have probably moved back down river. I have been frustrated with the weather for three months now and have all but given up. I'm sure the feeling won't last long and I will be ready go at it again. I usually do very little fishing in July and August and pick it up again around the first of September.

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A little more rain

The Skunk is down but it is still out of its banks here and there. If all goes well we might be able to do some fishing in the near future. I visited Oakland Mills today and there was nothing going on. Water was still on part of the road leading down to Faulkners so I didn't try that. Somebody has been driving through the water because there were tire tracks and ruts in the mud on the road. Not me! Its Sunday night so its back to work tomorrow. My fingers are crossed for no rain.

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More storms

A thunder storm woke me up at about 2 a.m. Technically my dog woke me up at 2 a.m. because of the storm. I did visit the river today just to have something to do. There wasn't much going on down there. The high water and the 95 deree heat is keeping everybody away, I guess. I have made a little progress on some of my projects around the house, but when I say a little progress, I mean a little.

If anybody out there is able to fish, let us know how things are going. There aren't a whole lot of people registered to win the Abu Garcia 6500C3 so the odds of winning are pretty good. Make sure you make yourself eligible, one way or another. If you are eligible, make sure to get the wife, kids, uncle and grandma registered.

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Gettin' the chores done

Well lets see. The river is out of its banks just about every where. Whole fields are under water all along the river. My time on the river usually drops off around this time of year because of the summer heat and the fact that I have to work a little harder at work through the summer. I am making an effort to get some work done around the house. You know, the things that I have been putting off for who knows how long. Hopefully I can use the next couple months to tackle the to do list and by then the weather and the river will be back to normal. If that is possible.

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Today was a good day, relatively speaking. We only had two thunderstorms pass through compared to the three or four that we have been getting in recent days. Like everybody else in this part of the country, I have had enough of this rain thing. From one minute to the next I might find myself wanting to go fishing or maybe having a big garage sale and getting rid of all the fishing gear I haven't been able to use in weeks. With every body of water within a hundred miles currently about six feet above flood stage I find myself wondering what all the other catfish anglers do to pass the time. Chub, from southeast Iowa, gave up and went to Minnesota to do some walleye and pike or musky fishing. Hopefully the weather and the fishing is going well for him up there, even though it is only walleye, pike, musky or what ever else they fish for up there.
According to the weather channel we are suppose to have decent weather until Sunday, we'll see!
Visit sliprig.com. If you have caught a catfish in the last couple weeks send us a picture so we who live in the rain belt of the midwest won't forget what a catfish looks like.

Rain, high water and idle time

The good news is, it hasn't rained today, I think! I went to bed around 11:30 p.m. last night and I think the rain was over. I don't think it rained after midnight. Anyway! The Skunk is out and across the roads down around Oakland Mills. There won't be any fishing for a while. Because I can't get out and break or dirty up any gear, I have been slowly getting it cleaned up and stored because who knows when we'll ever be able to use it. I've never done it before but I have been thinking about taking an Abu Garcia 6500 or 7000 apart to clean and lube it. I haven't got the nerve to do it yet.

A new fishing buddy, Terry from Winfield, Iowa, might be celebrating a birthday today. If you are, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I caught the birthday announcements on a local radio station the other day and I believe I heard his name.

?

Where should I begin? I guess I'll start by saying it rained again. I have given up on keeping track of how much it rained so I'll leave it at that. We tried to visit Oakland Mills by way of Faulkners but the road was closed. I had no desire to drive around so I turned around and went home. The good news is that I did get some of my gear cleaned and put away. My favorite time to fish is usually April, May and June and seventy of those days are long gone.

Did it rain at your house or was the black cloud hanging over my neck of the woods.

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"Not a"

Well, where do I begin? We waited until about 8:30 to hit the river thinking that some of the crowd might clear out but that didn't happen. It was near standing room only. With that many lines in the water one might think somebody will catch something. That something turned out to be 8 and 10 inch fiddlers on stink bait and not many of them. For the many who had either sunfish or bullheads in the water, "not a". They got "not a" bite. We only made it about an hour and forty five minutes before giving up. The bigest fish down there was a three pounder caught on chicken liver.

Bait night on Pond X

We spent about two hours this evening catching bait at Pond X. The sunfish were biting early and the bullhead bite picked up for about the last 45 minutes or so. The bite didn't seem to be as fast tonight but we still caught quite a bit of bait. It is hard to believe the amount of bait you can catch with three rods and a couple nightcrawlers.

Bill, Chub and I took a bucket of sunfish and a couple bullheads down to the dam at Oakland and tried our luck for maybe a couple hours. Chub was the last one there and the first one to catch a fish, a flathead (5 or 6 lbs.) on a bullhead. I only managed to land a perch on my bullhead. The water was falling pretty good and plenty muddy. There weren't that many people on the dam but there sure were a lot of lines in the water. Every time somebody brought in a line they brought one or two others with it. The fun of fishing on the dam! I'm getting a little too lazy to venture down to the rocks very often.

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Back to work

Fished from the dam this evening and caught two flatheads, 6 and 8 pounds. Although we tried sunfish and bullheads, only the bullheads were working. Only had two bullheads and each one only lasted two to three minutes in the water before the flatheads hit them. The sunfish, well, I think we did get a couple bites on them but never lost them nor did we catch a fish on them. I was wishing I had more bullheads and more time but I had call it quits early. One other angler did bring in just a little flathead. Because we were fishing on the dam we had to deal with people casting across our lines and wanting to rub elbows with us because we caught a couple fish.

Vacation day 14

Last day to relax. I spent some time this moring cleaning and storing some gear. Now it is time to relax and get ready to go back to work tomorrow. My goal while I was on vacation was to catch a personal best fish. That didn't happen. Maybe next time. Despite the unpredictable weather and the mediocre fishing I had fun. I finally met and fished with Terry from Winfield, had a few laughs with Chub about catching the biggest perch (I still say he did) and I gave Bill a new headlamp and a pair of boots that he wears to bed for some reason.

Back to work tomorrow. I 've only worked 6 days out of the last 3 weeks. Its going to be tough!

Vacation day 13

Rain. The river was coming up again. I rode up to Iowa City with Chub. He had to pick up an item he ordered from Scheels. Of course we had to visit Fin And Feather so I could look at my next fishing pole. Someday!

After yet another storm cleared, right around 9 p.m., Chub, Bill and I hit the dam for about 5 hours. People did catch fish from one end of the dam to the other, small channel cats on nightcrawlers and flatheads on sunfish and bullheads. The two biggest were a 25 (my digital scale) caught by Jim of Big Creek Outdoor Supply in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and a 19 (spring scale) by an unknown angler. The fishing seemed to die off around 12:30 a.m. or 1 a.m. but we stuck it out until 2 .M. There were two anglers on the dam when we left and one of them was out on the end of the dam and still catching small flatheads.

Vacation day 12

Morning- Rain. Going to Pond X to catch some bait.

Vacation day 11

River came up about four feet because of the 4 inches of rain we got. Surprise! The good news is, if you like to use stink bait and catch a half a boat load of fiddlers you're the lucky one. Me, no thanks. I think I'd rather stay home in the air conditioning.

Spent about 3.5 hours, ( 9 p.m.to 12:30 a.m.) over the culvert with sunfish and bullheads. I think we caught about ten smaller flatheads, the biggest about 5 or 6 pounds.

Vacation day 10

4 inches of rain last night ruined my plans and my attitude