Conquering the DEVILS RIVER - An Original Film

[Music] so foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] dad [Music] we get to just got finished unpacking and stuff and then we're gonna pack it again and then we're gonna unpack it with all kinds of packing unpacking welcome back to the packing tour well so it begins right here is the zero mile mark to our 30 mile journey down the legendary devils river one of texas's last pretty much hidden bass fishing gems it's a place i've wanted to fish for many years now i've never gotten the chance to do it but thanks to brian a few of his buddies finn and steven we've been able to tag along with them and film a pretty serious little mini series for you guys i don't know what to expect basically what what you're going to see is alex and i living out of these here kayaks for legitimately four days and four nights the game plan is this we're gonna launch right here which is at baker's crossing and make our way down all the way at the pickup point we've got a pretty decent amount of time to cover as much water as possible catch as many fish as we possibly can and film this epic little mini series for you guys so um without further ado let's get in this kayak and do some floating i'm a little nervous [Music] this is it uh for those of you guys who don't know we are like literally a few miles away from the texas mexico border so well this is a fun trip and it's gonna be awesome for you guys to watch us you know catch some fish we do have to be on our our best behavior and up on our guard because i mean it's just it can get a little sketchy right here but first and foremost let's focus on fishing and getting down the river because we've got a hefty journey out of us like a hefty journey you ready alex let's go let's get some of that bread wow first like 30 yards there's an obstacle you guys are really in a jam eh what time is it it's pad thai right now not pad time but pad thai because we got some pads coming off i didn't know this but apparently the devil's is full of some grass and our first little spot here just like 400 miles now 400 yards down or some pads so let's do some frogging no idea see i always knew the devil's server was being this big rocky clearwater gorge but this immediately has got my attention pads how can i not fish this let's start off with the frog i didn't think the first lure i'd throw here at devil's ear would be a frog but we're gonna make it work well i'm a little overwhelmed right now this is just like it's a lot to take in i've never fished anything that looks like this before oh i'm on a rock oh i'm turning oh where am i going oh okay i'm spinning but seriously i've never fished a creek or river that looks anything like what i'm witnessing right now it's just it's dense i guess that's the word for it's just dense there's so much grass underneath the water above the waters pads the water's clear it's got kind of a blue tint to it but it's like still very clear it's fast moving it's like definitely a fast-moving river supposedly it's got good smallmouth too which is contingent with this water flowage but yeah navigating this thing is kind of difficult i can't imagine what it's like when the water's super low supposedly the water's pretty high right now oh there we go there we go nice oh man this looks dirty why am i not fishing right now i'm just like in awe [Music] there we go yeah sure whoops that could have been bad dwink this is a pretty important fish this is my first ever devil's river largemouth on the frog too in the pads it's so funny i didn't know homework on this place i had no idea what to expect when i came here and saw pads i was like super surprised nice little archie it's getting back in the water wow okay first victim was on the black frog probably the most badass bit you can throw in the summertime thing is is we're in southern texas so it's like pretty much summer down here whereas north texas these fish are you know still spawning a little bit of post bondage here and there but down here it's hot like the pads are green and thick everything is lush so i'm having to think as if i'm fishing in the summertime um one of my go-to summer baits this is a topwater frog this is a hollow belly frog it's got some good meaty hooks just in the color black because black contrasts really well with the blue sky when that fish is looking up at the bait so um yeah i'm just gonna work the rest of these pads i've got maybe like 100 yards left maybe 75 yards until i hit the next riffle and then we're going to do some more coasting i'm just pitching to these little pockets in the pad and let's re-eight that was so cool man so we've traveled maybe a quarter mile half mile caught one fish trying to figure this place out it's an interesting body water i will say that all right let's keep growing you don't want it all right i'll try it i'll give her okay so right in front of him i don't know if you guys can see that but right there is uh finn and steven and uh they're the ones doing the whole fly fishing deal they just point out a fish on a bed and they just i guess i didn't want it or couldn't get it since they're using different tactics so they pointed me over to this fish that's really spawning this fish is funny right on top of a log this is really sick i can just barely see him this water's clear but it's pretty chalky he's about a one pounder let's see if we'll eat the bandito bug oh did he just eat that there we go yup he ate that that was really sick so i guess that answered the question these fish are still spawning right now he may be a late spawner late bloomer but at the very least it's cool to know where these fish are at in the timeline of uh of spring wow he really hammered that thing nice that was so cool second fish of the day it's so weird catching spawning fish and rivers like this because they spawn in like really like particular areas like that fish is spawning on a log like not even on a gravel bed or a sand bed like right on top of a log and you can pretty much guarantee no one has caught this fish before especially in the devils where like this place gets seldom fished wow good stuff back she goes oh give me a little wave goodbye just a little tip for you guys if you're going on a trip like this um you can only pack like so much gear i would say total on my tech i've got anywhere from 40 to 50 pounds of stuff and i'm like fully loaded down um you know i'm really limited to what i can bring i've got enough food for four days i got enough you know fishing gear enough camera gear but one thing that weighs a ton is obviously water i didn't pack any water this trip all i did was i packed a few little filtration system doohickey dangle things or whatever you want to call them and that's all i'm drinking but i figured this would be kind of a good moment to hmm oh my god i'm so sorry that was so good i haven't had to drop water all day um i think this would be kind of a nice moment to talk about what i think of the devil so far i have no idea how long we've floated but it's been a good bit it's an interesting river it definitely exceeds my expectations there's big rock there's tons of current the water's clear there's grass there's reeds there's small there's largemouth it's like everything a bass angler could ask for um i am still figuring this out though i've only caught two fish so i'm very much i'm like on the lower end of the totem pole as far as learning this uh this body of water out but i am getting close the two baits i've caught fish on one of which is a bandito bug and then the other one is just like a frog so slowly but surely we're finding some fish it sounds like the dudes that are with us are fly fishing have caught some good smallmouth too but we're just making the rounds i will say i think these fish are definitely relating towards grass any sort of wood there's not a whole lot of lay downs in this river so if you can find a lay down you're in the you're in the zone you're in the money ticket area this is the best tasting water ever like hands down man oh oh there we go yeah that's what's up no she pulled off damn it what do you got to say about