Vacation day 9

Morning-Chub and I had the boat in the water right around 5 a.m. and were off the water by 7 a.m. Our plan was to fish maybe 2 or 3 hours and call it a day. Those plans were cut short by some dark clouds, thunder and a sprinkle or 2. We did manage to catch a half dozen channel ctas on stink bait. No bites on a sunfish. We did talk to a few guys who run bank poles and they told us they had just started catching channel cats on their bank poles.

I had to take the boat to the car wash this morning. It hadn't been washed down in a couple weeks and it was getting to me. I feel better now.

Vacation day 8

Morning-Today was the day to walk down the creek to see if I could find my bait traps. I put them in just before the last storm dumped rain on us so I have been thinking they were either gone or destroyed. I found all three. One was unharmed, one was damaged but I think I can save it and the third was pretty much a total loss. Two out of three ain't bad. Suprisingly, one had a few sunfish, chubs and crawdads in it. They were turned loose because it wasn't enough to make it worth the effort to carry a bucket of water the mile back to the truck.
Evening-I took my nephew Brody out on the river this evening. He caught 7 or 8 channel cats in about 30 minutes using just one pole. He had a dry spell that lasted about 5 minutes, got bored and wanted to go home. The stink bait was really working. I tried sunfish for about 15 minutes with no luck. Brody wanted to steer the boat on the way back to the ramp and I'm here to tell about it so I guess he did OK. I started calling him Captain Catfish. Thats his new name. Lots of fish being caught, mostly smaller ones though. Several ropes were hanging off the back of the dam.

Vacation day 7

Morning-I finally manned up and hit the river at day break, 5 a.m. Let me say its not as easy as it used to be. Today I fished with Terry, from Iowa, who I met through sliprig.com. Like me he got a late start into catfishing but is trying to make up for lost time. Things went well even though he caught more fish than the captain. If I remember this right he caught 6 or 7 to my 4 or 5. We'll let it slide this time. The recent trend has been stink bait only so I had to put it on one pole. Sunfish, shad or shrimp on the other. Like a rookie, I missed 8 fish early so I Switched the hooks in the dip worms from 084s to trebles. Things did get a little better. Terry brought several different types of bait including a buffet of stink baits and switched it up until he found the special of the day. A fun morning, a new fishing friend and a drink after a morning of fishing. The drink was a diet Coke.
Evening- I noticed law enforcement and a large tow truck at the dead end of Faulkners bridge. It turns out that the tire we've been seeing sticking out of the water wasn't a stray tire stuck on a log, it was attached to a whole truck that was upside down in the river. Another boat was helping the deputy and the tow truck driver in their attempts to pull the truck from the river. My involvement was limited to pulling the assisting boat to the bank when it ran out of gas. When the truck was upright and on the bank we all went fishing. In about an hour I caught 4 or 5 channel cats on stink bait. Still no bites on shad and sunfish. ???

Vacation day 6

I'm not even going to lie. I didn't put a line in the water today. I did manage to get another anchor to replace the one I lost yesterday. My older brother Carl had an anchor made that should work well in the rocky area that claimed my anchor yesterday. I also bought another anchor that I'm hoping will work in the sand and mud areas.

I made my daily trip to the river to see what is going on. The river is at a level that has been productive in the past but is extremely muddy. Quite a few channel cats being caught on stink bait. Some guys came in from running bank poles and they had several flatheads including one nice one that was probably in the upper 20's.

Vacation day 5

Morning-I didn't get up real early this morning but then again I didn't plan to either. Was probably on the river by 8. Tried several different spots in the tailrace below the dam at Oakland. Even donated a 16 pound anchor to the rocks of the Skunk River. It got hung up and I couldn't get it loose. Ok, we're off to a good start. I'm sorry, the good start started when I hooked up the boat this morning and noticed that one of the quality, plastic fenders on my quality "American made" trailer was broken. It took hours to catch 4 fish. Using my math, that is an hour and fifteen minutes per fish. Plenty of nap time today. No bites on sunfish, A few chubs, and a few pieces of cut shad caught the 4 fish I mentioned earlier. In another boat they were using stinkbait with some success, Ok, more success than I was having.
Evening- I decided I would have a lot better chance of catching catfish if I went to the river than I would if I sat at home on the couch. Guess what? I could have caught just as many fish on the couch as I caught on the river tonight. Some where between 2 and 3 hours of fishing and not one fish. What can I say? I am out of excuses. I saw one person on the dam catch a flathead that probably measured 10 inches long. This is getting frustrating. Anyone want to buy a boat?

