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Gotta love the minimum flows for some great wading opportunities. Went back to Rim Shoals this morning and hiked down the trail to try some different water. The fishing was good with some nice rainbows and a few browns. Best flies this morning was a tandem soft hackle setup swung across stream and stripped back. Only saw one other fisherman and one guide boat. As I have said before, the average size of the fish seems to be better and they appear to be eating well. Here's some pics...

Late start today, started about 10 AM and fished until 4 PM. Fished the banks, caught 20 bass, mostly spots, on the ned rig. Fish were in 5 - 20 FOW. Around wood and rocks. This is the time of year the fat spots are biting, one of my favorite times to get them. No one on the water today, I saw 2 other boats. I can't remember the last time I was on this lake and only saw 2 boats. WT 54

Hey y’all been a bit since I’ve posted, for me my fishing season is in full swing being slowed down here at the farm. After harvest got on some spotted bass on lower black river, the fishing was fantastic for several weeks throwing a spinnerbait. With deer season in full swing at that time had the river to myself usually. Got to meet up with Ham one day and we spanked them all day on a variety of baits. It’s always good to catch up with Ham we always have the best time and usually the fish cooperate to. As my daughter says I’ve created a monster in my son in law, he’s seen here in the video netting some bass from the Norfork winter series tournament we have fished twice this year. Spinnerbait was once again the ticket this weekend. Last month it was topwater! Been nice being able to fish without having to scope so much! My son is pretty busy these days and for those who have followed him and watched him grow up on this forum he is now 17. That’s hard to believe, he’s busy these days and doesn’t fish as much with me as he did but we still get together when we can. He is still also fishing high school tournaments with his best bud, I still enjoy being the boat captain, we have made some fun memories. Next up gonna start chasing a few walleye on the lower current and black rivers. I’m still filming for my own project now called Casting Forward Outdoors it airs here locally and I put them on YouTube It’s basically a local fishing program with a devotional type segment in every show. I felt led to do that a few years ago. Anyhow gonna post more on here when I can, life just gets busy. Have enjoyed this forum for years and am looking forward to jigfest! Bret Project 12-07_Full HD 1080p.mp4 Project 11-19_Full HD 1080p.mp4 Project 11-30_Full HD 1080p.mp4 247E2C3E-C25A-4DFE-9E3D-A4D083C446D6.mp4

Waded at the walk-in access this morning and had a good trip. Best flies today were ruby midges, soft hackles and a few on eggs. It seems to me that the average size of the rainbows has increased since the closure. Ended the morning with lots of rainbows and a couple browns. Nothing huge, but lots of fat 14-15" rainbows. Here are a few of the better ones.

By chance, do you remember (back in the day) when I used to piss & moan about an old buddy that I fished with frequently......and how long it took him to get suited-up & rigged ? I'd like to take all that smack talk back now, JFTR 🙄

Lost one, then landed my first-ever Paddlefish (aka Spoonbill). My microjig was right in the very tip of its bill (rostrum?) Bighead Carp (not hooked in the mouth): It's been a number of years since I last caught a Yellow Bass, so I was happy to land this little fella: Also caught a Freshwater Drum or two.

96) Banded Sculpin I was very excited to catch this guy. I had seen multiple Banded Sculpin and gotten them to follow, but I couldn’t get them to eat the fly. It seemed like they were more out in the open and multiple times a dopey rainbow would swim by and they would get inactive and try to become gravel. I just kept plugging away catching the Ozark Sculpin that would bite. I think some of the Sculpin may have been spawning. Some seemed very territorial and showed no interest in the fly at all. Most showed some interest. This monster blended in so well that I didn’t see before he bit. I missed the first bite, but he gave me another chance. Monsterous lateral line all the way back to base of caudal fin. chin is not blue/green

95) Ozark Sculpin Bennett Springs. Tons of them. I caught 49 of them. I’m not sure how many you could catch in a day.

Seems about right🤔😅

Speaking of pissing & moaning...... Why is it that I have to piss every 20 minutes once I put waders on ? 🤬

I don't remember but to be fair you piss and moan about a lot of stuff! 😄 We need to meet up at the river soon and we can piss and moan about it together.

This is your gig Cody. Happy holidays to all from Cody..

Picked these up at WalMart. It's like they designed these for Jigfest. TRAYS!

These have been working lately.

Thanks Phil! The shirt has arrived, I've worn it.... It looks great, I love it and I love the color scheme! Kudos to the shirt designer and printer... and the packager and shipper! Thank you!

I wish you were bringing a bag of salad. It always disappeared and you're about as fun as it gets. Except for Cody.

For those of you that don't follow the food thread, are you ready for this?

Sauce piquant getting mixed in with the roux, Now we are getting happy 😁, Guess what my fishing brothers are going to eat in the next three days. Sauce piquant!

According to windfinder, 5-10 MPH north wind Friday. Saturday light winds.

We have the kids, grandkids, a few friends and my 93 year old Mom coming this Saturday. As usual, we have to try and find a day when there's not work or ball games playing to have our get together's. Number 3 grandson plays in a basketball tournament later that evening so we had to move dinner and present exchanging up. Would love to come one year and bring Miss Susie but won't be this year. Hope it's a great time and the fishing is as well.

Ok here is the deal, You are an OA member. Post your phone number because jig fest is about here and some of us the flyfish too will be calling you and find out where you are at any moment 😁.

So. Five pounds of Harter House double smoked bacon and three dozen eggs along with the casserole (which I'm making right now) and the snack stuff.

We are good on our end. Pat is making sauce piquant Wednesday to bring. We will be bringing some smoked cheese and smoked duck breast too.

