Left on Wednesday night for our 8th annual Colorado River trip. This trip started off with 5 of us in 2001 and this year we had 23 people compared to 13 last year. Friends invite other friends so it tends to be more of us each year. This year was different as a friend invited his neighbor tweekers. They should have stayed home as they were high from sun up til sundown. I don’t care to camp with tweekers as it’s much less fun. They made the 4 ½ hr drive high on marijuana. It’s dangerous no matter how you look at it. I was fortunate the pot smell blew the other direction from me at the campsite. They didn’t care about what they were doing. One of these guys shot and killed (stepped on it’s neck afterward) one of birds with a bb gun. He pointed and shot the gun three feet away from the back of my head. A couple from the area visited the tweeker guys and had an 18 month yr old child. They were smoking cigarettes, drinking, getting drunk, and using pot in front of the child as he wondered around. My friends were not impressed with them at all as they have young ones under 18 months old at home.
We stay at La Paz County Campground on the Colorado River (CA/AZ border) and it’s relatively cheap with good and clean sites. The campground is about 15 miles from Parker Dam. A day use permit is only $18.00 per vehicle per day. Bringing a dog is allowed and is an extra $3.00 per day. The site comes with a metal canopy,bbq, bench with seating, running water, grass, shade, trees, a dock with boat launch ramp, showers, and restrooms. Down the way they have RV hookups for $22.00 a day with electricity (you pay 0.16 per kilowatt) water hookups,bbq, showers, boat dock with launch ramp, with very clean and well-maintained restrooms. A cool place to camp and is only yards to the water. The water and weather was a lot cooler this year. We bring quite a few guns but they are used for targets only. We don’t shoot at rabbits and other animals.
I had caught and released 9 smallmouth bass and most were of legal size. Most of my fish were bigger this year compared to other years with 2 of them at 3lbs or bigger. The guys wanted to cook them up but I don’t keep bass for any reason. It's been 2 years since I’ve caught a largemouth at the river. Last year and this year I blanked at catching catfish. When catfish are caught I'll release them too. My first and biggest smallmouth came at 6:00am Thursday morning on a 6-inch straight tail black grape Robo Worm, ¼oz black bullet weight, a 1/0 Gomakatsu offset shank worm hook, on 10lb Trilene. 2 more fish were soon to follow. At about 3:30pm I tied on a 3.5 inch Gitzit brown crawdad color tube bait with black flake, a 2/0 Gomakatsu offset shank worm,a 1/4oz bullet weight,10lb Trilene, and landed 5 more in about 40-50 minutes. It was bite after bite as some hits were from smaller fish. I usually land most of my fish in the first 2 days before the water is let out of Parker Dam for the weekenders. After the water is let in, the water rises and flows much faster which makes the river harder to fish. All of my fish were landed with a Shimano Chronarch reel on a 6ft GLoomis GL3 rod (CR722 Medium Fast Action 8-14lb ¼ - 5/8oz). You can feel the bait getting bit and bouncing off the bottom with this rod. Awesome!
The sun gets ready to set after day 1.
The area we camp at happens to change in river bottom contour. From the dock to the trees it’s all rocky so water shoes are a must have. The rocks are mostly small with a few football sized rocks laying around. In front of the rocks lays eel grass patches with access to deeper water. The rocks come up to a flat rocky ridge/point which I stand on in waist deep water. It’s a prime spot as I landed 13 bass in this spot 2 years ago compared to 7 last year. I’ll usually land 7-11 fish in this one spot alone. My brother and a couple of other guys will also catch a few fish in this area. To the left of this area is a huge sandy flat with tons of grass. A spot not recommend for crankbaits as the bait will catch the grass often.
Look how far out I can go because of this point, flat, and rocky ridge.
I need to watch in each direction when casting because boats and waverunners won’t give you any space. They will run over your line. The last thing I wanna do is cast and land a hook into a boat full of people.
The fish can be caught anywhere in the river as it is lined with tons of eel grass. I casted near the center of the river on Friday and was drilled by another 3lb+ bass when the crawdad tube touched bottom. It never jumped until it was near me when it leaped towards me and came off. That was a deep spot lined with tons of grass on a HUGE sandy shallow area. I spent 4 hours fishing it on Friday and landed 2 smallmouth. I must have waded a ½ mile on that area. I fished the same type of structure on Saturday but it was to the left side of our campsite. I didn’t catch anything. The area has the same type of sandy structure but with much more grass. It’s much harder to cast in this area as the grass covers the waters surface and always fouls up the bait. Why wouldn't the fish hide in this stuff? This is another perfect area but hasn't produced much at all (grass) for me these last 8 years.
The presentation used was 2 winds with the reel handle then stop. They don’t really like a bait hopped along the bottom. When the river level rises, the fish get lazy and wait for the bait to come to them. You throw the bait out, let it drift with the current, and you’ll feel 4 taps when a fish hits it. They hit very hard so you shouldn’t miss too many fish on the hookset. The river would be cool to float tube or use a kayak with pedals.
