My Fishing Vacation Thread

Its already been a long winter for me. early last fall the shop foreman in my auto body shop retired so now I am top dog, and my to-do list at work went through the roof. the long hours have me worn down, so I am taking a vacation and leaving all my responsibilities behind this week.
I started my vacation by taking a trip to Tennessee to catch some catfish bait, skipjacks. went to the Cumberland City power plant and fished the warm water discharge and had a blast. it was slow by local standards, and only caught about 90 skips:biggrin.... back home on sunday night and fished the mighty Missouri on Monday. took my buddy Jim and did pretty good, ended up catching 7 blues and 2 channels from 5-12lbs, then ran into a fiend who gave us another channel and blue for a total of 11 nice cats to clean.
at the very end of the day yesterday, finally had a good one on. was fishing in hard straight line current on the edge of a deeper hole and I saw my rod tip twitch a few times, then it pulled down about 4 inches and stayed there. I jumped up and put my hand on the reel and as I did my pole slammed down in the rod holder and started peeling drag for a brief second. grabbed the pole and the fish gave me a couple of head shakes that ripped drag and then he was gone! it's always the one the got away, but that's why I love fishing our big rivers! never know what is gonna stretch your line....
plenty of fish in the freezer now so the rest of the week is catch and release.... headed back to the river now so plenty more updates to follow!
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Looks like you picked a good week Greg. Nice looking fish. I got the work blues also but gotta keep plugging away. Good luck fishing today.

Nice fish.
Perfect time for vacation, enjoy

Nice. Those cold water cats will taste good. Hope to get out soon if ice and life will lets us. And the weather. Noticed no floating ice on Mo river. Also the sections of the Gasconade and Osage we saw sunday were ice free for the most part. Sending you a pm about skipjacks.

Sounds like you were due some time off.........and took advantage of it, which is key!

Nice kitty-kats!

U

Kinda wondered what was with the lack of posting. Hope you had a great week off and know that you deserve another. Good luck Greg hope to see you in the spring.

254 days and I start a long vacation! In 295 days I retire!!!!! :fingerdance :biggrin:ThumbsUp:cheers2:cheers2

Today I invited my buddy, Aaron out on the river, and another friend and his dad also brought their boat out. was chilly with a brisk west wind. the bite was much slower today but we still caught 1 blue and one channel and the other boat scaught some as well.
right now, the river is very clean and clear (for the Missouri) and my hummingbird was showing some great images today, so we spent some time looking around with my graph hoping to find some schools of shad (fail) or maybe some bigger cats (fail) or even some promising spots to fish (fail)but I did get a really good shot of my throw net sinking (on the opposite side of the boat that the school of bait was):banghead
still was a great day on the river watching big flocks of geese and ducks, a few bald eagles and enjoying some friends company!
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Nice pics Greg, looks like a successful vacation.

nice, it sounds like your having a lot of fun.

thanks. and yes I have been having some fun! today I am going to give the fishing a rest and my dad and I are going to run down to the farm to bring our neighbor a tractor part and take down some deer stands. we also need to cut some hickory because we are making deer sausage this weekend. might not be fishing but it will still be a good day with pops!

Were you on the Missouri near Washington yesterday around noon? Was having lunch at the Landing and saw a couple boats headed down river from the restaurant window wishing I was out there.

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Originally Posted by specs

Were you on the Missouri near Washington yesterday around noon? Was having lunch at the Landing and saw a couple boats headed down river from the restaurant window wishing I was out there.

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No, I put in at Klondike and went down river from there. I hear there is going to be some twisted cat's tourneys out of Weldon this coming year, so I have been scouting some water that I'm not all that familiar with. I might stand a chance with some of those jokers if I have "home field" advantage! aw, who am I kidding? I just want to rub elbows with someone who knows how to really catch them!:Rofl

There were several different boats fishing around Washington on Tuesday. They were still out when we left so don't know how they did.

I wish that river would be as clear in the summer as it gets in the winter. Even when it is low for a while in the summer it never gets that "clear". Well clear for the Missouri river. I have a new toy to try out and it wont work in the muddy water. An Aqua Vu camera. Tried it in Port Hudson the day after Christmas but couldn't find any fish. Dropped it down around some trees were the fish finder said there was fish but nothing. Guess it was showing limbs as fish. No wonder we cant catch anything fishing were it shows a bunch of fish. Showed the limbs good. Even went down to the bottom but nothing. There is a lot of illegal fishing goes on there. plus illegal fish being taken. Have seen trot lines in there. Not hard to find when tied above water. Last summer watched a boat load of people running jug lines. they ran them for several hours By the dock and ramp area. Rules say on board rod and reel only. Don't think there is that many fished left in that lake. it gets fished hard and under 18" bass get taken out. Use to be able to go over there and catch lots of small fish. But not the last couple of years.

I pretty well gave up on port Hudson, haven't been there in a couple years, now. I agree, it gets way too much pressure and the rules are broken a lot. it's a shame folks can't be more honest, that lake has the potential to be great with all the cover and depth variations and what not. I have always wanted to see actually what is down there, i'm sure you camera is a big help even if it didn't show ya any fish... right now on the river it is very clear behind the dikes.I could see the horn of my net down to about 3 feet. with your camera you might be able to see some carp or gar or who knows what you might find.
Specs, I'm sure some of those folks were fishing or maybe hunting geese, but most folks around Washington just like to get out and float down the river, drinking a beverage and enjoying the scenery. are you a local guy? ever have an interest in trying to fish the river? I enjoy taking folks out to try to see what bites the hook! especially folks who don't normaly get to enjoy to enjoy our big rivers..

south point, I am in southern Warren county across the river from New Haven. I have been on the river twice jug fishing with some guys and caught some small eaters. I was more of a Mississippi river fisher but not since we moved out here.

today was the last day I could fish this week, again put in at Klondike. couldn't find any fresh shad so frozen skips was the bait. good steady action all day, landed 8 and had a few more hooked that got away. most from 5-10lbs but one dinker 14 incher. even had a double today, good times!
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Originally Posted by specs

south point, I am in southern Warren county across the river from New Haven. I have been on the river twice jug fishing with some guys and caught some small eaters. I was more of a Mississippi river fisher but not since we moved out here.

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if you're a 'ssippi river guy, you'd be a bit disappointed in what this section the Missouri has to offer. for some reason the 'ssippi holds a lot bigger numbers of fish and a lot more of the bigger fish as well. but the extra hard current of the Missouri river adds a new spin on reeling in an average blue!

i have a Missouri River boat ramp less than five miles from my house and need to utilize it more. Thanks for the post

Yep that current can make a dink feel like a nice one. You think you have a decent fish on then when you get it to the boat you see the dink. How is the ice behind the dikes. Is it gone?

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Originally Posted by perchplucker

Yep that current can make a dink feel like a nice one. You think you have a decent fish on then when you get it to the boat you see the dink. How is the ice behind the dikes. Is it gone?

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the ice depends on how much current is behind a dike. dead water dikes still have ice way back in the corner and along the banks, the dikes with a notch blown out of them and letting current in are clear. still a few pieces of ice floating here and there down the main channel, too.

Great pictures Greg, looks like you had a really good time. Retirement is nice, but vacation is always better because you had to cram everything into a little time. Maybe this year you'll let us come up and find that fish to hug. But lets let it warm up a bit. We froze today on LOZ.