New fishing hole!

I have been checking the River and find that it is still quite high. My spot that I drive the Quad to is still under water, so I decided to try a closer spot that is easier to get to. I actually prefer the areas that require some effort because I can be assured that most people will not visit them if there is work involved, therefore there will be more fish. The Dowell Ranch has several miles of the river flowing through it, and there is a spot that showed promise for Channel Catfish. Personally I prefer the Catfish to most of the other available types, probably because they are bigger. The Small Mouth Bass are pretty tasty, but they tend to be small bodied as well as mouthed. Karen likes them, and they make the best Catfish bait as well, so I always try to catch a limit of them for her.

The river is slowly cutting away the bank due to water filtering through the ground. There are springs all along the river and the water is creeping through the ground at about 10 to 15 foot below the surface. While I was fishing, I heard a rumble and a large chunk of the bank crumbled into the river. Of course with a still camera all you can see is the dust clound.

I had to slide down the bank on the other side and then wade the river to get to a place that this hole was suitable to fish.  I loaded every thing I would need into a large frame back pack along with a three legged chair. I first caught my limit of Bass, which strangely enough was not that easy. Apparently the Catfish keep the Bass numbers down here. It was a classic fishing hole with the fast water making a deep pool, and the water current swirls around in a circle, making lots of spots for the big fish to get bigger without much effort.

The Rhyolite cliffs behind were a good backdrop for me as well as nesting spots for the Ravens.

Today was supposed to get pretty hot, and I am still pretty pale, so I decided to take lots of lotion and come back before the heat of the day got too bad. The fish cooperated and I did quite well, catching 5 Bass, and 10 Channel Cats. Enough that we had a nice fish fry and I still put four packages in the freezer for this winter.