Terry Dodge

Nice! It's about time. Added to my blog page.

I experienced the same thing on my creek. Before heading out I did notice that there was a spike in the PRY12 gage. Then after arriving at the creek and seeing how high and stained it was, I just figured the DeKalb area (south of Rockford) must have gotten hit with a storm. Now you are telling me the north was up also. Where the heck did it rain? There was no rain in the area that I know of. Let's blame Jude.

Sign him up for the 25th Anniversary.

I always liked that guy.

HA! I think Bill K, Jim S, and myself know what kind of "bottled of water" they were handing out. Been there done that.

I am simply trying to state that with the level as high as it was, and the river moving as fast as it was, I am impressed that they were able to turn it into a 9 hour float.

Thanks for the report., Chris. That is a real nice float, with lots of good holes. When the PRY12 gauge is around 6ft. the fishing is much gooder. I'm surprised you were able to stretch it out to a 9hr float as fast as it's moving. Hope to meet you out there at some point this year.

ChrisC - The BLVD gage varies a great deal, so much so that I don't really understand it. I normally use the PRY12 gage, and if that is below 8ft. then it is what I consider floatable but EXTREME CAUTION should be used. I have a run down of cautions on my blog header if you care to check it out > http://smallmouthadventurestd.blogspot.com I'm sure you probably know but we have a good chance of heavy down pours tonight so be careful. Jude would probably understand the BLVD gage more than I. He understands a lot of stuff that I don't.

We were just about at the bridge when all of a sudden were heard screeching tires followed by a SMASH. I looked up to see the #2 car speed off around the #1 car it had just hit. Hit & RUN (?). They may have pulled off further up the road to where they would not block traffic. After we took out and loaded our yaks on Jude's car, and were heading back to the put-in to get our other vehicles, we saw a car in the same area (heading the other direction) in a ditch that looked to be filled with a bunch of prom kids. It seems to be much safer in a kayak these days.

Glad to hear you're alright and glad to hear that none of us pulled in a skunk. You were about 2 hours ahead of Jude, Ben, and myself, and about 12 hours ahead of Tim and Frank.

There was a little excitement as we approached the confluence. Read a map story by clicking on the icons to get an idea of what we think happened. Map Story > https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z6gw9Etw7_28.kppzeP7IaVHc

Not sure what happened to, or with, Gregg S. He got ahead of us and we never saw him again. The other 5 of us all boated fish (no skunk) with what I believe we decided was for a grand total of about 24 smallies. We could have done without the wind blowing in our faces the entire way but weather, water level, and camaraderie-wise, we couldn't have asked for a better day. Everybody seems to get a kick out of picking on me. I don't get it. Some pics of the day.....

You can still make breakfast. The "Table Talk Topic" this morning will be..... May 2, World Naked Day. Who's In?

I'll be in my Coosa and I'll be throwing swim jigs on the seams, tubes around structures, and drifting a wacky worm in the deep holes on the big bends. No fly rod for me on this outing. I only cast the fly rod when wading, and I plan to stick to the inside of the yak as I have been receiving reports of smallies on beds.

Hit the Kish on a solo wade for a little bit more than an hour today (4/30) before work and picked up 5 smallies (all no bigger than 12") on a tube.

Back in place. Kind of wish I would have paid more attention to your post..... It took awhile but I got 'er done. I, Terry J. Dodge, am an idiot. (waiting for comment from Jude)

I was cleaning up the Coosa today for our float trip on Saturday and I popped open the front hatch to find a big piece of foam laying on it's side. I take it this is was used for shipping purposes but I just want to make sure it's not something I need to put back in place. Thanks for any insight on the matter.

ericg - Thanks for letting me know. We'll hook up another time. Try to slip away to the Rock if you get a chance. 1) Terry 2) Tim 3) Jude 4) Ben 5) Frank 6) Gregg

Everyone please try to let me know by Friday so I can make reservations if needed. We may have to split up. Something to discuss over B&G.

Counted.

Counted.

U R counted.

As of now (12:31am 4/28/15) there are only a total of 4 of us. Don't think I need to make reservations at the cafe for that amount. Should be a nice day. There is talk of maybe some thunder storms later in the day. We'll see how it plays out. Tim is the only one I would worry about. ***BREAKING NEWS*** The Migration is complete.

Or maybe one of these.... 18 inches of pure arm burning smallmouth >

The coming week is looking good. I expect the Kish to be flowing at an ideal level. The below normal over night temps (dipping into the 20's) that we have been experiencing the last couple weeks have kept the smallmouth in a somewhat negative mood. I expect this mood to change during the warming days ahead and look for the smallies to begin their pre spawn feed starting on Saturday, May 2. We're somewheres in the area of 6 to 7 days away from the float date. Bring your Chug Bug. And with some skill and some luck, you just might catch one of these....