that can you blur this out yeah i can blur perfect that's what i have to say about that oh that was a dude as soon as it hit the water yeah it was a four pounder all day how did he come unbuttoned man that was a good fish i think i'm cursed oh there he is there he is that was too freaking sick man that was too sick come here come here come here come here wow that was dude i wish you had the perspective that i just had holy smokes that was the sickest freaking eat i've had all year the perspective that you guys probably had with that whole ordeal that fish coming up and eating the frog was probably insane that got my heart racing it has been it has been quite a tough little journey figure on the devils river it's probably one of the most unique river systems i've ever fished and i'm enjoying it don't get me wrong but it is difficult there's just so much to fish everything looks good it's like you want to take a cast at every single tree every single rock because it all looks like it could hold a fish but what alex and i are slowly figuring out right now is these fish are actually super super shallow a lot shallower than i would normally think like fishing a lake like these fish are putting themselves in what do you say inches probably like we were he was spooking some like filming me that were in inches he gave me the memo he's like dude i'm seeing some like good fish like in six inches of water so since he said that i've been on this this this pattern this program of taking the frog just a little black frog and pitching under these canopies these trees and working it really fast and it just gets them fired up like they feel so comfortable and they just they you know it's like an instinct thing that's probably close to a three pound devil's river largemouth my first my biggest one of the trip so far i'm thinking will probably break this guy but uh with it being the first day we're just kind of getting into the swing of things such a beautiful fish they look a lot different here down way south in texas these fish are just so pretty wow get a load of that that's what i'm talking about there he goes oh my gosh dude that water is incredible he's gone this is what makes the devil's river so badass you get to see your fish swim away um and the other cool thing in my opinion is you're up and close with this fish the battle is like very tight corners it's not like you make this big long cast hook up with a fish or in a giant bass boat it's like that fish literally pulled my boat you feel every ounce and energy of the largemouth or smallmouth when you hook up in the server yeah we've yet to catch a small you have to pass through small but i think what alex is saying is they're more down that way cool figuring out a pattern that's always a good feeling to like consistently get some bites and slowly start to take a step further to getting some beggins i'm thinking we we could get into some fish there's plenty more of these uh these low-hanging trees left to fish oh i felt so good man put her there boom devils river 2019 let's get him this looks like that would happen so there's a waterfall over here well i've got absolutely no idea where i'm at right now uh i think alex is behind me at least i hope he is uh but i was just fishing a little a little ditch and all of a sudden i ended up in this just kind of like a tiny little creek it's it's weird i don't i don't know if i'm lost or i don't know if it's like another section of the river but i'm just gonna keep going down i'm literally like by myself right now i've got no idea where anyone's at all right on the bright side i think it's going to get a little bit fishier as we go down this running water will probably push up a bunch of bait get those fish feeding which will look really good for the frog and some bait action wow this is not fun this is this is not fun molly hell yeah my first devil's river smallmouth it's hoping maybe for a little bit bigger one but i'm not picky she'll do this actually might be my first ever smallmouth of the year on a bandito bug it's pretty huge see dude no he hammered that oh my gosh that was ridiculous that was just ridiculous that was just the dumbest thing i think that's ever happened oh my gosh dude i missed the cast i was trying to get up under the tree and as soon as this thing hit the water i guess this is what this place is all about there you have it the frog pattern continues it's really really fun to get them on this frog could they be eating something else a little bit better probably but it's just a blast to get like you know two and three pounders in skinny clear water on a top water frog check them out that was just the dumbest catch i don't even deserve this fish all right i'm gonna get released that's what i get that was an aggressive fish i wish every fish i would cast at would eat it like that so if you don't know by now that was that wasn't supposed to happen i was trying to get under the tree i missed but i still got a pity catch so looking good alex is just shaking his head so am i that was dope [Music] [Music] so oh yeah came back the second time that was so dope there we go just got another one pretty unreal that's four bites in a row i don't know if it's a pm deal i don't know if it's like an afternoon deal but these fish are super fired up i've gotten four bites like dressed in this freaking area he hammered it too my god did he want it hell yeah there we go yes sir that is going to be the conclusion for day number one on the devils river such an interesting fish they look way different than any large mouth that i've ever caught they got real long heads mean attitudes and they're full of spunk how about that not a bad start to our big journey um let's just get the kayaks back on some land and talk about the rest of this trip because this is just the beginning like we are about to get into some serious some mega sauce i'm excited to bring you guys along with it well guys welcome to my new home i sold my house in fort worth and living on the devils river now coolest part about this trip is when you're done fishing you take two steps from the water to the land and this is where you sleep you get to wake up on the river fall asleep on the river you're living on the river it's river life um so these guys are going to be camping with us uh finn and steven and we're just gonna make a nice little spot the crazy thing the difficult part about fishing here devils is not only do you have to be like really cognitive not making fires not littering but you also have to watch out for areas where you can and cannot go pretty much like 99 of this land that surrounds the river is completely private so it's um it's no-go zone you don't want to be trespassing on land here in texas because people have big guns so you have to either look for islands or designated camping zones uh set up by texas parks and wildlife we found a nice little island here which is totally public this is technically the riverbed so this we're going to be sleeping tonight and yeah just join us as we continue the the way of the river life what a good day of fishing though we crank some good ones what do you think yeah not too shabby for a day one and a fresh start in southern texas feeling good um so we can make campfires out here which means no hot dogs and s'mores but we got bagged food we got some southwest chicken with rice we're sorry southwest style chicken with rice today the thunder yeah a little front moving in nice heli i hope we sleep with some rain anyway let's focus on one thing at a time oatmeal uh you basically don't have to use any sort of heating element you just put a little bit of water in there which almost seems like it would be the opposite you put water in there and it cooks within the bag so this is going to be interesting by the way this isn't a product promotion i just i just like showing you guys the stupid thing i do on the river heating instructions oh there's there's instructions inside of the instructions okay oh here's my meal oh looks good looks real good i can't wait to chow down on some of this okay so what do i do with this oatmeal open heating element place