06-27-2013, 09:00 AM
Norman&#39;s last fishing trip had been 10/14/12 (see his post) when he caught a 21 in. TARP smallie among other fish. The very next day he ended up in intensive care with a severe health crisis. He just got clearance from his doctors to go fishing again and today it was my privilege to take my friend and fishing buddy for an outing below Chick. Dam. We put in at Riverpark at 6:30 and quit about 11:30. I brought some shiners for insurance.<br /><br />Norman&#39;s favorite fish in these waters is the striper. We tried for them a short while, but they would not play, the gar did and 2 big ones put on an aerial show and a hurt on my jerk bait.<br /><br />We then started soaking shiners and Norman soon hooked up with a nice 20 in. TARP smallie, which is his second most favorite fish here. All along, I felt that it would make my day if Norman caught a keeper smallie, he did better, he got a TARP smallie. I told him that if we didn&#39;t catch another fish, it was a great day for me! Well we did catch some other fish. I got a TARP smallie on a jerk bait and we caught several smaller smallies, largemouths, some nice white bass and Norman&#39;s 6 lb. flathead cat. Everything on shiners except my TARP. All fish released. All fish except the cat were caught between the dam and theR/R bridge.<br /><br />The flow was 27K cfs until after 10 when they kicked it up to 47K cfs. Surface temp was about 80.<br /><br />The BFL guys put in at RP for practice today, but they were not permitted to park at the ramp, they had to park in a field. Their tournament is Thursd., Fri. and Sat. They all headed downstream except for one or 2 boats we saw later near the dam.<br /><br />Well, what can I say, but WELCOME BACK, NORMAN, I had a great day, my friend!<br /><br />Best regards, Pete (Nauticman)