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Author Topic: My weekend smallmouth adventure (float)  (Read 7132 times)

TroutFishingBear

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My weekend smallmouth adventure (float)
« on: Jul 12, 2004, 08:56 PM »
Well... Here it goes, my famous smallmouth bass adventure on the yampa river, one of the finest smallmouth rivers in the west. ( a few pike as well )

We had planned to float from a launching point called duffy mountain, and float 18 miles. We would go through juniper canyon, and our truck would be waiting for us with the trailor at the maybell ( a city of 20 people ) bridge because we had a shuttle guy all worked out.

Well, we thought we were set, we had an atlas, and a map from a fishing magazine showing us where to go.

We made the 2 1/2 hour drive from fruita to craig, colorado, and made a turn onto a road that said "duffy mountain river access ". We followed that, and came to a fork in the road. The magazine didn't specify this, so we knew it was lousy. But our atlas showed us that the right fork, was the one on the right.

The dirt road was a beautiful dirt  road. (well, for colorado, which means it still was fairly lousy :P) Then, there was another sign and an even worse dirt road off to the right. The sign said " Duffy Mountain River Access". We were thinking, oh yeah, this is definitely it. We then, through trial and error (there were about 10 different dirt roads) found a guy and he told us, " oh yeah, the launching point is on this beach down there about a quarter of a mile. Just turn right on the first road you see from here, then turn right again, and you'll be there." "Is it Duffy Mountain launching point?" we asked. "Oh yeah" he said.

So we got down there, and it was a nice beach, perfect for the camp we were going to have (it was 7 pm.) there was even a little fire pit. So we were 100% sure that it was the right one, because of several factors: the atlas, the fishing magazine, several signs on the road proclaiming duffy mountain, and because of what the local said.

So we made camp, got our boats ready for tomorrow, and fished an hour even though the spot surrounding for a while was lousy. I got 3 smallmouths, my brother got a chub ( local  trashfish ), and we then ate dinner, and slept in the tent. All was going perfect, or so we thought.

The next day we launched our boats, knowing that a shuttle guy was going to be picking up our truck and driving it to the maybell bridge.

We fished a lot, even though we had to go supposedly 13.5 miles. And that is mostly rowing because this river had a weak current, even though it was supposed to be strong and many rapids, there weren't any.

Anyways, fishing was fabulous, especially for me. In fact, my first fish of the day was a trophy smallie, he was 19 1/2" and 4 1/2 lbs. I also caught several other smallies in the 2-3 pound range, along with the usual fair amount of small 12 inchers. I also caught a rainbow trout about 16", even though they were supposedly gone from the river down this low. My last fish of the day, was a 34", 11 or 12 lb northern pike. I was especially happy because it was my biggest pike ever, and I caught it right where the removal is heavy.

Well, it was getting fairly late, and we were tired, having to row for about 4 hours striaght because we spent most of our time fishing. Our gps said we had went 18 miles. (remember, only 13.5 was what it was supposed to be) and we rowed till 11:30 pm, thinking we would be there soon. We probably went 25 miles. We eventually got cell phone service, and our shuttle guy told us he didn't find our truck. When we finally came onto a house about 1/4 mile away from the river, we pulled our boats over, climbed several fences, called the guide and asked for help from the people living at that house.

Our guide was there by 12:40 am, and we went in a 2 hour search for our truck. Remember, there were many, many roads. Even our gps wasn't much help, it only showed us where our truck was, not the right roads to go down.

We finally found it, thank god, and we were out of there onto the road and going back to get our boats at  3:30 am. (yawn)
By 7:30 am, we had our boats onto our trailor, and we were driving home. It was a 25 hour day, and we were sunburned badly and we had been bitten a million times by mosquitos, despite how much bug spray we put on.

Well, here I am writing about it 12 hours later, so I must be okay!

What we could have done better: Asked for precise directions from a guide. Although we asked for directions, we were only given general ones, and we had an atlas and gps and a magazine.