in bag with food pouch i don't put it in here right so i open this up stop me if i'm doing any of this wrong because i i need this food okay boom that looks like a hand warmer yep oh okay then what tear open heating element put it in there then put the bag in there yup yup okay i'm not even i just know this i've done this before add three to five ounces of honey lick any liquid so can i pee in this case so i had water and then i let it steam for three to five minutes just real life more than enough give it a little bit more all right that's probably good all right so then i close it and i wait you wait what the hell no matches no firewood no charcoal required that's crazy oatmeal you guys should sponsor us because like this is sick i would eat oatmeal just to my house it's like the easiest way to cook food so it's gonna get hot oh is this for real oh it's getting hot all right this is crazy yo that happened way quicker than i thought okay it's not going to melt through the guy okay no no okay that's pretty sick man oh while we're waiting on that meal to cook itself i'm gonna re-rig up some setups honestly i was feeling really crummy last night i think i got sick for some reason come down here some sort of allergy in southern texas got me feeling some type of way and i woke up with a gnarly sore throat so i really didn't have time to like get dialed usually for these big fishing trips i spent like five hours getting my stuff ready but i really lacked because i was feeling under the weather but right now i've got a few hours before sunsets uh to go over some gear i'm thinking since today was very much oriented around a little jimmy crack corn over here caught a ton of fish on top water i'm gonna try to switch things up i think what i'm going to do tomorrow opposed to topwater is i'm going to throw some finesse and i'm going to go back to one of my big baits big swim baits one of my favorite big baits this being a little depth i've had this since i was just a whippersnapper but yeah that's what we're looking at so i'm getting the spinning reel dialed in and then the casting is good to go the frog mvp for today just remember that tomorrow's gonna be a whole nother scenario though completely different video we're fishing new stuff new tactics getting after it on the devils first i gotta pull some lineup though well today's afternoon festivities were cut short due to some unexpected rain it wasn't supposed to rain of course it wasn't supposed to rain but it rains um so i'm in a little tiny wall this dude these tents are tiny i'm not a little tiny walmart tent right now check it out what's up welcome back to mtv cribs got the kitchen um over here is the foyer and i think somewhere around here is the spiral staircase i can't find it right now but yeah it's uh i think it's like only i don't know it's not even that late it's like 7 or 8 p.m and the rain just shut everything down so i think this is that i'm gonna say good night and farewell to you guys catch you in the morning if you can even hear me with all these raindrops but uh yeah stick with it hopefully episode two is gonna be a little bit drier hopefully full of some bigger fish we wreck them part of the grind [Music] so [Music] there's like legit chunks of biscuit in [Music] there is this like not the best place to fall asleep at night regardless of the storm uh that decided to roll in as soon as we land on this island i had a pretty good night's sleep i slept for about five hours woke up slept for another two woke up look at the two i'm feeling recharged especially a little bit of free range in my system but yeah day number two morning number two we've just officially gotten almost packed up completely but we're going to start our day out on the devils what do you got to cover like 10 miles today boys yikes so to give you some perspective yesterday we did like a measly four and a half mile paddle today we've got to do a total of time which may not seem like much but in a little 12-foot kayak it's it's a lot of work so like i said in the previous video we're also going to dabble in between finesse fishing and big bait fishing so we should see some pretty amazing reaction strikes today hoping to get some bigger fish yesterday my biggest is three pounds so i'm setting myself up to potentially break that the goal is just to keep improving upon the next day with each moment um each morning that we wake up but gonna reminisce on some good frog eats from last night over this cup of joe and we'll catch you guys on the drink oh that's good [Music] this looks hairy stay calm nice oh yeah this looks really hairy wow getting started off right in the morning folks this is what i'm talking about oh yeah just doing a little bump and grinding wow first thing in the morning we've already got an obstacle that was fun there's one oh i had him i had one dang it what is going on here there's some fish in this little current area there he is oh i freaking had another one what is going on here man i can't get him to freaking commit dude do i had a freaking big one follow me all the way up to my kayak like a three four pound small mouth yeah like a good one i'm going to take my time over here i saw some big fish in that pool where i was like stop yeah right at right at right where it dumps into the riffles there was like four of them head on in the current like really fast stuff and i had one just like swoop in and follow my jerkbait it was so sick bro this wind is tough though man okay let's get moving damn well there you have it oh there we go oh he came off big one big one big one that was not a small fish oh my god i should have waited i did not wait for that fish to really eat it wow on the freaking frog i said i wasn't gonna throw it today but my god this looks too good for the frog that was not a tiny one at all right there eat it eat it i knew it i knew it i knew it nice little fatty on the frog gotta get started with something here build up some momentum but still pretty early in the morning so i'll take this little look how fat you are have you've been eating too much ancho mama pancakes you need to switch them kodiak cakes on okay day two getting started off right [Music] check it out fish number two there we go there we go hell yeah off he is [Music] [Music] i actually caught that guy i'd put down the frog can you freaking believe it i stopped on the frog for just a few minutes and picked up a little prototype swim bait that the google squad's working on right now and now came a nice two-pop game am i in frame is this working yeah hell yeah nice one good fish oh wow he's been caught before that's crazy i bet that's rare to see that on this river he has got a little hook mark in his mouth [Music] boom swim bait action so today is a lot different day in case you haven't noticed for one it's blowing 45 mile per hour winds right at my butthole i mean the filming is tough the fishing's tough this kayak i'd be better off in a sailboat honestly it's just really hard to maintain position not complaining but i'm just kind of going over the process as to how we're catching these fish today it's very difficult so with it being windy you have only pretty much two options one of which is to find slack water slow things down throw a jig throw that frog and just kind of really find specific areas in which you can take time to catch fish or you could stick it out in the wind like i just did there and throw moving baits i caught that on a little under spin with a three and three quarter inch swim bait the google baits is working on right now it's still in the prototype process but obviously as you guys just saw it works so i might bounce between those two i mean the thing is the devil's river is just a long straight shot there's no curves or anything there's no there's no there's no getting out of the wind essentially so you're pretty much uh screwed and it's a gomp show at all times um but yeah perfect example i might kind of transition away from that frog bite and just slow roll some spinner baits and crankbaits uh yeah i gotta kind of roll with the punches here all right should we keep going yeah let's keep oh i'm thick