On Friday Morning Tom, Paul, Sharon, Lou and I headed to the upper James for a float. Tom had said this area was never fished; he and Paul had arranged places for us to put in and take out for about a 4 or 5 mile float. Tom and Paul shared Tom's canoe while Sharon, Lou and I each had our kayaks. The tow ladies were both on sit on tops and I had my sit-in. The scenery was very good, some wildlife seen and the fishing
was very good. The only thing not so nice was the floating, probably less than a mile, the dragging and portaging was about three miles. I'm sure that is an exaggeration, but not by much.
Usually the dragging wasn't too bad, but there were a few sections that were bed-rock, very slippery bed-rock. For the portaging, at least twice, Tom and Paul took their canoe and Lou, Sharon and I paired up to carry the yaks. Enough complaining...I really did have a good time and as I said earlier, the fishing was good.
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One of the dragging sections
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| A nice section to float |
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| Dragonfly on my hull |
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| Lou landing a nice channel cat |
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Nice fish
We all caught fish; lots of longear, some pumpkinseed, green sunfish, a couple of cats and even a few smallies. I didn't catch any smallies, but had some of all the others.
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| Longear sunfish |
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| Green sunfish |
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Channel cat
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It was a long and tiring day, but it was fun. Sharon, Lou and I finished it with burgers at Fuddruckers. They were especially tasty after a good day on the water. Now I've got to unload my truck, put away my gear and start packing for a trip to the Grand Canyon and then Pagosa Springs. Its so good to be retired!