We also should not have trusted the fishing magazine, it was wrong

We should not have trusted signs, they were wrong

We should not have trusted the local we bumped into, he was wrong


Our shuttle guy told us, and showed us, where we were supposed to launch, and we knew where we were supposed to take out.



What a trip :-[ (but I got a trophy smallie and a big pike out of the deal, it was worth it 8))

ChenBassHead

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Re: My weekend smallmouth adventure (float)
« Reply #1 on: Jul 12, 2004, 10:15 PM »
Wow, that sounds like one hell of a trip! Despite all the sunburns, bug bites and bad directions, I envy you man!! I would do that any day!

-Zach

billditrite

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Re: My weekend smallmouth adventure (float)
« Reply #2 on: Jul 13, 2004, 04:45 AM »
sometimes a well planned trip turns into an adventure...sounds like you made the best of it and had some great fishing while at it!!!thanks for sharing :)
Scotty 

Jigwiggler

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Re: My weekend smallmouth adventure (float)
« Reply #3 on: Jul 13, 2004, 06:34 AM »
Sounds like a good time all in all.  Got any pics?

Also, were you actually on the Yampa that you planned to float or another body of water?
May your doorknobs smell of fish!!

fozsey

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Re: My weekend smallmouth adventure (float)
« Reply #4 on: Jul 13, 2004, 09:25 AM »
I am glad everything turned out ok....Things couldn't have turned out any better considering. Things certianly could have gotten a whole lot worse. I have found a GPS to be a great navigational tool, but you are correct they do have limits.

TroutFishingBear

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Re: My weekend smallmouth adventure (float)
« Reply #5 on: Jul 13, 2004, 11:38 AM »
Sounds like a good time all in all.  Got any pics?

Also, were you actually on the Yampa that you planned to float or another body of water?


I have a pic. of my really big smallie, and when I finally get the film developed, I will post it. I also have a few pics. of steep canyon walls and stuff. I didn't get a pic. of my big pike though, because I was about 100 yards above river from everyone else when I caught it. I did hold it up to them though and my brother said it was so big it looked like a tarpan :D

Yes, the one thing about the trip's location that we got right was the river, we were on the Yampa.


fastribs85

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Re: My weekend smallmouth adventure (float)
« Reply #6 on: Jul 14, 2004, 08:48 PM »
hey guys just think if you would have fished where you were supposed to then you wouldnt have caught anything sometimes getting lost and trying somewhere else is better
naked women and beer we got it all in here

TroutFishingBear

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Re: My weekend smallmouth adventure (float)
« Reply #7 on: Jul 14, 2004, 09:35 PM »
hey guys just think if you would have fished where you were supposed to then you wouldnt have caught anything sometimes getting lost and trying somewhere else is better
Actually, the fishing would've been better in the other section because the US Fish and Wildlife couldn't get their shocking boats in that section because it is a canyon. They are shocking and removing pike and smallmouth in the area we fished, so I wonder how much better it would have been if we had fished in the canyon :o

fastribs85

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Re: My weekend smallmouth adventure (float)
« Reply #8 on: Jul 15, 2004, 10:52 PM »
who knows but it could have been worse that my experiance whenever im gonna fish an area and i fish somewhere else i do better at the other spot
naked women and beer we got it all in here

Fat Boy

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Re: My weekend smallmouth adventure (float)
« Reply #9 on: Jul 23, 2004, 04:29 PM »
TFB, good story.  Felt that I was right there along with you!  Be thankful that you were able to get everything worked out in spite of your hardships.  Like Foz said, it coulda been a lot worse.  Even though you were tired and bitten, at least you got back safe and had some decent fishing too.  The problem of being lost and cut off from society when you think that you shouldn't be could be a nightmare if there had been an emergency.  Cell phones are wonderful, but have limitations too, as you know.  Can't wait to see your pics!

 



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