in the weeds cast beautiful cavs [Music] that was sick that was so cool i watched that fish eat so unreal so unreal god this place is majestic [Music] let's go are you joking wow that was the definition of unexpected and i guess that's what this fishery is all about i was just taking like a little thumbnail shot like with my gopro and i made one pitch before pressing the record button but i went right into this bush and out comes this here beautiful southern texas smallmouth it's so weird growing up in illinois and finding these guys all over minnesota canada illinois wisconsin but then to come basically on the border of mexico and texas and still find them they're just as fun down here as they are up north wow big beautiful small definitely one of my bigger ones of the trip cha-ching let's go holy moly oh she's popping her colors too she's really really really getting riled up there she goes wow whoa that small gave me a soggy sleeve we actually uh pulled onto the side of the bank to release that guy because i really like getting the water with some of those bigger fish um i've caught like plenty of big small in my lifetime but there is something about these current fish these these small that are hanging out in creeks and rivers that is just like it just it makes everything so intense like my heart is pounding right now one of the reasons why these fish are so special too is they have a really amazing knack of making themselves seem like completely invisible or very tiny i was just kind of taking a a random cast and that fish i don't even know where it came from it came out of nowhere literally thin air came out and just smoked a little prototype swim bait first good one of the trip i think we'll probably get some more just got to keep doing that swim bait there's another little smiley right there what are you doing guy hey guy what are you doing guy hey i caught your big mama okay we're good wow holy snap holy did snap guys see this oh my gosh this is incredible well it is legit too windy to paddle out here on the river like straight white capping on the devils right now and make matters even worse i've got to drag my kayak because i can't even like move with the paddles through the thickest mud we've encountered this entire trip like i thought this place was all rock meanwhile i am dredging through about a foot of silt in nasty mud this is not fun really not enjoying oh there goes my flip flop no what's going on here we got problems this is crazy though it's like 40 miles per hour here it's just cooking just straight cooking oh my gosh what the hell this really sucks oh this looks good too and i want to fish it but i mean as soon as i pick up my rod and drop the paddles i get blown halfway across the river this is wild man the devils is putting it on us feeling the burn right now well the good news is we've made it how many yards in it that was almost like 300 yards yeah we legitimately walked our kayaks 300 yards through and behind us literally so much silt and mud and that wouldn't mean much only for the fact that devil's river is like 99 all rock but we had the one spot to portage through all of the nastiness like it was up to my knees that's how much weather was but we're getting to some riffles over here which which this should be good you know we could just kind of coast down from here we got a couple other guys behind us in a float tube oh there they are see them oh they're doing fine they're doing much better than i thought oh wow they had it easy we got it rough okay mission successful we made it through the windy strip my face hurts god damn all right here we go steps that was definitely the the dodgiest run that we've had it's not that crazy of a uh of a rapid to go down but in these big kayaks that have like little to no steering it's a little bit odd it's a little bit funky but we made it yeah nice job air pump bang bang okay maybe we can fish now sheesh oh come on now there is yes sir just knew that looked good look at him down there fighting giving him giving it all he's got oh my gosh these small just don't quit give up i think there might have been more because i was getting pecked like multiple times there we go small number three these fish are so fat not like very long but they're just thick all throughout the tail gives them all that power i imagine it's not even like actual blubber it's just muscle because they're fighting this current since they've been a little little tiny fry really pretty fish too i didn't think they looked this pretty but that is just a gorgeous smallmouth but she goes sick we're not getting a ton of fish but the pools that we are fishing are producing um it's tough like i said to just kind of combat this wind but once we get an area where it's just calm and it's chill and we can just make a cast we are getting bites yet another bite on the under spin swim bait very nice very very nice but there's another one under there too let's just see oh my gosh that was so cool that was so cool good smallmouth good smallie good smallie good smallie good smallie oh my goodness okay okay relax we're good we're good we're good we're good good smallie that guy i watched him eat it i like watch him come right up to the kayak and just clobber it come here come here this might be the biggest moment of the day oh my gosh this prototype swim bait is just killing them oh my goodness yup here he comes oh my god he choked it he just choked it buddy yet another smallmouth it's apparent that this float the second float of day two is all about the small jaw game brown bass is the deal holy mole look like do you wonder if you guys can even get a glimpse at this like that swim bait is gone people it's it's not even there anymore there we go we are back on the bank just to give you guys a good glimpse up close with a big camera of this beautiful small mouth just a crazy eat these bigger ones these ones that are about two pounds are eating it like so aggressively like they have no hesitation but the reason why i came to the bank is not to show you the fish primarily but also to show you what it spit up look at that that is a huge meal for a fish of that caliber like not a bad fish but like geez that is that's a big bluegill i'm guessing it's either a long ear or a bluegill or some sort of tilapia that this fish was eating he literally as he thrashed spit it into my boat so we're gonna get a few shots this guy release him how unreal is that buddy was still hungry even after main course wow here we go grand finale oh my god she soaked the camera that gets my heart pumping man five pound large mouth are really cool but those two pound river smallies they get you going they get me giddy man i'm ready let's get some more [Music] smallmouth number is that like four or five i don't know we're catching a lot number five catching a lot of smallmouth today another good one just a beaut gorgeous you're just pretty [Music] ah i'm thinking about it yeah i'm gonna give a few more casts in here don't feel like you're kind no that was it that was what he wanted that's a good one he ain't too bad he ain't too bad oh he's got a buddy too he's got a friend with him yeah spook done did it to him again they're so fat and chunky in here that blow up maybe think was a five pounder it's incredible how hard these fish cram the top water bait whether it be a frog or a spook you got me going jimmy let's see if we can get your body i'm sure there's another one in there there we go another good one yup back to back same little stretch of bushes it's so predictable it's like they move from the main river right up against the bank and get into the shade another fat one unbelievable this is such an amazing way to end the day on day number two oh my goodness look at those colors it's almost golden wow [Music] oh no way you're joking me small oh largemouth largemouth oh good one too nice largemouth one of the bigger ones in the afternoon this one puts the other two to shame just freaking annihilated it he's worn out he's hooked funny too there we go yes this has been just like the most unreal finale ever it's been the most incredibly fun finale oh don't