04-07-2013, 09:06 PM
[cool][#0000FF]Okay, I guess I should fess up. When I lived in Sacramento, CA I took my old round tubes down several of the rivers in central California. But I always drove along them and scouted them out first. I made notes of where they shallowed up and where there might be problems with "sweepers"...branches hanging out over the water. I would not fish a stretch of river if I did not feel completely safe.
Those rivers held various species of anadromous fish during different times of the year...salmon, steelhead, striiped bass, shad, etc. They also usually had year round resident populations of largemouth and smallmouth bass, crappies and sunfish...and catfish. Oh yeah...sturgeon too. Actually caught a 115 pounder once while fishing for stripers.
I never took an anchor but I did carry a brush clip and a length of rope. Sometimes I would help keep myself in place by attaching to a branch...or to a suitable spot under a bridge...but never in strong current.
A lot of my fishing could be accomplished by just kicking into a slow eddy and maintaining position with fin power alone. Sometimes I had to work into the shore...in slow water...get out and then wade and cast into the deeper runs and holes.
I could cover a lot of water in a day, but I seldom did. I preferred to work one target area thoroughly, much as I do on a lake. But if I was able to work out having my wife leave a vehicle at a more distant take out spot I sometimes had to rush the last part of my float to get there before dark. Hard to quit fishing when the fish are biting.
What I found from experience was to pack plenty of nutrition and fluids and to be totally respectful of the power of moving water. I never got into any kind of serious trouble but had some close calls with idiot boaters roaring up the rivers and not watching where they were going. Good to carry an airhorn.
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Those rivers held various species of anadromous fish during different times of the year...salmon, steelhead, striiped bass, shad, etc. They also usually had year round resident populations of largemouth and smallmouth bass, crappies and sunfish...and catfish. Oh yeah...sturgeon too. Actually caught a 115 pounder once while fishing for stripers.
I never took an anchor but I did carry a brush clip and a length of rope. Sometimes I would help keep myself in place by attaching to a branch...or to a suitable spot under a bridge...but never in strong current.
A lot of my fishing could be accomplished by just kicking into a slow eddy and maintaining position with fin power alone. Sometimes I had to work into the shore...in slow water...get out and then wade and cast into the deeper runs and holes.
I could cover a lot of water in a day, but I seldom did. I preferred to work one target area thoroughly, much as I do on a lake. But if I was able to work out having my wife leave a vehicle at a more distant take out spot I sometimes had to rush the last part of my float to get there before dark. Hard to quit fishing when the fish are biting.
What I found from experience was to pack plenty of nutrition and fluids and to be totally respectful of the power of moving water. I never got into any kind of serious trouble but had some close calls with idiot boaters roaring up the rivers and not watching where they were going. Good to carry an airhorn.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]