~StreamSide Tales~: The Gorilla Saved the Day

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

The Gorilla Saved the Day

6/07/2021

After a quick oatmeal breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee I drove upriver from camp. The kayak was packed for the days adventure. My plan was to kayak and fish for smallmouth back to camp. I figured about 2 miles would be sufficient. It may not sound like very far but fishing it takes longer in time.

I pushed off before 8:00am. The sun was already casting shadows on the water as its rays filtered through the green leafy forest that lined the banks. The river was still high but clearing up some from the heavy rain from late the past week. I figured if the fish couldn’t see much for food over the weekend, because of the muddy water, they might hear a surface popper in the lightly stained chocolate color water today.

I paddled straight across the river close enough to cast poppers out from the shaded boulder strewn bank. It didn’t take long for my first take. A bass surfaced for my orange/yellow popper and I hooked him cleanly.

There was a riffle just out from the bank. I made a cast and watched the popper lay down on the wavy riffles. A few gurgling pops and I watched it bounce and flow with the subtle waves. A splashing rise to the popper and I whipped the rod back to set the hook. The fish scurried about with head shakes. I was surprised when I netted a fine looking rainbow trout that took the popper.

After releasing the trout, upon my next few casts, something didn’t feel right when I was casting. I wasn’t getting the distance I was hoping for and the line didn’t appear to come out of the guides smoothly. I looked at the tip top eye of the Winston 9’ rod and the eye was not in line with the rest of the guides. I took a hold of the eye and it twisted but did not come off. I was glad I didn’t go too far downstream from my truck. I paddled over to the bank, got out of the kayak with the rod, and went to the truck.

I actually just got it back from Winston last fall to repair a break at the first eye from the butt section. I might have used it once or twice since then. Now here I am repairing it the best I could to continue my journey. I took out Gorilla duct tape and taped the tip top eye securely. I got back into the kayak and hoped it would hold up.

I was back on the water and fishing. I dropped the anchor most of the time while drifting to slow the kayak in the current. At times I would ground the kayak along the bank and wade fish. The smallmouth weren’t shy about taking the popper off the surface.

I did notice they were a lot darker this year.

A bright color popper on the surface seemed to make the smallies rise more often than a darker colored one.

With the water being higher I caught more smallies out mid-river in deeper water than along the banks. I may have not caught any big husky ones but the ones I caught were still a challenge getting them to the kayak with the higher and stronger current at times.

Well, the Gorilla tape held up and I caught enough smallies to keep me encouraged throughout the float. With a pocket full of cigars, a few granola bars and a tumbler of water made the whole float worth while the time spent.