do that you'll put a hook in my hand there she goes oh feisty little dude that was that was fun we still have a good stretch of shadows over here so we're just gonna keep keep walking the dog wow this has been a really amazing freaking last minute clutch bite session no way that was just ridiculous that was just stupid like where do they even come from they're so quick they're such fast little creatures send it oh god here we go nope shocked just shocked beaver or new trier might be a new trigger there's a new trailer this is the perfect grass to frogging like the perfect grass yep no that was a big one that was a big fish that was a big fish god bless it last minute pity bite i'm getting five more casts now we're out of here at least want a little bit of light on making my tent oh that's a good one too is that a small mouth that's a small mouth that ate my frog you got to be joking that rarely happens oh my goodness that literally has never happened catching a smallmouth on a frog a good one might i had too quality fish man and this is the reason why i love this place smallmouth bass on a popping frog in open water we are the daylight is just trickling away and i just can't get off the water because of this these fish are like hot in the evening it's apparent that the pm devils river bite is just mega out here fat little bronzy i love this place so much wow i'm beat that's all i can say the day and all was good like there's no complaints throughout the entire day but i will say that last hour was like the golden hour just insanity this whole left side of the bank was just money for the frog and the spook and it was incredible it's cool to see how these days progress i kind of want to you know document this whole trip for you guys so you can see how you know we're learning this fishery as we go along it's day two we've got two more days i imagine by day four we'll really have it locked down but caught many more fish posed yesterday i think i really got a true taste of the doubles today yesterday i was 100 feeling but today was awesome and we have this right here to thank for all that bitiness the full moon was tonight and uh that gets the fish going usually in the springtime they'll spawn on the full moon but i think it's a little bit late here in southern texas to the point where they're just they're not going to be doing whole fanny thing we did see a few on beds yesterday and today but we're back at camp on some public land now which is nice drinking a crisp cold miller did you get these miller lite that's so funny that's a northern beer and just reminiscing we're gonna uh probably cook up some food and get camp set up epic day boys unfricking believable cheers [Music] so [Music] right so this is how far we have already made it on the devils let's start from the top here so we made it all the way over to mile five about two days ago that's where our journey started it wasn't too far of a of a row then we made it all the way past what is that merits i don't remember that one merits crossing which was like a little damn past that jimmy then we went uh sycamore chute rapids which were pretty damn sketchy okay so we passed that then we finally made it to mile 12 and after mile 12 we stopped at the campground which we're at right now which is mile 15. and as you can see after mile 15 we've got something called dolan falls i don't really know what that entails uh i sure as hell know that these 13-foot kayaks can't go over waterfalls let alone tiny rapids that you saw yesterday um so i'm a little dodged out by that but the good news is day number three and the devils we're super excited i am looking for a big fight i've yet to feel the rage in the wrath of a giant fish out of here regardless having a lot of fun catching those threes and two pounders but i know there's some big fish that live in here and i want to start really amplifying my game by throwing some big baits along with us i've got some exciting news for you guys if you want to check out some of the new rigged tees use this code right here use devils to save 20 off on all t-shirts it helps fun trips like this and you guys get to see more epic content as we go on these river trips float trips international trips it's all because of these t-shirts and because of you guys so i appreciate that anyway enough product promotion let's get on these yachts and look for some big ones i've got a good feeling we'll cross paths and some giants but first we gotta we gotta pass these falls i'm not entirely excited about that no more messing around here's what we got working with today we've got two big rods in the rear we've got a big bluegill swimbait almost like a shad bluegill swimbait this is gonna be kind of a sub-surface deal and then right in front of that we got the infamous depths bullshitter it's a glide bait less swimming more of a glide action and then up front my primary swimming i'm gonna throw today should i catch the small mouth with is this little tiny jointed zombie this imitates a little shad there are i believe a pretty strong population of gizzard chad the farther we go down the closer we get to lake amistad so i've got a good feeling about that that looks just like a little bluegill too in case they're you know not specifically feeding on shad so i've got three total hard swim baits set up one big one metal and one tiny so i'm thinking we gotta land on something here one big has got to come up and freaking annihilate this and we got to get where we need to go down to i would probably say like 23 give us seven miles because wind might be right in our face tomorrow that would be a hell of a paddle especially waking up there's rough canyons indian creek there's a figgity time let's just keep going okay wow today's gonna be interesting guys big swim baits and sketchy waterfalls you excited because i'm not i'm going fishing with bill dance today money sauce is the best part of the day some big large mouth up in the shallows it's the second one i've seen that's not about it's about four pounder poor younger right there there's there's one i'm on little swim bait strikes feels like a pretty good one too feels like an okay fish he's trying to put me in the grass oh yeah not a bad one not a bad one there we go didn't take long for the first fish of the day did not take long at all he hammered that swimbait too i think we're getting a little bit better at this whole devil's river thing it took me some time to figure this place out but every single day i feel like i'm learning a lot more what i've really observed is largemouth to hang around the weed edges the smallmouth hang around these big rock slab edges it's just so much fun like dude look at that nice little largemouth on a mini jointed swimbait not even five minutes of fishing we've already got the first one in the yak feeling pretty good i'm seeing a lot of really nice fish around here so i'm optimistic that we'll be able to crank on a few more before we get to the nastiness of the waterfalls by the way did i mention i'm not really looking forward to this waterfall deal this whole waterfall just like sketching me out i'm not looking forward to this oh wow he was hooked really good put up a really awesome fight okay cool he was nice hell yeah first one of many more today's goal mark my words is to catch a fish over four pounds in this yak today's goal that's what it is should be a simple feat but these past two days i've struggled to find a fish over three and a half so just remember that that's the goal for today [Music] there he is come on stay down stay down stay down stay down stay down yeah sir on the big swimbait on the big swimbait yes today is going to be a good day peeps today is going to be a good freaking day relax relax relax i gotcha look at that did you get that oh my god so sick swim bait fish number two i'm feeling it it's gonna happen today [Music] so sick [Music] okay so we are at obstacle number one of the day this is a no joke type of waterfall uh yeah i don't think we're getting down that the next plan of action is figuring out a safe and not so deadly way down this monstrous waterfall look at that that is humongous