My buddy Chris and I drove through a monsoon this morning in the hopes that we coucl get some fishing in on a river that wasnt completley blown out. We drove out to the mazon and the weather on the way out there had me a litltle nervous. We got to the river around 730 and luckily the weather cooperated. We go rained on for about the first hour or two but no big deal because we where catching fish. Water seemed very low but I have only fished this river once or twice before. We had a multi species day with mostly Smallies and a ton of Rockies. I'm thinking we should have brought a stringer with us. I did pick up a decent largemouth and Cisco got a drum. I think we probably had over 40+ fish today total but I lost count early. Chris caught most on inline spinners and I think I may have caught every one of mine on a jig and helgie. Chris had the biggest fish of the day; the VERY nice smallie below.

nice fish.. but that is one river I would never wet wade.. I have seen tons of poison Ivy and Poison Oak.. plus the amount of snakes in the river.. brave

I had my waders on.................Went back today did ok but not as good as yesterday moving up river from the spillway. This stretch had hardly any current so we would walk and walk with no fish until we got to the next set of moving water. There were 3 of us and that is too many to fish that river. Ended up with around 20 smallies and 6 or 7 rockies. I forgot to mention yesterday we were hassled by a homeowner about fishing at the bridge on McCardle I think. We didnt feel like arguing so we tried the spillway. I am now going to keep a printout of the laws in my wader pocket with my license.

I wouldn't park at the bridge, but if you can wade to it from another spot, go for it. Nothing they can do then.

Rumors years ago was that anglers would come back to punctured tires and broken windows. Why push it.

smallmouthfisher wrote:nice fish.. but that is one river I would never wet wade.. I have seen tons of poison Ivy and Poison Oak.. plus the amount of snakes in the river.. brave

Ditto. Water is extremely clean, but the shoreline is treacherous.