I was literally about 10 minutes from hooking up my boat and heading over to Beaver when Joe Lane called and asked me to go fishing with him, as he had a last minute cancellation. Took me about 10 seconds to say heck yeah! Joe has been on the fish, so had some locations to check, he won't fish unless he sees evidence the fish are there, as in lots of shad. He also looks for predator activity around the shad, holes in the shad balls, curve shapes in the shad and of course seeing fish around the shad. He's really got his FFS dialed in, very clear images, you can easily see your lure, he can also make a call on whether he's seeing good sized bass, usually largemouth and the smaller fish which are usually spots. We had a good day, somewhere around 50-60 bass, plus a couple of whites, and a large channel cat. Joe caught some great fish - a 4.3 largemouth, 3.75 white bass, a cat that we estimated in the 12-15 lb.range and another 4 LM in the 3 lb. range. Myself - Well I caught half the fish, had at least a half dozen keepers, but no pic worthy fish. Joe caught his mainly on a spoon or a Damiki rig, myself dragging a 3.3 Keitech on the bottom. As you've no doubt heard, not all the fish you see on the scope bite, and not only that but they are constantly moving around. It's funny how many fish will come up and look at your lure and turn away. I don't have a scope myself, but sure learned a lot fishing with Joe. Forgot to look at the water temp, I'm guessing upper 50's.

Went looking for Hybrid Striped Bass yesterday. Only managed one. But that's one more than last time. Some other fish were caught. Smallmouth Buffalo: Silver Carp (these did not get hooked in the mouth): White Crappies:

Poaching was a big thing to my uncle and cousins. As in they were always poaching and taking what they wanted. Still makes me mad to think about how much they abused the land. As in they would even shoot a deer in someone's yard at night while the people were in the house sleeping. My cousins just grew up thinking it was normal since their dad and grandpa did it. On another note, I bagged 4 trout, 2 sucker fish and a google eye down on Capps yesterday. All in about an hour and a half. Biggest was the second one at 19" to the tape. The other 3 were just newer stockers. I have pics, but I don't think I will share on here since the stream already has it's issues.

I think that stricter regs or more regs is generally the wrong approach to wildlife management, especially when we don't have funds nor manpower to enforce existing regs. Full enforcement of currently existing regs would likely need to have about ten times as many Agents, enough that each agent had only 50 miles or so of stream to patrol, a small enough sector that each agent could walk all of the assigned area regularly rather than make random parking lot checks. Since the 1950s I have never seen more than accidental enforcement of any fish and game regulations. Even if the agents try hard, they can only be in one place at any given time and can usually be seen coming before they get there. I asked the spawning question because some years ago a biologist had told me that he thought some stream reproduction possible there but had no real evidence of it being successful. I've caught dozens/hundreds of fingerling RBT out of Hickory Creek, some years more than other years, and presumed they were National Hatchery escapees, so when talking to a bio, I asked about in steam reproduction and he didn't rule out reproduction in either of those streams. There was a stream back east that I caught fingerling brown trout in for about 6 years before the fisheries people "made the discovery" of natural brown trout reproduction there; I had reported such catches a few times and my info was pretty much dismissed, until one of their "inventories" turned up lots of young browns. I have the notion that any stream capable of holding trout year round has the potential of natural reproduction, but also thing that our huge rainstorms with the accompanying floods make all but the shortest drainages marginal in that respect. Capps gathers a lot of runoff in a two or three inch rain and the change in temperature and water quality would be traumatic to baby trout, I would think.

I have seen reds and caught three inch rainbows down there multiple times. Probably would be better recruitment if they put stricter regulations

That's a pretty good deal to get the match.

She got a gimp fin, but she was fat, angry and ready to fight. It’s always interesting meeting fish that impress you.

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Napping?

That is the sad, sad truth.

Give me anything but a cold east wind. When it does that it's time for pizza and football.

I’m rootin for you guys!

I got the walking figured out. It's the bending over putting on the shoes and taking them off. With the lower back fusion I don't bend very well and the longer I wade the worse it gets. So when you see Pat taking my boots off she is feeling sorry for me and dislikes hearing me grunt. She is not kissing my feet. 😆

OK. looks to be a lot of wading. You've got two days to get into shape. Here is a wader workout instructional video.

I believe around 15 Brett, you, Daryk, Rick, Marty, and I are bringing boats. eric I am not sure about. Quill, Phil, WoundedOne, Ray, big hand Rob, white brandon+1 dont have boats and need seats unless they are wading. I can get around pretty much anywhere at min flow if i am careful. ****edit**** eric just texeted me to say he is fishing friday/saturday and he can fish 3-4

Depending on water level, it may be more wading or yak than usual. We can always use the boats as water taxis and get out and wade. Everyone that has waders would be well advised to bring them just in case. We should be able to see the "projected" by like 3 pm or so the day before. I will not be sleeping at the cabins, but I plan on swinging by Thursday night to make plans for the following day. What is the latest head count?

This is encouraging. Thanks for the post.

gonna be a real short trip if I am paying for it lmao

I'll not be fishing this weekend as my daughter and her family are coming for a visit and the local Christmas celebrations. Hope you all catch some big ones and look forward to the pictures.

I can attest...he speaks the truth!

When the kitchen table is full the trays are much easier to balance across your legs too! 😉

You're a genius Marty.

You do know you are welcome to attend 🤪instead of salivating all over your phone or computer keyboard.

In case anyone is unaware, be sure to bring either cash or a check to pay for the cabins.

I'm bringing a couple of fancy dancy cheese things, Dot's pretzels and a broccolli rice casserole. And some bacon and some eggs and a loaf of bread, mayo, mustard and ketchup.

I would say a regular law enforcement agent could a least handle checking for a license. And there are more bass fisherman now than ever so maybe we should start promoting trout as a tournament fish to gain notoriety and maybe people will listen 😂

Boy That description describes someone I know very, very well.