Well the fun's over for a little while anyway. The creek has begun to flood. Last night my pard and I went out and the fishing was tough. The water was up about 2 feet and it's getting pretty muddy. Every fish we caught was hard earned. We didn't catch any big fish like we usually do. Frankly, given the conditions, we were happy to catch any fish. My partner had a an old vintage rod from the 50's that he recently attained. The rod was made by Wright and McGill (now known as Eagle Claw). It had never been used so he wanted to try and catch something with it. We didn't expect it to be so difficult but he did finally land this fish. That old rod was really whippy and he had a hard time setting the hook with it, and having the fish stay on. He lost 3 or 4 before landing this fish, but at least he accomplished his goal. It would probably make an awesome crappie rod though.
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My partner had hooked and lost two or three fish before I even got my first strike. I was also using a new ultralight set up that I wanted to get broke in a little better. It's a St. Croix 6'6" UL Fast, with a Quantum Smoke 10 reel. I have it spooled with 4 lbs PLine Fluorocarbon. Normally I wouldn't even bother to take a photo of a fish this small, but I was happy to catch anything yesterday and it was fun using this little light weight set up.
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Next up was a little better fish than the one pictured above. Still he was only about 13-14". They sure do feel bigger though using a UL rod with the drag set really light. The good news is that I didn't break off a single fish yesterday. I'd had this rod out once before and lost two big fish with it when the knot broke. I took some time researching on the net, and found a better knot or two. I carefully tied them this time. It seemed to work out well. I hate losing fish due to equipment or knot failure.
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Last but not least was the best fish I caught yesterday. It also turned out to be the last fish of the day for me. This fish is about what the average size is on this creek under normal conditions. I've had day's, fairly recently, where I've caught 3 dozen this size and up in a matter of a couple hours. Yesterday certainly wasn't one of those days though. So now it's time to switch to fishing lakes, ponds, and the Missouri River until all the local creeks subside from high-water flood stage. So here's to wishing y'all tine lines.
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