First Stripe of the year ......

[David Lee]

...... Fell to a #2 Trout Clouser last night !!

Hit the upper river for Shad - thought I'd try MSP's secret dropoff (the flows were 2 feet higher then the last time I fished it .... had hells own time getting back to dry land ) . No Shad that I could reach , so I did a little exploring downriver .

Found a nice , 100 yard stretch of beach w/ a deep back-eddy on my side . The little devil went about 4 or 5 lbs. and was as thin as a rail .
Saw Ducks , Turkeys , Cottontails , and a hefty Lizard .

Nice to get the skunk off .... finally !!

David

[flygolf]

Great Job David, it's good to get the skunk off.

[David Lee]

You know , Mark .... it took awhile this time .

Of course , it might help if I fished for them ! Hard to have confidence when the flows are higher/colder than I'm used to - I almost NEVER fish the A when it's above 4000CFS and below 60 degrees .

Sure was a nice suprise .... that violent CRACK when Stripe clobbered my fly

You find any piggies yet ????

David

[Adam Grace]

Good for you David!

[flygolf]

No piggies yet, I think the big boys have a pretty good supply of food right now (shad). I know what you mean about these flows. We'll probably have to find some new places to fish. My usual spot has changed a little bit (filled in with sand) but it still holding some fish. How about you, have you found any good water with these flows?

[Hairstacker]

Good job David! First of many I hope. . . .

[MSP]

David, I was wondering if that spot still existed or got washed away during the high flow. I can imagine what you went through trying to get back up river with the flows being what they are.

Nice job on the Stripe! And stay out of my spot!

[Jgoding]

Good job David! I still smell like skunk... I went to Goethe Sat. afternoon but like you said, water was cold as S%^$ and about two or three feet too high to reach the fish there. I did scope a nice school out from the bridge though but you just can't wade out far enough with these flows.

I also scoped one of my favorite spots down river and it was changed a lot. Most of the side channel is gone, all the rocks that made the divide got pushed down and actually bridged the channel where it used to flow back into the river and most of the run was gone but there's a little bit left so maybe it's not a total loss. But the weird part is the river now cuts into the backside of the pond over there that's on the river (not the William B. Pond) where the side channel got dammed off. Might be cool to see how that's changed that area. Saw some caddis flying around, but nothing eating them except a little baby duck. Man, he could take out a whole swarm in no time...

Jeff

[flygolf]

You and Kraig inspired me to go out tonight and it paid off. I caught 7 total mostly shakers but I did catch one that put up a great fight. It looks like it had a shad in its stomach.

[Adam Grace]

That's a fat striper! Very nice.