Rat packs Brazos trip.

[tx river rat]

Learned a lot on this trip.
On the Quad we did miss you ,your name came up several times. :shock: :shock: not going to say anything more about that

Goose I am so glad your dad is ok and we need to get back together when ever your ready.

I got tied up so didnt get to the park till around two,and of course Firefly was there with Milret giving me the blues about being late ,dropped my trailer and went back for the yaks. We sat around and shot the breeze for a while as everyone drifted in ,it was warm up in the trees so decided to go wet a line. First lesson learned is coming up. A few fish were caught
and the water was nice,not to hot just cool.
I decided I would wade across the river, bad choice , as I was wading across the rocks were slick and yep one rolled and down I went,bad knees and rocks dont mix. ouch came down on a rock with my knee.
Looked around to see if anyone saw me and yep they were all watching.
Hard headed as I am I got back up and went on across the river fished a while then headed back across ,yep you guessed it stepped in a hole knee buckled down I went again hammered the knee again. and dropped my rod dove for it but wasn,t fast enough , ( second lesson when you buy a new ultra light put a rod float on it first hand) I went back to camp :shock: :shock:

 

[tx river rat]

I mixed me salty dog and chilled ,everyone drifted back into camp rod lit the fire ,I know it was hot but you have to have a fire, grilled some pork chops,or I should say Darrel did , and we chowed down ,visited for a while
then called it a night. That is when we started getting spoke to in a not to nice manner.
I built a small trailer a year ago

I decided to raise the top this year so you could stand , I didnt have it finished but it was usable.

The reason we were not to popular is it was hot and the trailer had ac
Darrel threw his cot in and I crashed on the bunk ,ask Darrel if it kept him cool. For a while I thought we were going to see how many folks would fit in that trailer :shock:

 

[tx river rat]

Sat morning all were up moving yaks to the water with my swollen knee I was a little slow ,of course Firefly had a comment :shock: I headed down through the fast water bounced off a couple of rocks but it wasnt bad,about a 1/4 mile down pulled over and watched the rest of them come gliding in ,no turtles today.
We paddled looked and fished, saw some pigs herons several kinds of water birds.Everyone caught some fish, bass cats gar bass,nothing big but fun. Later that morning I hooked a good fish played him a couple minutes
,got him to the boat then he dove under it and snapped my line (quick release, :lol:
Several folks got broke off.The day turned out great wind was blowing and cloud cover kept it pretty cool, we just floated along and played.

we scattered out and enjoyed the river at our own pace

the river was dropping ,not the best for fishing

With a couple of stops we floated into camp about 3 .

 

[tx river rat]

The one disappointment of the trip was someone was camped on the bar where we wanted to camp
we found a nice bar and set up camp,before long it looked like tent city
but it was home fore the night

It was hard to fish for all the mullet in the water
Like Firefly Hirsch ,Mill , you get the picture.

With the wind blowing it was hot but bearable. Second lesson learned
Started putting my tent up and a pole was broke, did the ole tent stake and line trick and lashed it back together ,it worked fine all weekend.

Then Darrel and I seined some bait ,I wear rocky boots to yak in and as we were making the drag one sort of felt funny ,when I got out of the water I had two tongues on that boot one on the top and one on the bottom,the sole where it was laminated came loose. I looked like Chester walking around a bum knee and a flapping boot,no one laughed but I did hear a couple of snickers. Ducktape wouldnt hold it tried lacing it with fishing twine ,nope that didnt work , finally had to borrow a pair of shoes from Darrel.