Rain, again?

I had plans to go fishing this afternoon but the sky grew dark, thunder rolled and then it hit the fan. The rain only lasted about 15 to 20 minutes. The radar showed some more rain coming so I cancelled my plans to fish. So far no round 2. Mother nature is doing a good job of keeping us guessing.

Update: I had plans to fish this evening but canceled those plans due to a storm that went through the area early this afternoon and a radar picture that showed more storms to the south and moving north. Well, those storms didn't hit us. I drove down to the river 7:30 p.m.to see what was going and what I witnessed was a little upsetting. I watched one fisherman catch 5 channel cats, nothing big, just two pounders, in about 20 minutes using just one rod. I blew it!

There is some more bad weather coming this way and I'm guessing that the high pressure between the two fronts is responsible for the sudden upswing in the fishing action.

Did I mention that I blew it?

?

It was 91 when I left the house and went to the river to meet Chub. We fished for about 4 hours this evening and only put 2 fish in the boat. I caught a channel cat and he caught a flathead. He wanted me to let everybody know I caught the perch today. Anyway, thats done. I think both fish went for the sunfish. I did try a few chubs but thats how I ended up with the perch. At one point we thought we were getting bites from smaller fish so I switched to stink bait just to see who was down there. Nobody was home. Did I mention that it was hot?

I stopped at the dam at Oakland to catch a couple shad for the evening fishing. Terry was there throwing his cast net and catching more shad for the freezer. I don't know how he throws that net without getting it snagged up every time. I'll have to see if he can fit me in for a few lessons sometime.

Let us know how your fishing is going. Better yet, send a picture and prove it.

Good luck, Roy

Vacation day 4

Morning-Went to the river around 7:30 to catch some shad. There were a few shad running. It took about a half hour to catch 10. The most in one net was 2. They were the smallest, about 8 inches. Most were large ones, about a foot long. The river had dropped about another 18 inches since yesterday afternoon, about 18 hours. A few were rying to fish but it is still pretty slow. The wife said I have to go to a graduation party around lunch time today. Later today I'll probably try to catch some more shad for the freezer. You can never have enough bait.

I have been putting them in ziplooc bags, submerging the bag in water to get the air out, then squeezing as much water out of the bag as possible before zipping it up.

Afternoon-I did make it down to the river again this afternoon and caught a few more shad, 11 I think. Fairly slow, just as the morning was. Very few people at the river. I bumped into a gentlemen that I have talked to on the phone just a couple times. Terry was down at Oakland throwing a cast net and putting a few shad in the bucket. Like me, he is waiting for the weather and the rivers to settle down so we can do some fishing. He built his own bait trap and put it in the creek this morning. I'm hoping he catches a bucket of bait. It's my reputation on the line.

Well, it is back to work tomorrow. I have to work until Wednesday and continue my vacation starting Thursday and going right through the following week.

Good Luck, Roy

Vacation day 3

Morning-Time to get some chores done. I had to get my truck cleaned out, inside and out. Fishing gear and clothes were piling up to the point that something had to be done. The yard is trimmed out and I will mow it when it a little later. I'm also helping out with the laundry. I have no problem helping out around the house and I also have no problem being down at the river 8 to 10 hours at a time. The kids are raised and the work is done, its time to fish! I think I will try to put the boat in this afternoon.
Afternoon-Slipped the boat into the river around 3:30, was fishing at about 4 and fished until 6:30. Not a bite. We tried sunfish and chubs most of the time and stink bait right at the end for about 15 minutes. Nothing. Water dropped about a foot since yesterday, fishing is off. A connection? I think so. Mixed reports from some guys running bank poles. One group reported two channel cat and one flathead. Another reported 14 with no breakdown by species. Two over 20 though. Nothing happening with bank and dam fishermen either. Several people were doing a lot of work to net only a few shad.

