Still hot

STILL HOT!

Too hot to fish. Drove down to the river and saw they are drifting baby shad above the ripples and catching a few. I think wading would be the only way to go.

Hot?

HOT

Is it hot at your house? Too hot to fish, thats for sure! I used to think that being a fair weather fisherman meant you didn't fish in the rain but I have come to realize that it also applies to people like me who don't fish in extreme heat or cold too. Three more days and then a little break, thank god.

Catch up time

I had a lot of catching up to do as I spent all day yesterday fishing the Mississippi with T.C. Cleaning out the shed and the garage. Where did all this crap come from? I don't think I even made a dent in it.

T.C.'s water

T.C. took me uptown on the Mississippi in his 20 foot Lowe and we made a day of it. We caught 23 channel cats (?) and they seem to come easy because T.C.'s boat is set up for fishing and he knows where to park it. We fished Pool 17 out of Port Louisa and hit the flats, wing dams and a little wood. We pulled channel cats cats out of every parking spot we tried but one. The day was great and I can't wait to do it again but the best part was I didn't have to pull the anchor once. In the recent past I haven't been using my anchor winch but I will from now on. Thanks for a great day and the free lessons T.C. I owe ya!

Uptown fishing

T.C. got on my case for not getting it done for the last couple days so here I am. Its been hot and I feel like the company pack mule at work so I have been off my game lately. The good news is it is Friday and T.C. is taking out on his uptown twenty footer in the morning. The two days he made it out this week, he caught 20 -30 fish. Things are looking promising for the morning. Can't wait. Check the fishing report on sliprig tomorrow.

Its back

We're in the impact area again and it looks like most of the week. Although it didn't rain much today, it's the threat that keeps us from doing much. The Weather Channel is giving us a 40% to 50% chance of severe storms and the sky looks like it might break lose any minute now. I'm tired of living under this black cloud of weather and threats. The days of fishing through a rain shower are long gone because we don't get rain showers these days. The rain we get is measured in inches and almost always comes with wind, thunder and worst of all, lightening. Staying in again!

Mondays over

The good news is Monday is all but over. I would've like to have gone fishing this evening but it was just a few degrees hotter than hell so I don't think so. Imagine my surprise when arrived at hell, AKA work, and relized hell had a time clock. Long story short, it was hot.

I wish I could go to the Seaark owners tournament but I didn't hear about it until just recently. My own fault. Not a bad tourney. Lots of cash and a boat.

Breakfast on the water

Launched from Water Works Park again and headed up toward Rome. I was on the water by 6:30 A.M. and bringing them in about twenty minutes later. The stink was pulling the Channel Cats out of the brush piles. Each stop would only give up one fish so I had to move constantly. I wish somebody would have went with so they could have pulled the anchor. Probably a half a dozen fish all together. I had breakfast in the boat and it wasn't skunk. Strawberry pop tart in case you're curious. It was hot and I fried an egg on the front deck of my boat but the egg had a brown spot on it and I was afraid it was stink bait left over from yesterday. Chub was sitting up there.

I hate it, but it works

Chub and I launched at Water Works Park on the Skunk and head up river toward Rome, Iowa. We found the Channel Cats and caught them on stink bait. I call it stink bait because it stinks. I know some of you like to call dip bait but it still stinks. Anyway! I hate using stink bait but it works. I keep my boat in the garage so I really don't like getting it all over the boat. We caught them until around 10 A.M., I guess.

blue cats

Just recently I started dinking around on facebook and noticed a there are a whole lot of people catching a whole lot of big blues. I've gotten used to seeing them in magaines but facebook made me realize everybody is catching the big fish, except for me. Unfortunately there are no blue cats in the waters around here so I might have to go elsewhere to find one or two and maybe even hire a guide to put me on a big one.

Damn computer

I'm spending way to much time on this computer lately. The website, the blog, and now facebook. We'll see how it goes. Getting started on face book, Catfish Iowa. Follow along if that is even possible.

Check out the changes on sliprig.com

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

It was a slow afternoon on the river today. Stink bait was working on a few Channel Cats, up to 3 or 4 pounds maybe. I tried Green Sunfish and got bites but no takers, There was three or four other boats on the river, stink bait was the bait if choice for them. A couple guys were running bank poles but didn't pull any fish out of the water. Back to work tomorrow.

Found boat ramps

I found two boat ramps on the Skunk that are just minutes from the Mississippi but neither one was in any shape to be used. The first, at Indian Park, was covered in a foot of mud and I'm not even sure if it is concrete or not. The second, Skunk River Access in Lee County was also covered in a foot of mud but it was definitely concrete because I could see the very top of the ramp. There were two trucks and trailers at this ramp. They had backed through th emud to launch their boats. I'm a little surprised they didn't get stuck.

At Oakland Mills there was a lot of activity on and around the dam with not a lot happening. Just a bunch of people getting chewed up by mosquitos. No boats were on the Skunk but it was about 6:30 P.M. when I drove through the area.

More changes at SLIP RIG, check it out!

Big changes at Slip Rig

Because it is really, really hot and the mosquitos are as big as sparrows I found other things to do so I'm not in danger of suffering a heat stroke or losing a quart of blood to an expectant mommy mosquito. I made some changes to SLIP RIG and have planned a few more changes in the near future. Check it out, see how many changes you can find. The biggest is yet to come.