Floated the Shellrock river today.

Hey guys,

I floated my local river today in my kayak. First spot I anchored in at was just above a set of rapids. Couple casts later I was releasing a nice smallie. I repositioned downstream and of to the side and threw out another cast. Bamm, I was rewarded with a nice eating size walleye. Next cast thru the same line of water and I added walleye number 2, good trip already. Then my anchor broke loose and I paddled upstream and back around to re-anchor. I must have made too much of a disturbance because I couldn’t seem to raise anything after that, so off downstream I went.

Next spot was a good one. I put two catfish and another walleye on the stringer. Also caught and released two more small mouths. Decided to keep moving on so started to float on downstream. set my pole across my lap to open a baggie containing a donut. Had to quickly drop the bag a grab my pole before it was pulled over the side of the boat. My lure had been dangling in the water and I thought that I’d snagged something even tho it had only been a few inches below the surface. When I lifted my pole the drag started to sing, a nice sized catfish was having nothing to do with my boat. After a few minutes I was able to put him on the stringer as well. Yep, that old stringer had some heft to now.

By the end of my float I had released three bass and one walleye while keeping 4 walleyes and 3 catfish. Oh ya, I did see one duck fly over head while I was fishing. Also watched a deer graze on tree leaves along the riverbank till she spooked.

Hope everyone else enjoyed their weekend as much as I enjoyed mine.

Awesome… cats in the kayak are fun. Doing battle this week with them myself.

Nice report! I’d love to fish the shellrock sometime. After our pool 11 trip yesterday (posted report earlier), we floated the maquoketa near delhi and caught a ton of smallies and a few short eyes on topwaters and cranks. small stream floats are the way to go with this heat – you can get out and lay down in the water when it gets too hot!

Sounds like a great trip.

–Whitey

Its hard to beat small stream fishing this time of year. Ive been doing ok on the volga and turkey rivers catching mostly smallmouths and some occasional nice ones between 17″ and 20″. When its hot like this look for feeder creeks that come into the rivers, some are spring fed or shaded hill seepage and run cold and are a nice place to get cooled off. Take a cooler of cold drinks and maybe a couple sandwiches and spend the day on a small stream or creek as thier a nice place to be this time of year.

I floated the Raccoon River south of Panora Saturday morning and did really well. My dad and I managed about 30 smallies ranging from 5-16″ and a couple walleye. We each also caught a 16-17″ eye. Pretty good for about a three hour float. These small creeks are so active when it heats up, it’s awesome!

What section of the shell rock did you float?????

I could tell you ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but then I’d have to kill you.

Butler county

I know that river like the back of my hand. The gf’s family has land on both sides of the river just east of clarksville. Their land is about a mile wide where the river runs through it. Good fishing back there. We eye and smallie fish back there and sometimes run ditty poles.

Hey Honda hows the ditty pole fishing there, get any nice ones?

Get a few decent ones. Mainly we go for the good eaters. Biggest so far this year has been 15lbs.

15 pounds is decent for a channel, the biggest i’ve gotten was around 12,,,