Vacation day 2

Morning-Rain. What a surprise. Spending the night in a lazyboy lawn chair on the river bank Wednesday night was rough but I might have caught up on my sleep now. Time to do it all over again! When the rain moves out of here I need to run the bait traps that have been in for three days now. Probably hit the river this afternoon or this evening and stay the night again.
Afternoon-I did run the bait traps and to be honest it was no where near fun. Naturally everything was wet from the rain and the humidity must have broken the triple digit threshold. Despite it being a lot more work than fun, I did end up with quite a bit of bait. We're going to hit the river late this afternoon or early evening. I will be more prepared than I was the other night. Overalls in the third week of May. It may be crazy but it is necessary.

If your weather is cooperating and your fishing is good, let us know at sliprig.com. Hey, thats all you have to do to win the Abu Garcia reel in December. I'm the only person on the planet that isn't eligible to win the reel and thats not cool with me but thats the way it is. Check out sliprig.com to find out more
Night-We didn't make it through the night. It is 10 p.m. and I'm home. In the four and a half hours we fished we didn't catch one catfish. The perch seem to have settled into the area and taken over because that is all that was being caught. I won't even bother saying how many perch I caught. I'm embarrassed. A cooler full of bait tipped over in the back of my truck on the way home. I think I got them all back into the cooler. I'll know for sure in the morning.

Vacation day 1

Chub and I hit Pond X yesterday evening. The good news is we caught plenty of bait. The bad news is that the gnats were biting every bit as good as the sunfish were. I went down to Oakland at about 8:30 p.m. or so and ended up spending the night in a lazyboy lawn chair. The action was pretty slow but it was just enough to keep me interested. Every time I looked at the clock and started thinking about going home I caught another fish so I stayed. Packed up all my gear and headed home at 6:30 a.m. I think the score sheet was at 7 or 8 flatheads and 2 channel cats, the biggest was six pounds. I missed several others due to my laziness. You know, the old rod in a rod holder and hands in the pockets trick! In my defense it was cold. It almost cost me a Bass Pro Shop CatMaxx rod and a Penn 320gti reel. The pvc pipe I had wedged in the rocks to hold my rod gave way when a 4 pounder took the bait. Luckily I was able to grab it. I'm glad it wasn't a 40 pounder. Ah what the hell, if it was a forty pounder I would have had a good story and of course a lot of grief about it. That would have been an expensive lesson though.

Let the record show that the rain continues, even during my vacation. It doesn't look like it will last long though.

A lesson reinforced

Admittedly, I have been so disgusted by the weather lately that I haven't been in the mood to give fishing an honest effort. The high water has been enough to keep the boat in the garage and the competition for the few productive spots at Oakland has been enough to make me turn around and go home several times. During my almost daily visit to the river to check on the goings on, I saw that someone who doesn't fish there regularly had caught a nice flathead. Somewhere between 10 and 15 pounds. On sunfish I believe.

Once again, somebody who got off of their butt and went to the river caught a nice fish. The guy that didn't, me in this case, who was to busy being ticked at the weather and the river and anything else that came to mind caught nothing. The good news is that the message, stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop being mad at the world and just go do what you know how to do, got through my thick skull again. After work tomorrow I am heading straight down to the river and I'm going to fish. I will fish somehwere because somewhere is better than no where.

Take care and good luck.

Another weekend gone

It is Sunday afternoon, maybe early evening, I'm not really sure. Anyway, another weekend and it has rained on my parade both days. With the river running so high I guess it doesn't really matter if it rained or not. There wasn't going to be much fishing going on anyway. There won't be any fishing next weekend either if it doesn't stop raining though.

There are a couple spots at Oakland that offer good fishing when the water is high but way to many people know about them. Who ever is lucky enough to get those spots rarely gives it up. I have seen people sit all weekend so they wouldn't lose "the spot". It is getting bad when a guy has to call his wife or who ever to bring them some more bait or food and water. Other fishermen will sit down there for hours and do nothing while waiting for "the spot" to open up. I have on ocassion done this my self but not anymore. I like to fish but I'm not going to camp out in my truck waiting for any spot. When the river gets down to a reasonable level I will put the boat in the water.

