Joey and I headed up to the bash on Thursday morning. He had Crappie and Small mouth on his mind ever since BT45's report. We loaded the canoe and arrived around 2:30pm and set up camp. The plan was to hit Lake Britton that evening but I wanted to relax a little and Joey hit the pond before I could put the truck in park. Walked around and ran into Ed K and Jims. We bbq'd some hot dogs and hung out at Charlie's camp that night.
We got off to a late start to fish Lake Britton because Joey was fishing the pond. Went into town to get some info since we have never fished the lake. Went to Vaughn's in Burney and they treated us very nice and provided us with maps and all the gear we needed both conventional and fly. We hit the lake around 11:30 which was not ideal but off we went. It was our first real canoe trip we had our hands full when the wind picked up. Right off the bat Joey hooked some Crappie by the RR tracks but we were not able to boat them for various comic reasons. The poor kid had to wait another 4 hours before he actually handling his first crappie. We head headed to try our luck on smallies and fished the banks that had some shade and structure. I was able to hook and land a Smallie on my first cast. On my second cast I hooked a submerged branch and I wanted to retrieve my fly since it worked so well. I let Joey Fish and waited to retrieve my fly. That turned out to be a bad move since the current wrapped my fly line around some branches and now the possibility of loosing a line was possible. In an effort to save my line I pulled my first gut while trying to pull the branch/log to the surface and not tip the canoe. I had to wait 4-5 minutes for the pain to stop before I could resume my efforts. I was able to break the fly off and untangle my line. Joey was able to catch a Smallie on a Crappie jig in the same area. At that point I decided that I would be more of a guide and fish less. On a side note when you let the Anchor down try not to let the rope burn your striping fingers. It was getting later in the day and we took a shore brake in the shade for a while and I could stand and rest my butt. 5-6 hours on those hard wood seats is a pain in the A$$. Every time I relocated my checks the canoe would rock and Joey would scream. So we had Smallie under our belts and decided to hit the RR tracks again for Crappie. We tied off on the pylons to get a brake from the wind and Joey was able to catch 3-4 Crappies. Around 5:30pm we decide to call it a day and headed back to boat ramp. We decided to fish the shade of the Hw89 Bridge and it turned out to be a great move. We anchored about 15 feet from shore and Joey caught another 8 Crappies and couple small Smallies. We loaded up and headed back to camp with the idea of fishing misplaced creek. After spending the day in the canoe we opted to hang out at camp and fish the pond. We had Phil over for dinner and we BBQ's up some ribeye's with wild rice and asparagus. We hung out at Charlies that night again but we had a igger crowd.
Saturday came and the idea of fishing misplaced creek came up and went again. Joey and Michelle were slaying them at the pond and that’s what he did. I did manage a small bow on my boo in the pond. Joey was killing them on leach pattern and Charlie let him tie up a few more. I was humbled because I tried his leach for a good 30 minutes and gave up. My son walks up next to me and hooks 2 fish in 5 minutes.
It was good time and I hung out while Joey fished the pond. The pot luck was awesome and there were tons of left over food. We could have fed an extra 20-30 lurkers. Roaddog came bearing a chest of gifts and performed his Dutch magic. Charlie sloooow roasted a whole pork loin that came out great. Lots of food, good company, a raffle to help a friend and we washed it down with a slide show. Joey had aspirations of being LMS and was not happy with the title LBS (Last Boy Standing). I had to put the hammer down at 2am since I had to be at work the next day at 2pm. All in all it was a great bash, not as big as ones in the past but fine just the same. It was good to see you all.
A special thanks to Charlie & Carpy for sharing their camp and having a warm welcome and smile to everyone who stopped by to relax.
A few phots from our trip.
My Shasta was glowing red from the smoke but picture did not come out well at 70mph.
First Smallie
Nice bow from Hereford pond
Favoured: 0