i mean our kayaks weigh roughly 100 pounds without the gear another 40 pound of gear you got 140 pounds per person i'm no john cena so this is definitely not going to be an easy feat for me wow the water looks really good though big deep pool sheesh it's crazy i'm guessing we're gonna have to portage somewhere over there there's like a little spot in which kind of like gradually goes down that's probably our best bet this is not gonna be an easy one but we're gonna give it our all just a part of the adventure all right first kayak in the hole she's looking good that was not easy though oh my goodness that was not easy i'm gonna tie this off okay just gonna walk the kayak wow this is like serious dude this is no joke type stuff we gotta figure oh where am i gonna try this are you off walk it down even further yeah all right um don't forget me toss it to me there we go come here lucy here we go all right that's the last jack definitely wasn't as easy as i thought it'd be but could have been a lot worse wow hopefully that's like the worst of it all right hop in we're good to go let's actually fish now sheesh half this journey is just getting through the freaking nastiness [Music] [Music] [Music] what's up gopro seven hopefully this audio isn't oh yes big one big one big one oh my gosh oh my gosh nice one nice one get over here don't you do it don't you do it don't you do it oh that's the one that's one been after come on don't do it [Laughter] that is so sick that was so sick first cast first twitch he came up and annihilated it whoo that was our recording we were recording look at that big old behemoth you like big baits yeah that was so sick man oh that feels good it's been a rough it's been a rough morning with dolan falls um and just getting past these rapids but man did that feel good like i don't want to hype it up because this is like the biggest fish in devils by any means it's not a giant but it's the biggest one of the trip and i caught on the swim bait and catch them in the swim bait is equally as fun as like throwing a frog or something like that watching these fish come up and eat something they think is a bluegill or tilapia it's just so rad such a cool fish probably a pretty old fish he's really great and beat up but we'll gladly take him in this boat look at that swim bait that is so sick that is a begging there she goes wow this is the start of something potentially really good just before that fish i think i got it on the other gopro but i saw one that was probably twice the size come from fall my swim bait so i think if i focus on the big baits i'll find the big fish man this is just such a cool place dude it just keeps surprising me first day was like real slow second day was real good today i think it's gonna we're gonna open it up on these big baits all right here comes the fun part no idea how deep this is guess what should we be over there should we have gone that way yeah so what oh my god it's not good we're not gonna be able to get through here there's too much brush you get hung up instantly maybe hold on this is bad hey you guys carry it around or just go down i think since we've made it this far we should probably just carry it it's still funny right there but it's like less sticky so let's put down the rocks i mean it's bad dude like this is one of the worst ones there's nowhere to port it let's carry it through there oh slow slow slow slow all right one ready one two three i'm gonna have to pick it up here hang on [Music] you're gonna have to pick it up go this way and then that i don't know how we're gonna do this i mean whatever we're gonna put yours right there yeah i'm gonna put my wifi [Music] once one person goes then who the have to hold on to something well here goes nothing we're good yeah everything's safe for the most part um cool i put the camera here in the big boxes so yeah we're fine we have another one coming right up if you plan on bringing your family to the devils river on like a little weekend vacation don't i had no idea what i was signing up for when i said i'd go on a devils river float not much of a float more like a toot whoa was that intense i don't know how much we did we freaking did it i don't know how much of that was on footage we freaking just kind of go over the scenario in case i didn't get any of that on footage but basically we were supposed to take that route right there which looks super sketchy but it's the better route because at least you can portage over here on these rocks we took the wrong route we took the skinny route and uh it was like right into some current so like imagine dropping your yap right into like basically fat white water and that's what we did um the first go around did not go as planned dropped alex in and he had no freaking oars uh or paddles sorry and he just got tooted down luckily it's kind of an eddie right here so he was able to chill then i was up next that's why i put the gopro on hopped in the ack and almost got turned over but our yaks are like beat i mean like look at like like the wrap is coming off you've got like scrapes i don't even want to know what the underside of this thing looks like but we've really been putting ourselves our kayaks and our ability to float the devils to the test this trip to the back of my throat we'll catch you on down the river i think we've got one more sketchy zone and after that it it should be smooth sailing and hopefully a lot of fast catching huh it's interesting oh do you have a gun all right i figured they had a gun somewhere i just didn't see it i wasn't even thinking we were on their lane weren't we i i like heard them coming and then i thought to myself i went up until that rock and took a pee and i was like i was like this is going to get weird so i turned the gopro on was interesting that was uh i'm guessing the landowner of all of this beautiful land it's crazy to think that on the devils like people are like they own miles of land like insane unfathomable amounts of shoreline to the devils and that was just some guy i thought actually because we kind of sort of got off the bank there to grab our kayaks and i thought he was going to whistle at us and whistle and by whistle i mean shoot us in the nuts but he was pretty chill the reason why i said he would have probably shot us in the nuts if he caught us is because he had a gun shotgun uh 12 gauge in his atv but i think we were good we were like right in the gradient line or whatever so i i think you're straight but you just never know don't want to take a chance pretty cool though nice fella oh my gosh big bass big bass big bass giant bass giant bass giant pass giant pass giant pass giant bass giant bass giant bass he's still there giant enormous bass biggest bass to trip right here he's still following it he's still following it he's still following it he's still following it he's still following it oh my god that's like a 10 pounder is that him that's him that's him he's back he's back that's him hold up hold up hold up hold up get off there get off there no no that's a bust oh well that was seriously one of the biggest fish i've seen throughout this entire trip came up and was just like inches away from eating my bluegill swimbait right on this big rock wow i'm like pissed but i'm also pretty impressed all right keep going look for big rocks i suppose can we powder that i'm sure we freaking can damn it yeah it's been a it's been a bit oh my god giant see him he followed my frog and i think he's he's fallen to somebody he's following somebody oh god damn it's a big one he's turning he's not leaving this is incredible there's two of them there's two of two big ones this one's turning this one's turning he might eat it oh my gosh they're together two like literally the same size that was so crazy it's like a spawning situation that one was charging it why the did you not eat something about this spot he's really particular about let's just keep battling so this part of the river kind of sucks [Music] smallmouth oh wow really didn't think you were still around haven't seen hardly any of these today only a few on the swimbait shimano jaw on the frog