Spent a few hours in Burlington having luch and what not and of course I had to check out the Mississippi. Although the Miss is high, one runabout had just been launched and there was one other truck and trailer at the ramps. Lots of debris floating down the river.

Hey, did you see that Abu Garcia reel they are giving away at sliprig.com?

High and muddy

I checked out the Skunk River this afternoon and as expected the water was up and over the gravel road that runs along the river. Two spots of interest to me looked like they might be fishable in a couple days. A few guys were snagging and I heard of one flathead that was snagged. His estimated weight was about 20 lbs. Since fishing is out of the question in this area due to all the rain I knocked a few more items off of my to do list. There is still a lot to do around here but I guess I have the whole weekend. Chub, a friend from work who has been fishing with me this year, was home mowing the grass and trying to get caught up on his chores as well. He is worth a laugh or two when we are on the water. I think he is trying to set a record for feeding the river the most sinkers in one year. I already told him if he catches one more perch I'm going to make him swim back to the truck. He thinks I'm joking!

Visit sliprig.com. Why you ask. Why not! Oh, if you contribute to our website you might win an Abu Garcia 6500C3

More rain

It was raining buckets all night and continued to drizzle on and off all day. Skunk river is out in many locations which means it will probably be a week before it is fishable. Visited Big Creek Outdoor Supply to get some more tackle. Spent time in the garage tying up more slip rigs. It is just busy work that helps pass the time away.

Is any body out there catching any fish? Let us know at sliprig.com. You might win a $90 reel. Check it out.

RAIN!

It's raining once again. I spent the evening in the garage tying up slip rigs. Started with 2o lb and tied some with different size Eagle Claw 84's. 2/0 is my go to hook majority of the time with the average fish size in the Skunk River being three to four pounds). Jumped to 40 lb and tied some from 5/0 to 9/0 because there are some 40 to 50 flatheads around. Thats what I do to occupy myself when the weather doesn't allow me to fish.

Hoping for a better day! Take care.

Its raining, again!

I've tried to be patient up to this point but I have to admit that the weather we have been having for going on three years now is testing me. On the bright side, rain, cold and wind days do keep me out of trouble. I use these days to catch up on as many of my chores as possible. Ok, when the work like cleaning out the boat, re-organizing the tackle box and cleaning the reels is done I try to catch up on my chores. That being said, today is a catching up on the chores day. We have had quite a few of them lately and it sounds like we have many more to come. I can't help but wonder when things will calm down so we can get on with it.

If its raining where you are, use this time wisely. If not, catch one for those of us who laid down for a nap three years ago and are in the middle of a bad dream about constant rain.

Visit sliprig.com, See what you might win!

Where do I start? We had big plans for this weekend and it turned out to be a dud! Unfortunately it sounds like this week will be a repeat of last week. I can say I did catch fish despite the adverse conditions but a couple fish a day just isn't cutting it. I don't really know what to say. We hope your weather and luck was better than ours. Take care!

I thought it was spring

I woke up to cold and wind this morning and decided not to get up until the dogs demanded to go out. We made it until about 7:15. Checked the river only to find that absolutely nothing was going on. Took a ride to the big city and checked out a couple outdoor stores in Iowa City and Coralville. Because the wind took my hat a week or two ago, I needed a new one. Problem solved. This one has a clip to clip to the collar of your shirt so you can't lose it. Got home, cut the grass and headed back to the river. Nearly everybody down there had at least 1 or 2 small flatheads. They were taking nightcrawlers. I just happened to have a couple rods and a bucket of sunfish in the truck so I decided to give it a whirl. I ended up with 2 flatheads and missed a chance at the third. I was wishing I had some chubs to string up. When it got dark and cold I decided it was time to head for the house.

If you have been able to get out and catch some, let us know at sliprig.com. It will qualify you for the drawing in December for an Abu Garcia 6500C3.

