River Report: Not Time For Pitchforks Yet

It was inevitable. We had to give it a try. Jeremiah went in with me. He saw a fish moving near our bank just as he started the climb down. But that's the last fish we saw.

Saturday evening we had seen lots of wakes as carp cruised around, but by the time we were out there Sunday evening it was as though high tide had come in submerging the flats.

The river level was at 16.34 feet at 7:15 Sunday evening. There were places in the pasture that were over my waist--and over the dog's head. And it's still going up, expected now to crest around 17 feet by Wednesday morning.

We had fun wading the edges and probing the fencelines, but without cruising fish to cast to it was a shot in the dark. But you know how it is. Sometimes a shot in the dark hits the target. So you shoot.

Eventually we gave up, but we'll be back sometime around next Friday or Saturday when the water is dropping and the fish are trapped on the flats again.

We'll use rods, I suppose, but some old timers told me this morning that they used to use pitchforks to gather the fish in once the water had gone down. And that "spring carp are tasty, especially smoked."

Before we resort to that Jeremiah will use soft baits or nightcrawlers. And I'll probably use some kind of muddler. But you know, based on what we saw stranded on almost every branch and stem and log, I wonder if maybe I should tie up some ants.