First trip down Watauga for August (and short review for Berkley Gulp Baits)

It's been a while since Jordan and I have had a chance to get onto the water.  Due to some car trouble we have lost our vehicle we use to transport the kayaks to and from the river so it's been hard getting trips arranged.  We did manage to get out this past weekend for a short trip.

Jordan invited his friend Chris along for the trip and we let him use the Vertex Flex kayak.  Unfortunately though the kayak suffered a spill while in transit earlier this summer and sustained about a 2 inch gash right along the keel in the very aft part of the kayak.  I thought I had gotten it sealed well enough but after only a few minutes on the water it was apparent that the boat was taking on a good bit of water.  Our ride had already left us so we decided to head on down river and make the best of it.

Jordan being the good friend let Chris use his Kayak instead of the leaking one.  We tried fishing as much as we could however with the amount of water Jordan's kayak was taking on we were having to stop quite often to drain it.

We made the best of it as we could and caught some nice trout on the day.  Jordan was absolutely tearing up the trout while using the Berkley Gulp Baits we had decided to try out.  Even though he spent more time wading the shallows while his kayak was draining than he did actually floating the river he was catching trout left and right.

At our first normal stop where we have caught some nice trout in the past, Jordan managed to land three respectable trout.  I hooked what looked like would have been one of our largest browns on the year but lost it before being able to land it.  I did land several average sized trout.

Jordan was extremely hot though and he continued to out pace me all morning.  We continued on down river, having to stop quite often for Jordan to drain the water from his kayak.  We decided that once we reached the point where Stoney Creek and Watauga River converge we would call in the cavalry and make our retreat from the river.  With several deeper, long stretches down river from that spot we did not want to risk Jordan having to test his kayak's float bladder.

Once at Stoney Creek we made the necessary phone calls, ate our lunch and got back to some fishing while waiting on our ride.  We both caught several average trout from the area and our two largest trout on the day.  Jordan's trout is the one pictured at the top of this post.

Although we had to cut our day short I was very pleased with how the Berkley Gulp Bait performed.  We normally only catch one or two trout the size of the ones we caught this day.  We wound up with a total of five respectable trout.  I am confident that had we been able to continue on down river we would have had much better success.  I am normally a little hesitant to put out my hard earned money on baits and lures that may or may not produce but was very pleased with how these worked out for us.  We had two different colors with us, Smelt and Watermelon, and I plan to pick up some other patterns in the near future.

The Berkley Gulp Bait is definitely a welcomed addition to our tackle boxes.

Here is the track for our trip.

Siam Bridge To Stoney Creek