Most of us had purchased the 2 cool fans and they were worth there weight in gold that night. I give them a 10 and want camp without one now.
Steaks baked potato and jalipinia peas made a great supper and the conversation around the campfire was great.
Darrel caught a few fish one nice cat ,I think Harold Ray caught some and I caught some channels, the Hursch caught a nice yellow
the biggest of the trip.
We all crashed and had no visitors that night, with all the snoring going on a Grizzly would have run,I think I was the only one not snoring. it was a good night thanks to the fans and was cover time up in the morning.
Ron

 

[tx river rat]

Sunday g
A lot of coffee and bs was still flying as we broke camp and headed on down the river,Darrel Myself and Firefly had a little race that lasted about 2 minutes ,at 97 degrees full sun that didnt last long :shock:
I think Darrels words were that enough of this s$$t
Milret put some stop signs on the back of his boat and that was a target all day see if you could ease up behind him and nudge him :lol:
Firefly had a hard time paddling straight she kept going left and right toward the bank. There was one person that had a water pistol I wont mention HER name. we hit a little head wind just enough to make it fun ran two or three ripples explored mussle run and paddle a ways up it.
Darrel talked to his wife and she was waiting so he headed out taking part of them with him I dropped back and brought up the drag.
The take out was hot ,way hot but we made it. I dont know if we had any water are drinks left when we got the boats loaded and headed back. I must have picked some water up in a fuel tank ,Darrel brought some more gas and I made it in.

 

[tx river rat]

A wrap up ,loved the trailer,just need to finish it out,always carry two pair of shoes, the o2coll fans are great,part of my gear from now on.
always carry a spool of 130 lb test line ,1000 uses.Buy a water gun that is bigger than Fireflys,put rod floats on all new rods :shock: I will buy a new Mac tent,this one will be the backup ,Its rode out 90 mile an hour wind on the river,60 mile an hour winds on a hunt in south Texas ,yep a new one is coming,military cots are great ,
The best thing about this trip was the people 9 folks two day and two nights and everyone got along and had a blast,I will paddle with any of these folks anytime. We scattered out did our on thing but just kept tabs on each other. I am lucky in another matter ,you couldnt ask for a better paddling partner than Darrel.
Water ,I went through 6 gallons of liquid in two days and ran out at the take out,Oh and the extreme coolers are too good for a 2 day trip, I was taking a knife and chipping ice to get the drinks out ,they work.The old T-V did a good job
Was a great trip and I thank everyone for coming ,we will do it again.

 

[oldsparkey]

The "O"-2-Cool Fans are a blessing. Had the battery powered one that could also be plugged in an outlet , then upgraded to the one with the rechargeable batteries and normal batteries.
They run for about 4 hours then the regular battery's take over. When traveling between campsites in the vehicle , just plug it into the cigarette lighter and recharge the rechargeable batteries. Might say it doubles the life of the normal batteries. I pull into a campsite and the person asks ... Need Electricity , No Thank's I'm self contained.
If there is a power outlet then just plug it in and enjoy life while saving the batteries.

The fan does move some air and the wirrrrrrrrrr it makes at night sure makes you feel cooler.

I hate to say this but when camping in a hammock , on a river bank they are not needed ( For me ) but I have heard of folks hanging one at the end of there hammock to create a breeze for them.

Chuck.

 

[tx river rat]

Chuck
Thw way my knee was banged up and the luck I was having I would have fell out of it right on my knee again :lol:
Ron

 

[wilded]

Sorry about the knee, but it still looks like a great trip. Do you have a link or more information on the fan you used? Thanks, ET

 

[jdupre']

Nice report. Sounds like y'all had a good time. I can vouch for it being hot, too.

Tell me about that long, skinny kayak. Doesn't look like any I've ever seen. She looks fast. Tell us the truth, Ron. Did she beat the TV? :mrgreen:

Joey

 

[Wannabe]

Ron,
Were you wearing a PFD whin you fell in the river?
Bob

 

[oldsparkey]

Sorry about the knee, but it still looks like a great trip. Do you have a link or more information on the fan you used? Thanks, ET

Here you go.......... http://www.o2-cool.com/

Chuck.........

 

[JEM]

Great report! A fun read. Last couple days have been a bugger. Needed the comic relief.

 

[oldsparkey]

Chuck
Thw way my knee was banged up and the luck I was having I would have fell out of it right on my knee again :lol:
Ron

Ron....