More bad weather

We had big plans for the weekend. A big storm hit us last night and dropped about 2.5 inches of rain on us. As I expected things were slow but I did manage to catch a couple channel cats. Probably 4 and 5 pounds. Both took a chub. No bites on sunfish or bullhead. There were some flatheads in the area because some snaggers snagged a couple. I only saw them from a distance but the biggest looked to be about 12 pounds or so.

The storm left us with cold and windy weather. About 20 degrees cooler than yesterday with winds 30 to 40. it got windy enough at one point to blow the top out of a tree by the dam.

We' try again tomorrow!

Pond X

I hit pond X after work this afternoon. Its the perfect pond for a river cat-man. Sunfish and bullheads in the same pond. Couldn't be better right? I used only about 4 nightcrawlers and caught about a half a cooler of bait. The wind was out of the East and the fish were on the east bank. All systems are go for tomorrow evening. Setting bank poles and fishing afterwards. All weekend will be running poles and fishing in beyween. I'll do my best to keep you updated on the success with the poles and rod and reel fishing. Wish us luck as we do you.

Working for the weekend

Big plans for the weekend! All the bad weather up to this point has cost me time on the river and I plan on getting it back this weekend. I don't ususally run bank poles, throw lines or trot lines but I am this weekend. We'll run them morning and night and do some fishing in between. The troops have been warned that there will be some long days and nights. We'll start catching bait tomorrow(Thursday). Put lines in Friday afternoon. Will post the daily results each night. Stayed tuned! If you're going out, Good Luck To Ya!

I keep a fishing log on sliprig.com, on the fishing log page. Check it out

Stable weather, maybe?

It didn't rain today so I'm hoping things will settle down. Went fishing for bait yesterday and today. My bait cooler has sunfish, chubs and bullheads. Tomorrow is the day, at least I'm going to give it a try.

When I'm at home I run an aquarium air pump in my bait cooler. Up until last weekend the smallest model of pump did ok but I guess I had to much bait in the cooler and I lost about half of it. I froze the dead bait in pond water so they won't go to waste. Went out and bought the largest pump they had and it seems to be doing ok. Instead of the blue air stone I bought a foam element that is about 15 inches long. It really put the bubbles to them.

Just about have all my chores done for the week. I'm trying to clear the schedule so I can keep the boat in the water this weekend.

Good luck to the rest of ya! If you have any luck let us know.

More rain

As usual we were expecting more rain today so I decided not to go fishing. In years passed I didn't worry about the rain. If it was raining I wouldn't go but the threat of rain didn't stop me. I would have went out and if it started raining I would have put on my rain suit and continued to fish. Reguardless of what the weather man says these days it isn't if it will rain anymore, now it's when will it start raining and how much. It's getting tiring. Everything is wet all the time. When is the last time we had an entire weekend with sun and NO rain? I can't remember. Now it's May which is usually the best month of fishing all year and I'm getting a little anxious. I want to get out there and catch a new personal record, which really isn't that big. To date my personal best on rod and reel is a 12 pound flathead so I only need a 13 pounder and I'll be happy. Of course I'll take a 40 or 50 if I get a chance. Maybe the rain will take a breather, I hope.

Wishing you some better weather!

Auction day

Since the river was going up or coming down and muddy I spent most of the day at a local auction. Every spring they have an auction for outdoor items such as lawn mowers, trailers, campers, motorcycles, tools and most importantly, boats. It took most of the day but I wanted to see what the boats and one utility trailer went for. Some older boats that would make decent river boats with a little work. The "nicer" boats with carpet and what not were in good shape but carpet does nothing for me. My Boat tends to get a little dirty when I fish and I am in the habit of spraying it out regularly but shampooing the carpet in a boat wouldn't be something I am interested in doing.
Unstable weather and water conditions have the local fishing coming and going. Hopefully things will calm down and the fishing will turn around. The way things have been going lately I just haven't gotten around to putting the boat in the water. Maybe the weather and water will settle down and we can get back to fishing 4 or 5 days a week.

Visit sliprig.com and see whats new and free!

Good Fishing to ya!