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I Fished the CRUD out of Hatbill

Map of Hatbill

Last Saturday I decided to put in at Hatbill again for my first solo trip in the new (to me) canoe. I wanted to try a couple of new spots I had not visited by kayak before, primarily the big turns and the T Split upstream of Orange Mound. I have spent a fair amount of time in the section of river downstream of Orange Mound, and feeling relatively confident in running the boat with a buddy, I wanted to do some exploring by myself.

I arrived at Hatbill around 9:00am and was met with a 20-30mph wind… sigh. I quickly loaded up the canoe, and since I was running solo, filled two 30 liter dry bags with water and attached them with carabiners to the lacing at the bow of the boat, and stuffed all the rest of my gear forward as well. This ballast really did a good job of keeping the bow down, offsetting the weight from my big fat butt plus thirty additional pounds of outboard motor. I have a small stool I can use as a “jump seat” to move my weight more towards the center of the boat, but really only needed that in the shallowest of water.

I set off downstream and decided to make my way up to the T Split by way of the secondary Bear Bluff channel. I have never traveled via this channel and was quickly met with shallow water. The initial 1/4 of a mile is so shallow, it required me to pull up the outboard and hop out to pull the canoe with the painter line. Thankfully there was also no sign of alligators in the area, and after a brief walk and a short period of push poling the boat with the paddle, I was able to crank up the motor and make my way upstream.

Bear Bluff Shelter
Bear Bluff Shelter

I arrived at the Bear Bluff Shelter and as I was about to start fishing, I was joined by two airboats that pulled up to the shelter. I decided to yield the spot and head further upstream. While the pool in front of the shelter had decent current at the head and tail, I did not have high hopes for finding shad, figuring the shallow water in the secondary channel had already cut fish off from making their way upstream via this path.

After a short motor, I arrive at the T Split where I found fantastic current at the actual split, and the run upstream of it. I fished both the east and west egress spots of the split and picked up some panfish but no shad. I did work my way up the run a bit, but spotted a couple of gator heads about 50 yards from where I wanted to be, so I decided not to wade any further.

I made my way upstream to the next set of big turns where I found two very nice pools and a nice run between them. Unfortunately with the stiff wind, the current was backed up on the run, making swinging a fly futile. The first pool had a good amount of surface activity just out of comfortable wading reach. Unfortunately I had three very nice sized buddies hanging out closer than I would prefer to wade any further than about knee high. My gut told me there were fish there, but it was not worth a close encounter in the middle of nowhere.

The view from Orange Mound
The view from Orange Mound

At about 12:30 I decided to make the run down to Orange Mound and have some lunch. Along the way, an airboat came up behind me on a very narrow channel, so I pulled over in the shallows and let him pass. The channel was maybe 30 feet wide.

When I arrived at Orange Mound, there was one other airboat on the beach, and after a friendly greeting by them, I landed my boat well downstream to give them some space. While I had not needed my little “jump seat” for the most part, it made a perfect little place to sit up on the midden, and I enjoyed an ice cold beer, a sandwich and some cashews.

Indian River Canoe at Orange Mound

Shortly after finishing my lunch, the airboat took off, so I decided to fish the run and small pool in front of Orange Mound. Again I picked up a few panfish, and about the time I was about to give up and was reeling in line, I saw a swell of maybe 4 or five fish come the surface, one of which took the fly hard and made a fast run straight upstream and then jumped. Unfortunately I lost the fish when it jumped, but it was clearly a nice shad. The experience of multiple fish coming up to surface like that reminded me of fishing upstream of Snowhill Road, where I have seen multiple fish in the clear water peel off from the pod and chase down a fly. With aggressive feeding behavior like that, I expected to catch more fish, but unfortunately after working the area thoroughly at different depths and with different flies, never had another taker.

I made my way downstream towards First Junction by way of the west channel, which I found to be very shallow, even for my boat. Another foot lower on the gauge and I am not sure the outboard will even be worth the trouble around Hatbill. As I approached First Junction, I studied the water for any activity, and after 5-10 minutes of idling, decided to make my way down to the Second Junction by way of the east channel.

Second channel convergence downstream of Hatbill
Just upstream of Second Junction

Upon arriving, I found the run just upsteam of the junction to be high and dry compared to my last visit. I have caught fish from this very spit of land that narrows the channel in to very fast moving current both at the head and tail of the run. I also like the deep pool just upstream of this spot. However today I found no takers on the run, and while I fished it, a skiff landed at the pool and fished there for around 20 minutes. I did not see them catch anything, so I decided not to bother.

I ran back down the east channel to First Junction where again, I fished the area very thoroughly at different depths with different flies and again found not joy and decided to call it a day near 5:00pm. In all, I covered around eight miles, fishing both new as well as familiar spots and all I can say is, it has been a difficult year. While I enjoyed exploring, and now feel completely comfortable running the new boat alone (which is a win,) I would say I am done with Hatbill for the year. The question is, where to next?

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