You could say you are sleeping on a half hammock. The cot has a cloth bed or support area on it like the hammock except you don't need trees and don't have the sides. :wink:

Chuck.

 

[JEM]

How well those fans work when it's humid? When I was stationed in California, we had some swamp coolers (evaporation coolers) in the old base housing we lived in that did ok cooling in the dry desert air. But they wouldn't be worth a lick out east when the humidity is high.

 

[oldsparkey]

I have used mine here in Florida , Georgia and in the Carolina's with the humidity and they work pretty good , moving air always feels cooler.
One time I was in Georgia and a rain came in during the day so I got in the little camper and when it started to get hot , on went the fan and that was one time I took a short nap. It felt that good with the air moving and the rain hitting the top of the camper.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5206

buckisland1950 trip report viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5203

 

[tx river rat]

Joey
That is a Marathon boat built bye a local builder here and paddled bye Firefly (Lynn) she does the races also ,a dang good paddler.
I figured they would run off and leave me loaded as I was but it didnt happen we were pretty well neck and neck, I was pleasantly surprised at the speed . The T-V isnt a race boat but did well .
Now they cant touch the duck it will walk off from them.
The little fan was a life saver and will be part of my camping gear from now on.
No PFD i WAS wALKING :lol:
It was a good trip and the T-V just keeps proving how good a boat she is.
Ron

 

[beekeeper]

Great trip and post. Thanks for sharing. How do you fish for bass in your area?

beekeeper

 

[tx river rat]

Beekeeper here in Texas bass fishing is mostly in the water.
Ron

 

[Darrells]

It was nice to meet some faces from TKF who I have not paddled with before. We had a great group of people along on this trip.

Hanging out in camp on Friday.

It was awfully hot Friday afternoon so we decided to grab a pole and do a little wading around the Falls.

Goose with a monster. :wink:

Firefly whipping the Fly rod around.

BowGarGuide cooling off.

It was very hot Friday night :roll: , but we managed to get a little sleep and hit the river Saturday morning. Everyone loaded and ready. (L to R) RodLoos, Milret, HirschHunter

We had a good ride through the fast water and rocks below the Falls , but everyone made it through without any problems.

We took it easy and just floated, fished, and talked and laughed for about six hours. Not much biting but we did manage to catch a dink here and there. I can tell you there was an excellent spawn on Channel Cats last year. I must have caught 20 that were about 5 inches long.

We arrived at our camp for the night and most of us decided on a soak in the river to cool down a bit before setting up camp. Rodloos seemed pretty impressed with Ron's and my tents, about twenty seconds from bag to completely set-up. For some reason i did not get any shots of camp (maybe next time). We put some lines out and kicked back and relaxed. The fishing was pretty slow but HirschHunter and I both managed a keeper.

The moon was out in all of it's glory Saturday night.

We turned in about midnight or so and during the night I actually got pretty cool and had to grab my sleeping bag liner. One thing that worked out very well on this trip was the battery operated camping fans (O2 Cool) from Walmart. It will accompany me on all hot weather trips from here on out. We awoke pretty early on Sunday and did not have to hurry getting packed for the remainder of of paddle.

Milret loading up.

Hirsch finishing up loading.

Ron and Harold Ray discussing worldly problems

FireFly and Larry discussing their matching wardrobe.

We hit the water about 11:00 and started downstream for the take-out. Still had good current and just enough wind to help keep us cool.

Loaded and headed for the takeout.

FireFly

Harold Ray

BowGarGuide

Milret

Rodloos

HirschHunter

The river is getting a little low so they turned on the faucet.

Some interesting geography.

It was getting pretty hot by noon or so and there was not much shade to be found so RodLoos made his own.

We arrived at the take-out about 1:45 and started the long ,hot trips up the bank with all of the gear and boats. The fishing on this trip left something to be desired, but I had a really good time with good people and I am looking forward to doing it again soon.