Well, the river didn't disappoint.
I0nized, a buddy of his named Chadwell, their wives, and I hit the Doah for a pair of delightful days.
Nights were hot. My air mattress has a hole, so in effect I slept on the ground, Matt's neighbors argued over a flashlight at 3am, the line for the food was long, and it was hot.
Other than that, the weekend was dang near perfect. Had a great time seeing some old friends. Wish a few more new faces had made it, but life is busy. You missed some delicious food, and a fine band. I got to eat some fine pork BBQ Sunday morning for breakfast too, as there was so much of it. Yum. Still full.
Fishing was a tad slow, but that was also a function of time. Arrived Saturday morning after a work snafu on Friday made getting out Friday night impossible.
We chose a short, popular float so we would be back in time to shower before the party. A couple 15 inch smallies fell for some tubes. One of mine had a couple healed leison spots, which is good and bad. I hate that fish in this river still get sick, but it's good to know that some survive. I landed about 20 smallies on the tube. We got some cool clouds from an upriver thunderboomer that teased us, but didn't deluge us. Shuttle was short, and we were back in time for the pig.
Sat around the easy up in the shade (I did mention it was warm?). and drank some beer and talked with a nice group of fishermen and fisherwives. Then the food line started, and we pigged out. Mixed and mingled with the crowd, watched the kids learn the Virginia Reel, and drank more beer.
Called it a night around midnight. Slept on the ground, but the tent fan kept the air moving.
Sunday morning was perfect. No humidity, for about 30 minutes at 6am. Then someone set the oven on bake again. Broke down camp, found Matt and Chadwell, and convinced the better halves to let them go float.
We ran upriver to a short 3 mile section with a 1.5 mile shuttle
Fished a long pool and pulled smallie after smallie off of deeper trenches between ledges, as long as the current flowed over the width of the trench, and the bottom wasn't visible. Fish agressively grabbed tubes and just swam off with them.
Lots of snot grass broke free from the river rise from the boomer the day before, and the water was noticably cooler here than downstream Saturday. Fish were active as a result.
We dropped down a long class I riffle with a few waves. Fished the eddies along the edges of the chutes and scored a number of fish on tubes, grubs, spinnerbaits, and something Chadwell threw I didn't recognize. We cleaned up a yardsale from an overturned canoe, and then fished a bit between rapids. Caught a couple more and ran a sporty wave train that was refreshingly cooling.
I spooked a couple pigs in the pool below along a deep shady bank. A big 6+lb green bass, and a pair of large smallies refused to bite my tube, but didn't stick around to comment when I finally paddled into the spot to see why nothing was happening.
We ran a few more rapids and fished a couple ledges above our takeout without much success, then loaded up and headed back to camp to break down some tents for Matt and Chadwell.
Returned home around 5:30 Sunday and still have a few things to repack.
Hope to see more KBF folks at this event next year. Awesome time and good food with friends. Can't beat that.
by FishyboY » Thu Jul 15, 2010 3:59 pm 
I'd love to start making some of these trips. Enjoy guys n gals. Be Safe.
