S. Fork Eel - 1/19

Hawk and I talked a few days ago about hitting the Mattole or maybe the Van Duzen, but we only had part of the afternoon yesterday so we hit more familiar waters down on the South Fork.  We left Hawk's rig down by the forks and took my truck upriver to launch at Gould Bar.  The water was pretty murky, but good enough to fish.  We drifted about 3.5 miles and saw two fish show, but no hookups.  Great day on the river, and it's always good to hang with a pro like Hawk.

Beautiful country up there!
Thanks,
PK

Nice pic's Eric. And nice vanity cam!

CHEERS!

Been playing with the video more now that I have high-speed...

Having too much fun...   

Thanks for the report Eric.

Oh no Abking's on You-tube, look out kayak fishing world your gonna see some some cool S#$T.

Isn't that other one suppose to be on the drysuit post

Great runnin the riv with you Eric thanks for be the pic man this time. We must have drove all the fish Juan's way.

Back paddling video - not as easy as a driftboat, but do-able...

Great SCENERY and report Fellas'...that looks crazy, in some stretches, then lake-like in others?  Sweet Vid work and AB'Cam!
Dude? your gettin MAD! in a NCKA way, and that's GOOD!

I wanted to take another look at this thread and point out the eddy feature in the middle of the river. Abking took a pic of me while I was taking a pic of him and it shows two perspectives of the Eddy. I don't know how to imbed text under a photo so I'll describe it and you can look at the photos.

In the first shot you can see I'm sitting there facing upstream next to the log jam. The river there was flowing around 3000-4000 CFS. Not fast but at stop we were moving a knot and a half. I'm not paddling furiously to stay pointed up stream. I'm not paddling at all. I've got two hands on my rod ready to hook up and fight.  I'm steady in the eddy and if a fish wants to try and pull me out I know I've got another large eddy on the downstream side of this log jam.

In the second Pic you're right there in the eddy with me. You can see the water pouring into the hole suspending my boat. The water in the pool I'm sitting in is actually flowing back upstream. As long as keep my body straight and control the chines of my kayak from getting near the edges of the eddy, I could sit in that one spot all day catchin and releasin'. I made my decision to get in that eddy about a football field away. That gave me enough time to get in position for a good line. I cut across the river at 45 degree angle above the obstruction and hit the eddy right at it's topmost point. This lessens the slamming effect you feel from paddling balls out to a dead stop in one swift moment.

The point of this is that by using this method with logjams, and boulders mid river you can learn to dissect a run and fish the river from any spot you like free of anything attached to the kayak except hopefully a 25 lb chromer.

-Hawk

Cool story about your cousin Eddy or whatever, Hawk...     Didn't you get more pics of our trip?   

Cool story about your cousin Eddy or whatever, Hawk...     Didn't you get more pics of our trip?   

I think I'm ready...to meet that Eddy!   

That was a breakdown in terms, that even I understood the first time i read it!   
Thanks SR!
I'lltryTHAToneEMPTYfirst.