rastle u sum gators?

Shoot the rapids!!

he made it from the brazos then drown in the shower???

Must have been lonely on the river.

Shhh, he's sleeping.

lol

You've got an anxious audience too...

maybe T-Steve is a very young man, and therefore still in the shower, you know, playing catch up, having private access to his own free time, combined with all that s s sa slippery soap .... yeeeeech.

Ok guys, sorry, between being sick and having log in issues on TFF I am back.

Unfortunately there will be no pictures on this report since my camera did not make it through the flash flood Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Friday was a great day as far as weather if you take out the 35 mile an hour winds. I spent the first hour or so catching enough bluegill to fish with then headed down river. Caught 2 LMB in the 2 lb range and a number of cats in the 16 inch range. I switched to a gulp worm and couldn't keep the large sunfish off my hook. I camped Friday night under the stars not far from the three rocks. I fished until about 1am and caught two nice catfish in the 20lb range. Then I hooked what I think was a gar, it took may bait and ran with it I waited to set the hook, as soon as I pout tension on it , it spit out the bait and hook. This happened 6 times. Finally I hooked one and fought it to near the bank, then it cut my line. It was a long nose gar, hard to tell how long since it was dark.

I woke up Saturday morning to cloudy weather but no wind to speak of. So I started out early fishing along the way. Seemed to catch plenty of LMB in the 1-2 lb range but could not find anything bigger. The light rain started about 11am. It was off and on so I didn't think too much about it. Those pesky catfish in the 16 inch range would not leave me alone, but it was fun catching them. Got stuck by one and felt like a knife in my finger. I reached the really large boulders sticking up from the water and found a 19 foot deep hole that held some fish. More 2 lb LMB and a lot of catfish again. Just then it started to rain pretty heavy, I fished for another 20 minutes since I was catching fish then decided for safety reasons I better find a spot to camp on high ground somewhere.

I made it to the end of the little island across from Worth Ranch. I pitched my tent about 6 feet above the current water line. Figured that would be good enough in case we got a lot of rain. Pulled my Kayak up as close to the tent as I could then used a tent stake and secured my kayak to the ground. At this point rain was coming down so hard I could not see across the river. Nothing I could do but wait it out. Once it got dark it got a little spooky, lightning every few minutes loud thunder and sheets of rain. At one point I thought about finishing the last 6 miles in the dark to the take out but figured that was a dumb idea.

Surprisingly I slept off and on for about an hour at a time. I woke up at 4:30 and water had risen some but not enough to worry about. All was still intact and plenty of land still around me. Then I must have fallen asleep again, next thing I know I wake up because it felt like someone was pouring water on my feet. I unzip my tent and look out and see water just barely under my foot end of my tent. Of course this set off an alarm in my head so I jumped up went outside the tent to see I was now standing on enough land to barely cover my tent and about 2-3 feet above where my head was. I turned around and what did I see....nothing. No kayak to be found. It was still dark outside at this point. Heavy rains still and plenty of lightening. So I quickly packed everything I had into my two dry bags and my back pack. I had my safety whistle around my neck so I blew out SOS a few times, in case anyone was nearby. No one was.

Here is the part that is a little upsetting to me. I had cell service, sort of. I called Rochelle�s to tell them where I was and see what they recommended. Now, when I started this adventure, I gave Rochelle�s my cell number and they said they would text or call me if any severe weather was going to come my way. Didn't happen. Anyway, I got a hold of the lady at Rochelle's finally about 7:15. I told her what had happened. She had three things to say. 1st, do you have my canoes or your own? 2nd, we don't open until 9am. 3rd, Maybe you will get lucky and someone will come down the river. 4, sorry and then she hung up on me. They did a great job shuttling me, but please listened to this advice, DO NOT USE ROCHELLES AS PART OF YOUR EMERGENCY PLAN!

So anyway, at this point it was starting to get light enough to see outside. Needless to say I did a little praying before the sun came up. I decided to risk crossing the part of the river that was between me and the private property on the north side of me. About 20 yards. I needed to get to dry land fast. So I grabbed my bags and started wading across what was a foot of water when I pulled up. Then my feet could not touch the ground, the current grabbed me and took me toward the main part of the river. Luckily (I think) I hit a large rock and it stopped me from going out into the river. I managed to get to shore and looked down and I had a 3 inch gash on my shin, blood pouring out. The least of my worries so I pressed on down the river to try and find my kayak. About 2 hours later I see it! My fishing poles got caught up in a tree and it stopped my kayak. Unfortunately it was the other side of the river.

I blew my whistle a few more times and just then I saw 11 canoes coming around the bend. It was a basketball team; they said their group name was midway. High school guys and a few adults. They picked me up and took me over to my kayak. A few hours later I was at the take out. Overall a great trip, plenty of fish caught and a few adventures. LOL

Great (but scary) story. Glad you made it back safely, and recovered your kayak.

How many feet do you think the river rose over night?

Adventure at the least

GOOD STUFF!!! I kept expecting you to say "Then i heard banjos!" Nice adventure and lessoned learned thanks for sharing Might save someones life