day trip on the Doah - 8/26

[Slackdaddy]

Headed out 4:00 am for a day trip on the Doah with my son.
Trying a new section of the upper S.F. of the Doah.
I'll post up sat how we make out.

[DanMarino]

Dig it. Looking forward to the photo report. I hope you find a muskie along the way.

[Slackdaddy]

Not many pictures, it was a 9 mile float,, and to begin to even cover some of the realestate I was casting 101% of the time.
Humid, hot (in the afternoon) and sunny sky,, clear water,, did not make for a good bite. 21-22 smallies each.

Ran a section above Luray, 9 miles.
Left the house at 4:00 AM, but once we got there, dropped the kayaks and son at the put in, drive to the takeout,, waited on my ride back to the put it,, we were on the water at 7:45AM.

Side note: For 75% of my river trips I drop The kayaks and son at the put in, drive to the takeout spot and leave the truck. I get a ride either thumbing it or have a pre-arraigned ride that I typ find calling local businesses (barber shops, hair salons are my "go to") and "pitching" the idea of me paying someone to give me a ride at a predetermined time/date. I have 100% success rate with this shuttle method. Years ago we ran Smokehole Canyon in WV, Our takeout was Petersburg,, We made arraignments with a gal from a hair salon,, 2 drunk chicks showed up at 8:00 am, At the Petersburg ramp (where we parked our trucks). The 40 min drive back to Big Bend was a near death experience.

Anyhow,
I rigged 4 rods:
5' UL with 1/8oz roadrunner (underspin) with 3" grub
6' Light with small whopper plopper
6' light with "Middle Wee Crawl" crank bait (tried various colors)
6' Light with 1/10oz ned rig head, various Z-Man buoyant sticks and crawls


I was really looking forward to working with the ned rig a lot,, Unfortunately I was feeling a little rushed and most of this river did not lend itself to the Ned rig,, without a complete stop and dedicated targeting. An hour into the trip the reel on my crank bait set up stiffened up and became difficult to crank,, so I switched the crank over to the Ned rig set up.

This section I really enjoyed, The bottom structure and flow was very different from just 10-15 down river. This had a lot of areas with 3-5 deep water littered with boulders and holes. There were rock gardens mixed into elevation changes, etc.

1st 45 min of the trip, we worked left bank that was lined with 30-50' rock cliffs, 2-3' water, rock gardens, etc ---- NOTHING,, this was supposed to be golden hour and we got nothing in PRIME structure and flow. Went threw 1 or 2 minor ledges with scattered rocks. We picked up a canoe about 100 yards behind us,, If there is nothing I hate more is feeling pressured with another group coming up on you. Son's main bait castor had issues and he staked out on the edge, I lolly gagged waiting on him,, other fishermen were now on top of us.
We came around to an absolutely gorgeous 100 yard long, river wide rock garden that literally choked the river with rocks, willow, pools and drops. Beached on a rock and got no bites in 6-8 casts, canoe beached not to far,, decided to bypass the whole section and let the other fisherman have it,, hopefully it would keep them busy for an hour and we could continue on with out someone up my rear. It worked, never saw them again.

The next 7 miles was lots of stacked drops, 2-4' water, twists and turns, submerged boulder gardens, etc.
It was hot and sunny, clear water,,, The smallies bit when the sun went behind an occasional cloud.
We each ended up with 21-22 fish, largest was 15",, Mine were all on whopper plopper and shallow diving crank (middle wee crawl) (note: the stock Rebel hooks on the wee crawl will not hold up)

This stretch has potential, We blew through at fishing 1 hour for a mile of river,, this 9 miles needs 2 FULL days of overcast to really start to pick it apart.

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[dsaavedra]

Awesome report. Beautiful scenery and beautiful smallmouth. That is like an entirely different world of fishing from what I'm used to... your description of the trip sounds so cool.

[Slackdaddy]

I live in Calvert Co, surrounded by water, I have kayak fished for ~20 years,, it has only been in the last 5 years I have really started to fish local.
Prior to that, 90% of my kayak fishing was on mountain rivers, chasing Small Mouth.

To me, there is nothing like spending a few days, drifting down a mountain river, fishing,, then setting up camp riverside

Awesome report. Beautiful scenery and beautiful smallmouth. That is like an entirely different world of fishing from what I'm used to... your description of the trip sounds so cool.

[DanMarino]

Slackdaddy I also appreciate your love for flowing water and chasing smallmouth bass. Nice going on the trip and thank you for the report and photos. I've never fished that river before. One day I'll get off my rear and head out that direction.

[Red_Beard]

Great report. I haven't done much fishing in the last six-weeks as we bought a house, and have been getting it ready to move in this weekend. It puts me much closer to good smallmouth water on the Potomac, so I am planning to do a good bit more fishing for them this fall and moving forward.

[Slackdaddy]

Gonna do an over nighter this weekend on the Trough,, it has been a few years since hitting that river.