Cedar Creek Park offers camping, shuttles, and rentals on the creek and charges a modest $10 for shuttling if you have your own boat. They have access to their own leased launch spot at a small camp on the western bank. The shop there at the park HQ is stocked with a variety of boats - kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards - along with supplies for the trip - bait, food, maps, and a lot of general paddling and RV'ing equipment. I also caught a glimpse of the Etowah River User's Guide, an in depth guide to the Etowah Water Trail by Joe Cook. I've been looking to pick up a copy for a while and was kicking myself on the drive home for forgetting to pick it up before leaving.
The put in spot:
Joining me for this trip were my two younger brothers who were in visiting from Texas. It's been beautiful here for the past few days, but we started the day with cold temps and steady rain.
The rapids that are encountered on this creek are all pretty mild. There are a few Class I sections that can be Class II at high water levels, but all were straightforward and just added a bit of welcome excitement to the paddle. You can see two good examples of the type of "whitewater" that are encountered here on either side of this rock island below.
This time of year, the banks were green and lush all the way to the edge of the water. The land on both side is private the whole way, and well posted too, but even so, the vegetation is so dense that tempting places to stop and get out were few.
Best fish of the day went to my youngest brother who caught a nice redeye bass. True to form, I caught only laughably small bream, but while standing up and paddling in my Guide 119, I caught a glimpse of a monster of a fish in the creek. I think it was a striped bass by the shape, but it was at least 30 inches in length, and would have been too much for any of the fishing setups we brought with us.
One of the longer shoals toward the end of the float.
Alright, so after looking at the pictures, you're right. It's not three pounds. It's only two. But it still beat yours.
ReplyDeleteI know. I just don't have the patience to cast all day and only get a couple hits. I need regular action to stay interested. Bream fishing is more my speed, I'm afraid. That was a nice fish you caught.
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