Life With Buddy, a Continuing Saga 05/31/08 - Photo Essay: Rocky Ford and Birding

05/30/08
   Today we resume where we left off on our trip down the river channel, several miles below the dam, to an area called Rocky Ford. This is what is left of an early 1900s electric power plant, and it's legacy is somewhat surprising, in that it could hardly have been a better fisherman's dream. Well, except for snaggage. If you fish here, you can expect to sacrifice a variable yearly tackle offering to the rock Gods, that compose the river bottom here. Placed there to prevent the falls from washing things out entirely, I assume. I can remember though, my dad fighting something really big here, when I was just a kid, for over two hours, and then losing it when it wrapped his line around the rocks. It didn't expose itself for us, but I have since seen more than a few Flatheads, Yellows, Blues and Channel cats pulled up from these depths, each possibly guilty of being the monster that just plain whupped dad. He was a big man ( six foot four), at the time, in pretty good shape, and I can remember wondering at how exhausted he was. He was truly all in.

   That experience fueled the fishing fantasy fires, in my young mind, I can tell you. I have also seen some fine walleye, crappie, and bass, of various types, taken here. You can, as well, meet Mr. Paddle Fish, a prehistoric looking (because he is) fellow that has only a snagging season in Kansas, because they only filter water for the river equivalent of plankton. They don't bite on any bait that I know of, but you can view them here, often. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the huge river gar, prehistoric looking (again, because they are) and totally inedible, that lurk close enough to the surface to be seen here in the backwash pools in large numbers, at times, and would scare the bejeesus out of anybody, though I've never heard of them biting anything non-aquatic.

   This is the power plant falls, the thing that makes this big fish central. They can find themselves a nice comfy boulder, downstream a ways, to shield themselves from the current, and grab the stunned victims of falls induced heavy handed landings, as they wash by. It's sort of a Pizza Hut delivery system for big fish, really, lol.



   In my father's fishing days, we would access this place from the other side, but some jerk who shall remain nameless, bought the land over there, and made it off limits to the public. Luckily for us, and probably to the jerks immense consternation, the state managed to finagle access to this side, for public use. Sometimes there is justice in the universe, and the jerk's ying seems to have gotten bitten by his yang, lol.
 
   As I said, there is an old cement walkway wall that separates the channel from these backwash ponds. I probably wouldn't consider walking out on it when they are releasing the amount of water they are right now, though. As you can see, the water is washing over it in places, but while we were there, a few stout souls did just that. More than one fisherman has drowned here when the flow was less intimidating, walking out on the slab at the bottom of the falls, too. It is possible, at low dam output rates, to walk clear across the river on that slab. I never have, and I don't advise it, but I have watched the brave and the stupid chance it, many, many times. No fish is that important to me.



Backing off a ways, we find a few optimistic folks. Fishing at midday, even here, isn't usually that productive. This photo shows that wall well, and the difference between the rage of the river channel, and the relative calm of the backwash areas. It is at holes in that wall that we have observed the huge paddle fish taking advantage of the chance to just sit in one spot, and let these hole water jets bring the microscopic fare they ingest, to them. To the left of this shot, is a long spit of land that separates one pool from another. There is water behind me here, as well.



At the end of that finger of land, you can look out at the merging of river and pond areas, to an island, of sorts, that seems to attract all the large aquatic bird species, but today there is only one, and he/she seems to hardly belong in the middle of Kansas, can you see him/her?



That's some kind of hump nosed pelican, I need to look him up in Mary's book she gave me, if I can find it, lol. I was aware that many gulf pelicans overfly Kansas while migrating, and while living in Alliance, Nebraska, I ran into a small lake in the Sand Hills that had hundreds of migrating pelicans on it once. A lot smaller guys than this, and not as funny looking, either. We are beginning to think these guys are here for the duration, though, and plan on raising a family. I hope if they do, to get pics of the younguns. His or her mate, it seems, was out on the pondage, here.





Though pretty ungainly looking, sitting on the water, in flight, they take on much more graceful ways.



Although not good of the pelican, I stuck this one in because of the beautiful backdrop.



And this I blew up a little for a better view.



Other than these guys, this area is a haven for a Canadian goose posse, that lives here year round, as well. Noisy bat turds. This shot is at the end of that spit of land that separates the two pond areas with a little flow between the two making an island of the goose habitat.



While I was taking the goose picture, some movement to my right caught my eye, and I found this fellow had landed without me seeing him. Guess who's coming to dinner?


Yup, it's one of our friends, the Blue Heron posse. I got several good shots of this guy, and here's two of them.




Now while I was taking these, I didn't have a clue, but another movement caught my eye. The camera's zoom was at the infinity level, and clear across the river, well, this next shot may look like I cut this guy's head off, but look close in the center, and you'll see another one, on the other bank, in the shade of the trees.


Two for one, and if you look back up at the other two pictures, he's evident to the left of the big boy. These are some of the best shots I've ever gotten of these guys, and I'm proud to share them with you. If you see them from a distance, they just look gray, but here it's obvious why they call them blue, isn't it?

Walking back down the spit, there are a lot of dead fish that come to rest in the backwash, brained by the falls, etc., and they explain a lot of why this area attracts the big cats, but since I mentioned them earlier, I thought I'd take a picture or two of one of the gars I told you about, if you've never seen them. This is a little guy, so imagine him about five times bigger, or more.



and then take a look at the choppers on this guy, and you'll know why they're scary, even if they aren't people predators. They have a snout full of rippage and tearage that I prefer not to entertain, myself. When I catch one, by mistake, it's cut the line time.



 Well, that power plant is kind of industrial looking, even if you take into account the falls. A few of these shots reveal some of the surrounding natural beauty, but I couldn't resist throwing in a shot of the backwash pond banks, up where they meet the river. That's a lot of green, and it's a real restful thing to come out here and just get away from it all for a while, plus, the Budster is in seventh heaven here. I didn't take any shots of him, he was off with Grandma, away from the water. It isn't as big a Buddy draw as it is for ol' dad, I guess, but the sniffage around here is pretty damn good, I think, from his tired expressions later.



Thanks for taking the time to look at Kansas, from our perspective. Tomorrow, I may go on to a state lake near my home, that has more Buddy shots in it, but after these shots, it might be anti-climatic. Then again, maybe not. I also have some shots of Grandma's yard and flowerage I need to show you, sometime. She's always had one of the greenest thumbs I know. Well, whatever we do, right now I'm going to say, Till next time, Ron & Buddy.



Link to updated Ron & Buddy materials. They're all in here, from the beginning, sagas, poems, etc. All about the Budster, in many varied and interesting reflections... or whatever they're calling rants, in polite circles, these days.

Link to all poetry by Ron W. on Gather

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