second one he's hooked really good ain't going nowhere you are going nowhere little gay evening smallie big cannonball catch you later there he is pretty good one oh yeah that's a nice one that's a good one that's a good fish dude oh yeah that's a good one on the frog in inches of water this is just insane that's a good fish wow they fight so hard gotcha wow it was tough to drop the swimbait after seeing that eight pounder in the noon session but i think it i think it paid off the frog is on a comeback wow that's a good one really pulled hard man these freaking river fish they just yank oh that's a good one that's a good one that's a good one yep yep yep yep stay locked stay locked [Music] yo comment below if you can see that frog jeez i can breathe now i hold my breath until the fish is in the boat then i'm just like deep breath god he was going nowhere okay got another frickin greenback wow these fish are pretty holy moly you were fun to catch thick too i honestly think half this is even fat it's just all muscle from fighting this current since the day they were just wee little fingerlings all right back she goes right here oh that was so cool that was so neat that was so freaking neat right on my feet wow that was intense had like no line left too and he just nailed it holy moly wow dopeness just a little pudgy ball it actually goes all right we've made it to camp that was like nine miles of treacherous rock and current and just dodginess man but we're here we are officially out of texas parks and wildlife land so i have to make our own camp now so we found this uh nice little island to make for base camp tonight and we're gonna sleep here and rest stop that was oh it was a doozy of a day i'm gonna sleep like a like a little smallmouth tonight [Music] i'm getting some stuff organized for tomorrow because my boat looks like a gong show you know what it looks like a gunk show is because we went through what's how does it even go i'm gonna make up some sort of class class a rapids class a being the absolute worst um no but seriously that was that was that was like no joke the devil's put us to the test today you know we've got me on this kayak obviously i've got like all my fishing gear a little bit of camber gear and then also all my clothes and then you've got alex who's got like probably i mean i don't want to i don't want to make any assumptions probably like 9 000 with a camera gear that can't get wet so it's uh it was a deadly little mission so before you sign out and while the uh the food is cooking on the stove i want to go over some of the heavy hitters of this trip so far we're in day number three we've got one day tomorrow like a half day we have to meet the outfitter at the pickup point so we gotta like wrap things up i want to talk to you guys about the lures that have produced the most i know a lot of you guys get bored about you know talking about lures and and techniques but some of you guys do appreciate it want to know how to you know catch these fish that run in these rivers and and just learn and take a piece of today's video and apply it on your body of water so i'm gonna break down my top four lures thus far on the devil's river um and i'm gonna share with you guys why i think they are excelling at the moment i started the first one that kind of developed this whole pattern that being a little popping frog i started off throwing just a regular hella belly frog which worked but then when i soon switched to the popping frog uh it just excelled even more it's got more spitting action it kicks it walks it's truly like a very versatile lure for rivers like this it's incredible as to how like a five pounder could put themselves so tight in an area in a little nook that you wouldn't like normally think a big fish like would be um and it surprised me today floating on the river and see these giant fish like tucked away and hidden areas the only way to get them out is to get really close to the bank by throwing a frog then we've got the bait that so far is the reigning champion for the biggest fish holder that being this uh depth bull shooter i think it's a 160 i might have said it was a 190 in an earlier video but it's a 160 glide bait it's essentially a big bluegill glide bait now the reason why i think this works so good in here is because bluegill is the main forage there are some gizzard shad there are some tilapia but i don't think you'll see those uh until you get further down the river near amistad i've basically just seen a lot of bluegill around the bank so i threw this today and got some good old thumps this bait's crazy though it doesn't get a lot of bites but the bites it gets are primo then let's talk about this or this little really cranked him yesterday alex again you probably have to throw this out but maybe just show the outline or do something you know it's essentially a swimbait but more specifically it's our swimbait this is a googan baits uh prototype swimbait this is a bait that we'll be releasing very shortly we've got a small and a large size this is the small size and i was throwing it on a 1 4 ounce underspin the one that's kind of lacking but i might throw tomorrow is just the jig i've caught a few good fish here in areas where i've fished this it's worked i might take this guy off the bench and uh put him to work tomorrow he's just uh he's just had a lot of work this spring i've been catching a lot of northern texas fish in the jig so i thought it'd be kind of cool to step outside of that and try something a little bit different but that's it i'm signing out thank you guys so much for watching the video hope you guys are still enjoying the devil's river series um yeah tomorrow should be a good day fingers crossed if we get that big one i am looking forward to obviously finishing tomorrow on a bang but i'm also looking forward to a shower because i smell so bad i've been taking a shower in three days and uh it's been a long but very awesome trip so again i appreciate you guys sticking with it and staying tuned and as always folks keep fishing never stop [Music] so [Music] oh wow good morning people welcome to day number four out in the devils this is our last and final morning out here it's uh it's gonna be tough to leave i can't say that i've ever experienced a fishery like this and on a trip like this so dedicated towards uh fishing camping and just sticking it out in the wilderness it's been a lot of fun but uh thankfully tonight we get to go back to dfw and and uh and continue our film sorry if i sound a little nasally by the way it's i think it got sick yesterday it's a lot of a lot of cold nights and i think i just yeah i just got to me anyway the reason i wanted to turn on the cameras and show you guys that beautiful sunrise over those little peaks and i also want to share with you guys how we live out on the river on a daily basis and how things go down because i know a lot of you guys want to recreate trips like this or maybe you just want to know what it's like to you know do a hardcore heavy duty fishing portage trip like this where you're constantly getting off the kayak and then finding somewhere to make base camp so i'm going to show you guys my little setup it's uh nothing special but at least you get an idea as to what's going on so every night we drag our kayaks up on shore for obvious reasons we don't want our stuff to float away um so this is my kayak it's a 12 and a half foot uh sit on top yak it's got a ton of storage it's perfect for trips like this a lot of storage up front a lot of storage of back i think i've talked about this in past videos you get the gist now let's move over to the tent setup if i can get through without smacking myself in the face of the branch all right well first and foremost this is today's breakfast we're crunching down on some turkey chili with beans this is kind of nice you just add a little bit of water and it cooks by itself so while i'm doing my intro for you guys i'm also making some meals then over here is uh this is my tent it's a one person ozark trail walmart tent how much was this alex so this is actually a 25 intense um not the most ideal