check point

boarder checkpoint.

Epic trip down the Devils River!

Off the water at 5 p.m. Our bodies are tired but we are on a mental high after overcoming all that the Devils River could dish out. The river tried its best to break us but could not... Lightening storms, driving monsoon like rains, a golf ball sized hail storm, scorching heat, significant  temperature drops, miles of dragging kayaks through river cane fields, class 3 rapids, challenging  portages, and a night time armadillo raid.  this is not a river for the underprepaired.

We were told that the area has been in the midst of an 18 month drought
.. Even by desert standards. Well that ended when we showed up!

Through all, the team remained focused, overcame every obstical and even managed to catch a few fish in the extream conditions. We "boated" approximately 200 largemouth and smallmouth bass on the trip. Including some real pigs. We caught several smallmouth in the 19 inch rang and a good number of 3-4 pound largemouth. The beast of the trip was a 23 inch largemouth. The cold front conditions played to our  strengths as north east anglers.

We will post day by day accounts of our trip once we compile all the photos and video.

Bar-B-Q in Texas

Last day of real food. Hitting the river in the morning. This means dehydrated backpacking food for the next four days. We enjoyed some great food and beer at Rudy's! Now it is time to role to the ranch where we will launch our journey in the morning.

Process of selecting hard baits for my Devil's River Texas trip

Breakfast in Del Rio

The team enjoying some breakfast before doing final gear checks and packing the kayaks. We hit the river tomorrow.

Selecting Soft Plastics for the trip

We need deer jerky

I'm not sure that I can say more than the images below convey.

stopping for some well deserved grub

Stopped at the "Dog and Pony" for some great burgers and a few beverage.

How many fishing Rods do you need to fish the devils?

As we get closer to our destination, we are starting to think fishing! Pictured are the groups weapons of choice. Of course I'll be wielding  my Temple Fork Outfitters freshwater rods. They are made right here in the great state of Texas and have been one of my long time sponsors.

We are definitely loaded for bear!

We are in Texas baby!

Everything is just cooler in Texas, including road signs! I can hear the 10 pound bass jumping! My Ride 115 is in great shape and ready for action. We still have a few hundred more miles to our goal but we can smell pay dirt!

Crossing the Mississippi river

Well, we just crossed the Mississippi river. Tom "the buginator" is at the wheel. I think we've got at least an inch of bug guts on the windshield. Check out the picture of the bridge crossing below. The blurry photo was not caused by the camera. It was the bug guts on the windshield!

Zen camper driver

Brent is one with the road. He has an uncanny ability to glide effortlessly at unreasonable speeds across the dark Tennessee "highwayscape". Yes, he is focused on the goal... Arkansas then on to Texas.

Pit stop in Knoxville

Eight hours of driving and over 400 miles put us in Knoxville, Tennessee earlier today. We stopped for fuel and food. We also changed drivers. Time for me to get some much needed sleep before my next 8 hour driving shift.

We are a little closer to our ultimate goal.... The Devils River!

Ray's driving like he stole it!

We are almost 4 hours into the trip. It's apparent that Ray was a nascar driver in his past life. He's definitely not speeding but the skill he exudes while weaving in and out of traffic is both exhilarating and horrifying at the same time. Remember, he's driving a camper attached to a trailer carrying my beloved Ride 115! We will likely arrive at Texas in record time.

Preparing for the Devil's River!

Here's a video about this rugged river we are running in the coming week. Can you say REMOTE location!

GoPro mounts from YakAttack

I was editing some GoPro footage I shot last week, and I noticed that my DIY PVC mount was rattling and causing sound problems.  I was in a panic, because I am just a week away from the trip of a lifetime, and I want the best footage possible.  Juan and Brent have always spoken highly of YakAttack products, so I called them today and spoke to Luther.  We talked a bit about what I was trying to accomplish, and I ended up ordering a Panfish mount, a Panfish Portrait mount, and a Dogbone kit.  Very helpful, very friendly, and I can't wait to try them out!  Best of all he said they would get them out in plenty of time for me to rig them up for my trip!

Tackle Pare Down and Organization

It's only two weeks until we launch on the Devils, so I decided to get serious about selecting my tackle. It is much harder than I realized to pack for 4 straight days on unfamiliar water while keeping weight to an absolute minimum. My goal is to pare it all down until everything fits in the 4 waterproof Plano's at the top left of the photo.

I spread everything I would usually bring for river smallmouths out on my floor, and then added some stuff for the largemouths that are supposed to be in the slack water areas. I ended up with a bunch of topwaters, some War Eagle Finesse Spinnerbaits, and a variety of soft plastics, including Flukes, Senkos, and Little Tubes. Not pictured are the Finesse Jig kits I just ordered from Jeff Little at Confidence Baits. I'm going to pack as much as I can into my Planos and hope for the best! Next step; pick out 2 or 3 rod/reel/line combos to present all these baits.

A trip to Cabela's

I was at Cabela's this weekend an picked up a few things for the Devil's River trip. Of course I had to get my favorite Mountain House dehydrated food! Yes, I even eat the stuff at home some times just because I like it so darn much! I also picked up a new self inflating pad to sleep on. Due to private land and natural areas, all of our camping will need to be on bedrock islands smack dab in the middle of the river! Just over a month to till we depart from Virginia on our way to the desert!