I tend to focus on fishing the river more than anything and everyone. They take the boat out for a drive, tubing, to a cliff about a 30ft high up, and we jump off of it. I haven’t jumped from the cliff in a couple of years tho. It’s a good 4 days of fun!! At night, the majority of the guys go to the floating Roadrunner Bar and get a drink called the Road Rapper for $12.00. It has 7 different types of hard liquor in it. When they come back they are out. You’d be lucky to leave the bar on your feet after drinking one of these. It’s sad to watch the drinks affect on people. I don’t find it funny at all. My brother and a few of the guys had 1 ½ of the drink. They put it in a big cup too so it’s not a mediocre drink.
They all came back to camp after 2:30am and were very loud and wasted. A camper across the way told them to be quiet and words were exchanged. He complained about the noise/incident to the front office in the morning. Later on he then tried making it up to some of the guys by playing mr nice guy. We were approached by a worker on Saturday morning and were asked to leave by 11pm Saturday night. The camper dude cussed at us to be quiet which is why we were able to stay until Sunday. If he would have walked over and was polite about it then it would have been a different story. Who would of had to leave? Not me! I didn't do or say anything. When they go to the bar, I’ll fish the dock for catfish. The catfish like shrimp and it stays on the hook better than hot dogs.
We tend to meet some very interesting people every year. It doesn’t surprise me but they mean no harm to anyone. All they really want is a beer, or many, and to chat with everyone around a campfire. The stories they tell are hilarious. You begin to wonder what kind of mind frame do they have or did the story really happen? We treat them and chat with them like if they were normal people. It’s only fair. They sure make the weekend and time go by faster with so much laughter. This year we had a huge group down the way called Hashers. It’s a group that uses drugs and alcohol and each member has a nickname. A few of the girls came over to our campsite. Most of the girls are of younger age while they hang out with guys over 40. The blonde was a cutie nicknamed High Twattage. She was showing her top half to everyone since she was drunk off her mind. The other lady that came over to visit was named T*ts Of Hoy!! She was 45 and had DDD!!! She didn’t show them but would strike a conversation with anyone. I was already nearly asleep when she came over. High Twattage (Jade from Las Vegas) left her id and credit card in our campsite so we returned it to her.
It was an interesting weekend but still fun. We go to the Bluewater River Resort and Casino each year to watch the baseball playoffs on the big screen. GO ANAHEIM ANGELS! It’s about time they beat Boston. Here are the pics. You can only take so many pics in a desert environment. Enjoy!
Some Colorado River pics.
Most of the bigger smallmouth are out in front of these little palm trees in deeper water outside the eel grass patches. The ridge/point that comes up is to the left about 20ft. River water carrying food bounces off of the ridge/point, into deeper water, and into the eel grass. Perfect spot for feeding bass. Trent caught a small striper last year in front of these palm trees on a frozen anchovie before sundown.
These cloud formation pics were taken a few years ago. This a rare thing to see. Looks like the Rip Curl logo.
Our Campsite and pics of the campground.
The boat and launch ramp.
Can’t forget the tubes. The big one is a sumo tube. This one is a rough ride so I hear and can give ya a headache from bouncing around too much. The flat tube is fun to ride but have gloves on hand to prevent redness and blisters to your hands. We didn’t bring gloves but I’ll assume they’ll help.
Some of the guys in our group. The wives are left at home.
This guy (tweeker) has been growing his dreadlocks for 14 years now. He’s a neighbor of Matt. Matt is in the background and has been with us since 2001. Notice his big beer belly.
Went to Circle K and found this desert tarantula making it’s way to the other side of the parking lot. I picked it up with a twig and put it on the wall so it wouldn't get run over. It got pissed and raised it’s back at us which appeared to have a stinger like a bee. Rick would have picked it up if he was drunk. From asking a resident the bite hurts and kills the tissue but not poisonous to people. Rick had 2 desert scorpions crawl on his forearm and sting him 2 years ago. The reaction on his drunk face was absolutely hilarious. The scorpions were small and not all that poisonous yet.
A bat flying around at night had ran into something and broke it’s wing. We put it back into a tree.
Group picture.
This is a funny sign. Of all places to walk a dog. The park workers don’t really care about walking dogs.
Some videos:
This is me tubing. The boat made a hard turn to try and flip me. I ate sh*t and made 2.5 flips on the water. It was fun but a cool whipout to get on video.
DavidTubin.flv video by BigBass777 - Photobucket
The things the guys do for fun at night. Email me if you want to know what this is. Sort of dangerous but cool to watch from a far distance.
SobeFireball.flv video by BigBass777 - Photobucket SobeFireball1.flv video by BigBass777 - Photobucket
Until next years trip c ya on the water!!
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