scenario if you want to do like like heavy duty hardcore stuff but for a four day five day trip it's perfect um especially if you're just by yourself and you just need a tent for one person so it's a one person tent it's tiny it's easy to set up that's what i like about it it takes like five minutes set up you've got like just basically two beams uh one across and this little one that goes right here look what mayfly what's up g you're gonna join oh i'm sorry i killed him i'm just kidding anyway so this is the inside of the tent uh not much to it a couple things i want to go over i've been sleeping on like this padded orange mat which is really nice because pretty much everywhere we've slept has had uh some pretty gnarly um rocks on the ground so you've got like these super super super uncomfortable rocks that aren't nice to sleep on so then i've also got a sleeping bag a blow up pillow and then uh all of my clothes along with the towel and then dirty clothes yep so that's the get up um super simple stuff all this other than the kayak costs right around almost 150 bucks it's it's a budget trip you don't need a lot of money to go on trip like this the only thing that you might break the bank on of course is the fishing gear and the kayak if you want to get a nice kayak it costs a lot of money the one we're using i think retails right around uh 1 500 bucks which is a lot but if you want to go on a trip and you want a reliable kayak that's not going to sink or tip over you might as well spend the money on that tent you can live with 25 tent sleeping bag i think i got this at a secondhand store when i was a kid a pillow just a few bucks you know everything is is fairly cheap you know i'm trying to advocate in the fact that you guys can come out here anyone can come out here and do a trip like this it's easy you just need to come prepared bring the right amount of food and uh you know plan your trip definitely plan your trip because i did not expect all those rapids yesterday anyway now that we got that away let's get on the water and do some fishing come on old bessie oh you guys this is it our last chance at a true devils river giants do i snot my nose not that i see i just blew a huge loogie let's get him game time fourth quarter literally fourth quarter it's the fourth day it's going down i'm yelling timber you better move do better dance check out this doozy folks like first thing in the morning have not even made a cast yet and mother nature's like hey would you like some rapids with that okay here we go buckle in this is gonna be a little rocky oh geez oh geez oh god ah not even had coffee this morning there you go that's what i'm talking about took it like a champion right side okay all right yeah okay there we go there we go oh she's a little wet okay just ride her out now just ride her out okay take a left okay that was quite eventful i don't think i was ready for that okay oh wait hold on what's that we got one more we got one more here we go okay that's that's a lot of water that's a good amount of water there yep okay all right well that was exciting so let's acquire this bread well first one of the day not how i wanted to start but fish is a fish and you smell good just a wee one to start the morning thank you very much [Music] stinky cool all right this sucks okay that's not good oh here we go how did i not tip these things are beasts yo i think that's it that is truly the last of the rapids i almost tipped that was the closest i've gotten to tipping this entire trip did it though now it's fishing time let's go catch some fish oh jesus wow this place is unbelievable it's like day four and it just still amazes me like where the hell am i a crystal clear river cutting right through the desert of southern texas this is so crazy man that's epic [Music] [Applause] [Music] well this was quite the unexpected catch for the first fish first good fish of the day a freaking striper i didn't think they even lived in here that was pretty cool he didn't fight super hard but it was a quality catch nonetheless really long and lean fish my first striper of the season not too bad who you [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey how's it going guys welcome back to the devil's river um it the fishing's really slow right now so i figured i'd take this opportunity to show you guys some of uh some of the underwater stuff that goes on it's a really clear water fishery and you know i got my goggles here i got an underwater camera we're just gonna kick it for a bit we got like four hours until we get to the uh the pickup point and uh yeah did i mention the fishing was slow let's go for a little dip all right gang here we go where's warp chief [Music] blind right now i can't see anything these goggles are whacked [Music] don't look badass totally i feel like crocodile dundee right now only like 100 times whacker [Music] i don't know if i got it on camera but there was like this big voluptuous carp back there and he was feeding and i think he saw my nipples and he scooted off because he never seen nipples that small before so it was cool i i think i got him on video i don't know he was like giant i'm getting blown away by this current right now so hope you hopefully you guys found that fun let's get back to our regular scheduled program and try to catch our biggin jesus let's get out of this water [Music] this is it this is the end of our four day journey down the famous devils river wow was that quite an interesting last day i can't say much other than the fact that it was just extremely windy we tried our best to catch some fish um both teams just couldn't make it happen it wasn't the most ideal section of the river it was just not like what we were looking for but those are all complaints what i want to talk about is the positives obviously it was an amazing trip um yeah we're just gonna get off the water now i really felt like i ended strong in the swim bait had some insane opportunities there are so many teeth marks on this thing from this trip it's insane but um yeah i gave my all i'm just feeling mega crusty after fishing this river for four days i'm getting sick i'm worn out my hands are all torn up from smallmouth and largemouth it's a good feeling but i'm freaking beat and i cannot wait to get back on land damn [Music] [Music] [Music] now um that concludes our devil's river journey we're back at uh home base because we're all started we took the kayaks off the rig runner we brought it on the chevy and we started our 30 mile float 30 miles four days 30 miles many many fish my hands show of our journey and it was a huge one okay so we are heading back home from literally the border of texas and mexico to fort worth um what do i think of this trip i think it was pretty insane you've got two world-class fisheries you've got lake amistad and you've got the devils river right next to each other you couldn't ask for a better place to go and spend four days on a strictly fishing mission um i'm pumped i wish we had a few extra days on the river but it was honestly an amazing trip thanks to everyone who made it happen thanks to you guys for watching and sticking with it and staying tuned um i seriously hope you guys got a thrill out of all of our adventures and we're able to live vicariously through every single mistake and triumph we made um from point a to b but uh yeah this is it we're heading back out on the road 85 miles until we take our next exit and um that's all she freaking wrote and as i do this outro we are driving over lake amistad look at that freaking beautiful view anyway i'm peace out signing out thank you guys so much for watching i will catch you guys in the next pawn episode fishing mission whatever it may be as always folks keep fishing never stop [Music] um you

Channel: Jon B.

Views: 4,414,814

Keywords: fishing, survial, camping, outdoors, cooking, fish, bass, lures, travel, traveling, texas, kayak fishing, devils river, the devils river series, original film, film, movie, fishing movie, jon b, googan squad, googan baits

Id: swSRPHRLoAQ

Length: 100min 38sec (6038 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020