Don't go in the Water

[Ken G]

I put this up on Facebook, got to remember to put them up here.
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A half hour, covered 50 feet, caught 8 smallies and missed twice as many. It's a bitch trying to set a hook while not going in up to your arm pits.

Then had to figure out how not to go in over my head and how to get up on a shore that was 5 feet tall and covered in mud. Crawl like a snake is what I did. Going back the way I came was out of the question. I do not recommend being in the water too close to the river yet.

It sucks big time.
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I know this creek like the back of my hand. I thought when I saw the boulders that I would be able to make it further down. So much for that. All the fish were tight to shore and hanging out behind the boulders and down on the bottom. Bottom was 4 feet of water. I'm only 5 foot 9. Do the math, I didn't have much room for error.

Getting out was truly a bitch, 5 foot tall bank, straight up and down, 4 feet of it in the water. Going back the way I came was out of the question. I have all the flexibility of a 2 X 4 and dragged myself up through the mud and thick brush to get out. Thank god for the thick brush to grab onto, otherwise I had no clue what I was going to do.

I don't think I'll try that again. This easily makes the top ten of stupid shit I've done just to go fishing.

[ThunderStick]

Any size to the smallies?

Dumbest thing I ever did was scaling rock walls to get to the next pool....fishing for trout in the Smokies. At one point I had to grip the rod in my mouth to free up both my hands. Not sure how I wasnt dashed against the rocks.

[Ken G]

From four to about 14 inches.

All the heavy fish were botched by my inability to set the hook. My arms were already over my head...

It was good to see all the smaller fish survive the flood, considering where I was standing was a raging mess about 15 feet deep at the worst of it.