Monday, October 20 - We left Whitetail Ridge at 9:53 AM and arrived at Cotton Hill at 12:41 after driving 141.5 miles. We got the same site we had in June and got set up in beautiful, sunny, cool weather. We fly fished for awhile and caught a few bluegills. After dinner we got our showers, then fished for awhile until dark. John had one on that he lost and Joan had one take a good swipe at the mouse patterns that John tied.
Tuesday, October 21 – It was another cool one last night, probably the coolest yet, but we stayed nice and warm, even without the heater. We got up early and Joan took laundry over to the laundry room while John made coffee. After pancake breakfast, we took a nice bike ride around the campground and sat over by the beach for awhile. We enjoyed the warm sunshine there. After our crock-pot, BBQ pork dinner (yum!) we took the kayaks out and fished for awhile before dark. John caught a 2 pound catfish on a fucia-tailed fly he tied. It took a long time to land it on the 4wt fly rod. After our experience with the muddy catfish back in June, we decided to let him go. (4 pictures added)
Wednesday, October 22 – Joan brought the camera and John brought the fly rod on our coffee walk down to the far end of the campground along the water. No catches. After breakfast, we packed up our fly rods and bags in back packs and biked over to the beach area by Pine Island and fished there. Nothing hitting. After dinner, we drove over to Sandy Branch Day Use Area and fished for awhile. Nothing. We came back to our area and fished along the bank and Joan caught two nice bluegills. John got a good hit on a topwater, but didn’t connect.
Thursday, October 23 – We did a lot of walking today around the campground and enjoyed the cool fall air. We talked to a couple of locals and got fishing tips. John needs to tie cricket flies. We fished a little and caught very little. We had a visitor a few feet from our camper. John looked him up and thinks it was a juvenile red-shouldered hawk that was digging in the pine straw litter looking for insects. Joan tried to take his picture, but the beeping of the camera alerted him and he flew off. It began raining about 4PM and is supposed to rain all night and all day tomorrow. (updated)
Friday, October 24 – We got rain all through the night that amounted to about two inches. However, we stayed nice and dry inside. It is supposed to end this afternoon and clear up overnight. (5 pictures added) (update) We drove into Ft. Gaines to gas up and fill up our tummies too. We had hamburgers at the Big Bad Wolf Saloon – hamburgers were great, fries not so good. We stopped at the East Bank Recreation Area and fished for awhile and each caught a nice bluegill. Not much action otherwise. It started to rain again about 5PM, which was not predicted. Hopefully, it will still clear off tomorrow.
Saturday, October 25 – We woke up this morning to sunshine, so we hung up rain jackets and tarps that covered the kayaks and firewood to get them dry. We cleaned the camper then took a coffee walk. We didn’t get very far, because we found people to talk to. She was fishing, but not doing much catching. After dinner, we launched the kayaks for a little fishing ourselves. We used our heavier rods and put on Clouser Minnow flies that John tied. About sundown, John connected with a couple of small bass. One was really small, but the other respectable, but not keeper sized (14”). While we were fishing we saw a shape against the bank that looked like a gator, but the head seemed way too big. John’s curiosity got the better of him, so he got a little closer (about 300 yards) to see, and the head disappeared beneath the water. This is one big gator. Discretion took over and we decided to fish somewhere else.
Sunday, October 26 – We went to church service here at the campground which was conducted by Ft. Gaines Baptist Church again. There were two other couples there as well as the two men from the church. It was a nice service with a good message about patience. We got things ready to leave tomorrow including taking everything out of the truck because we had a slight leak from the sun roof that got things damp. John cleaned the tracks on the roof so it would seal better (we hope.) We fished in the early evening, but not even a hit. We are hoping for better fishing at Lake Seminole.
View Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnjoanW/CottonHillCorpsOfEngineersCampgroundFtGainesFLOctober20272008
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