The month of June ended with two days of fishing for me. Sunday I fished the Caney Fork along with everyone else in the state of Tennessee and also those that are flocking here from other states to partake of our excellent fishing. That river is a total madhouse on weekends, and I suspect it is staying fairly busy on weekdays as well. With the odd generation schedule lately, wadeable water is hard to come by making the few places where you can effectively wade excessively crowded. I probably won’t fish it much more until the weather cools and some of the crowds start to diminish.
Releasing a nice Caney 'bow
Despite the crowds the river is still fishing extremely well. I broke off two large fish and am starting to think that I’ve somehow been cursed when it comes to catching big fish. I’ve either stung or hooked and lost some very nice fish each of the past several times I’ve been on that river but have yet to actually land one. Hopefully all the missed fish will add up to some good luck in the future.
The interesting side note to the day occurred while fishing up near the dam when I heard a noise off behind me. I turned around to see an animal ambling along up the shore in my general direction. After doing a double take I verified that, yes indeed, it was a raccoon. Seeing these things out wandering around in broad daylight always makes me a little nervous about their health and well-being but this one acted basically normal I suppose.
Monday evening again saw me on a stream, this time Little River here in the Smokies. After I got off of work at LRO, I grabbed a snack and headed up into the park to see what was going on. Driving slowly up the river, I took the time to stop and sample several spots above Metcalf Bottoms and finally ended up above Elkmont for the evening finale. The fishing is still holding up and should actually be excellent for the next several days as we go into the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Most trips are yielding some better than average rainbows up to 10 inches and even slightly larger.
The weather forecast holds some good news as well. Starting this weekend we should have a chance for showers and thunderstorms for several days. Every little bit helps and will keep the fishing good.
A raccoon in broad daylight - who would have thought? Would make a gu worried about rabies or something, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteY'know the only way to get that luck to turn around is to keep hittin' the water. Such is my advice - go fishn' more!
A few years ago on my old job (and before Katrina), I would play golf at City Park in New Orleans, since it was so close. I would always see at least one, and many times several; any time there was a complaint about a coon raiding a garbage can, the city would trap them and dump them in the park. They had no fear at all - they wouldn't even pay attention to me and my great swing ;)....now, the animals you really had to watch out for were the Canada geese - they're mean, and they would charge you for daring to be on "their" course.
ReplyDeleteNow, most of City Park is an unkempt jungle - I don't know how the raccoons fared...but that area was under about 12 feet of water for weeks.
Yeah, raccoons wandering around in broad daylight definitely makes me wonder about rabies...hopefully this one was just hungry or bold or both...
ReplyDeleteTom, I like your idea about fishing more. Now if I can just figure out how to get over to the Caney Fork more often...