Floating and Dragging on the Upper James

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.


One of the dragging sections



A nice section to float

Dragonfly on my hull

Lou landing a nice channel cat

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.

Longear sunfish

Green sunfish



Channel cat

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!