My first Kayak trip on the Caney

[StillinScrubs]

It has been a rough year for the fishing, lots of pressure on the river, the generation has been above previous years and limited wading. There is a real push by some to get some quality regs on the river before all is lost to meat hunters.
I have been thinking about getting a kayak to get away from the normal crowds which long walks just won't do anymore. A kid local to the river mentioned on another website that he is starting to rent kayaks and got heckled by just about everybody on the board. Instead of making a comment I figured I would check out the operation and decide for myself based upon actual knowledge. Turns out he lives on the river and uses locally made kayaks that are pretty nice. After work yesterday morning I drove out to his place to check out the operation. Brent seems like a nice kid had multiple kayaks of different designs and a collection of life vests in multiple sizes. I filled out his waiver and he ran me up to one of the public landings. I could use the kayak all day and he was willing to take me out at any public landing on the river......if you come down it is worth the effort of checking him out. Caney Fork Surf.....615-418-5697. I am not getting anything for this, I just want people to know about this option instead of dragging a boat to the river and I like to help out small business.....he's not the Walmart of rental places. http://www.caneyforksurf.com/
One more thing…..he also does shuttle service…..
Now to the report….
The company vehicle….He can get six on it in one load he told me…..ask him about the highway run, very funny.

Tooling around in the boat.
Good storage space




The river was socked in with fog until about 2pm….unlike most rivers this place will not take off until you get full sun. If you are a streamer chucker it can be good for the browns, but the big bows love to get some sun on their backs before they get fired up……
Third fish….got most drifting in the boat today, the water never settled out like I hoped it would…..I would work through a good section and then paddle back up through it and run it until I got tired. A return trip over fish resulted in my biggest of the day, so if you give the fish 3-4 minutes to settle down after going over them, they will get back on the feed……..

Sight cast to this fish at about 15 feet, had a larger fish sitting just in front of it, my midge larve was just off to the side…..not bad though 16 inches….





A little more drifting…

Big boy for the day, gave me two 3 foot jumps with cartwheels…..tooled my butt all over the place for about 5 minutes. Swam off strong…..19.5 inches…..




Then the magic happened, ants and pods of rising fish. I broke off my first three and was down to two flies……this little brown ran off all my fly line and then wrapped in a weed bed, full generation flow…had to paddle back up stream and work him out of the weeds.
Tiny ants…..#24.


Worked over three other pods of fish, most were 10-14 inch browns, got some nice fights……lots of jumpers in the Caney….
Down to my final ant and got this decent rainbow three big jumps and two solid runs……



If any of you ever venture down this way…..I’ll be happy to help you out with fly selection……

[montanaman]

Very cool report and great pics!