plumbertom1
01-19-2009, 01:40 PM
My nephew, Beau, came up to my house around 10 AM on Friday and we loaded up my camping gear in my old truck and headed out to Blythe.
He had this new Marlin Mod.# 917 .17HMR rifle that I gave him a scope for and he wanted to try them out.
We got out to the Palo Verde area about 3 PM and cruised around looking for some likely areas for rabbits and for fishing in the outflow ditch.
The water level was about 1-1/2 foot down in the drain, never seen it that low.
Found plenty of fresh bunny tracks in a few places but didn't eyeball any of them.
Drove up to B&B and picked up some Good sized GF for bait then went over to mayflower and set up our tent.
Went back down to the P.V. drain and put some bait out for about three hours with no interest from the fish. Seemed to be a little current but nothing like normal. Gave it up about 11, it was getting pretty cool out even with our little fire so back to camp we went.
5:30 AM and back out in the cold. Drove through Blythe with a stop to get a cuppa and a unscheduled conversation with a Highway Patrol officer due to my muddleheaded driving before I had coffee in me. Fortunately, he was satisfied to just chastise me verbally and didn't give me the ticket that I really deserved.
Out along the base of the mesa west of the Palo Verde Valley we started a foot patrol of an area a couple of miles long.
It seemed to me there was an awful lot of traffic running around out there for this time of year.
Seems I had overlooked the fact that the late season for Quail was in full swing and there were plenty of guys and dogs out trying to get a handful of those Gambols.
Needless to say they had the rabbits so spooked that they were in hiding.
We never got an opportunity to miss one of the little hoppers.
After a few hours of riding around and walking through brush we gave it up for the day and went back to camp.
We tried again late after noon north of our camp but it was pretty much the same thing. Quail hunters driving all the roads with 4x4s and quads running through the brush.
We went back to camp to pick up our bait bucket and have a bite (nothing interesting just canned fare), then went up river along the main canal as far as we could drive to just a few hundred yards below the diversion dam.
We put out our goldfish and after about 45 minutes Beau gets a little run and grabs his pole.
I told him to wait so he stood there holding his rod until it took a couple of more small runs and then when I said okay he set the hook (not a circle hook) and started hollering he got him. He pulled it in and I netted it. It was a small flathead about 5lbs, no monster by any means but it was his first flathead ever.
We waited another couple of hours for another one to come along but it turned out to be fruitless.
We gave another try for the bunnies in the morning and actually saw one run across in front of my truck while I was pulling up to park but that was it.
We went back loaded up our camp and drove home.
He had this new Marlin Mod.# 917 .17HMR rifle that I gave him a scope for and he wanted to try them out.
We got out to the Palo Verde area about 3 PM and cruised around looking for some likely areas for rabbits and for fishing in the outflow ditch.
The water level was about 1-1/2 foot down in the drain, never seen it that low.
Found plenty of fresh bunny tracks in a few places but didn't eyeball any of them.
Drove up to B&B and picked up some Good sized GF for bait then went over to mayflower and set up our tent.
Went back down to the P.V. drain and put some bait out for about three hours with no interest from the fish. Seemed to be a little current but nothing like normal. Gave it up about 11, it was getting pretty cool out even with our little fire so back to camp we went.
5:30 AM and back out in the cold. Drove through Blythe with a stop to get a cuppa and a unscheduled conversation with a Highway Patrol officer due to my muddleheaded driving before I had coffee in me. Fortunately, he was satisfied to just chastise me verbally and didn't give me the ticket that I really deserved.
Out along the base of the mesa west of the Palo Verde Valley we started a foot patrol of an area a couple of miles long.
It seemed to me there was an awful lot of traffic running around out there for this time of year.
Seems I had overlooked the fact that the late season for Quail was in full swing and there were plenty of guys and dogs out trying to get a handful of those Gambols.
Needless to say they had the rabbits so spooked that they were in hiding.
We never got an opportunity to miss one of the little hoppers.
After a few hours of riding around and walking through brush we gave it up for the day and went back to camp.
We tried again late after noon north of our camp but it was pretty much the same thing. Quail hunters driving all the roads with 4x4s and quads running through the brush.
We went back to camp to pick up our bait bucket and have a bite (nothing interesting just canned fare), then went up river along the main canal as far as we could drive to just a few hundred yards below the diversion dam.
We put out our goldfish and after about 45 minutes Beau gets a little run and grabs his pole.
I told him to wait so he stood there holding his rod until it took a couple of more small runs and then when I said okay he set the hook (not a circle hook) and started hollering he got him. He pulled it in and I netted it. It was a small flathead about 5lbs, no monster by any means but it was his first flathead ever.
We waited another couple of hours for another one to come along but it turned out to be fruitless.
We gave another try for the bunnies in the morning and actually saw one run across in front of my truck while I was pulling up to park but that was it.
We went back loaded up our camp and drove home.