Ham

My Buddy CajunAngler and I floated the Current River in late October this year. We did a three day trip. The food and fellowship was epic as always, but the fishing was only so so. One of the nicer fish I caught was late on the first day. Johnny hooked up with a nice fish which turned out to be a 15 inch LMB and a beat or two later I set the hook into a angry Smallie. It was a bit of a circus as current was pushing us into some wood, but it all worked out. We didn't get dumped on the river and we both caught our fish. As I took a quick pic I noticed something odd about it. A weird clump of algae was hanging back from rear of dorsal fin. I rubbed on it and saw it was an MDC tag. I quickly clipped it off and released the fish. I put the tag into the top pocket of my waders. Later I sort of freaked out when I thought I lost ithe tag. Once I rediscovered the tag, I put it in a hopefully safer location. I did make it home with the tag and I put in a call to MDC and started the process to getting more information about the fish and getting the $25 Check. MDC seemed pretty surprised that a tagged fish from that study was still out there. As per MDC, "my" fish was captured 5/8/2013 about 3 miles about Powder Mill. It was 15.4 inches when tagged. It was about 16.5 inches when I caught 10/24/2017. I caught it several miles above Two Rivers. I spoke to a biologist that estimated it was 15 years old when I caught it. Bigger smallmouth take a long time to grow. Please be careful with them and try to release them quickly IF you are not harvesting them. They are Pretty special fish to me anyway.

Heck, leave the food outside in a cooler with minimal ice. It should be fun win the shade.

Good Luck out there this morning Gentlemen. Please don't catch them all and Please be careful. See y'all this evening.

Felt is always better, but either should be fine I appreciate the little trees more than I can express. I look forward to getting them established.

Just throwing this out there, if you have good waders/boots, you khould plan on wearing them. They will keep you warm and dry AND if the water is really low My boat might become a water taxi at times and we will fish on foot. I'd hate for someone to be stuck in the boat watching me catch all the fish on foot. Gosh I wish Les hadn't jinxed us with the turnover talk.

Man, 2000-4000 CFS would be simply fantastic. It opens up the whole river to us. Well, the legally fishable river anyway. You get plenty of water to navigate in, but the jigs don't get washed away and you get to catch a few fish before motoring back up stream to hit them again. I GREATLY prefer less than 10,000 CFS and less than 10 mph wind.

They are running a little bit of water with the colder temps. #FingersCrossed

Right Bite Lures Cabin Creek Tubes Poor Boy Lures

My understanding is that Crappie populations are a lot harder to magnate than bass. As much as 50% of the population is lost to natural reasons (non fisherman) each year. They just seem to be a fish that are going to boom and bust depending on a lot of variables, but success of the spawn and then good conditions for the fry making to adult fish are key. I never keep a fish under 10 inches and prefer not to keep any over 13 inches with those 12 inches being about perfect. I love catching any Crappie though and it's awesome seeing those big slabs come to the surface.

I did think it was awesome that he was still going to use it for catfish bait.

Grrrrrr

Walleye will hit the darndest things. You should that short fat Keitech at them. Everything like to hit Keitechs.

Beautiful pictures and it looks like you stayed to the end of the day. I KNOW I would not have been out at first light in shorts on Monday, but that's just me I guess.

Thanks for the report

No telling, but I doubt too much water is going to be our problem

If they don't run some water for us, that might be the smart thing to do.

Small but savage

I've been a little bit of a run with the crappie. I like it.

I didn't catch them like I wanted too this past Spring. I only caught smaller males this afternoon, but I think I'll be mad at them forever.

Lookee Super Dave a Wart Fish

I had stuff to do in the morning, but the rest of my day was open. So, I fish. I decided I was going to try for striped bass or hybrids. That was the plan anyway. I idled around looking for shad and fish in an area that normally has some stripers this time of year. No soap. Norfork is still a muddy mess from the Spring flood. Water just will not clear. Water temp was about 58'. Minimal wind. I found me a bluff and got busy. A few minutes in and I got a 16.5 inch smallie on a Crappie jig and 4 pound P Line. I got other bass on FB jig and Ned. I decded to burn a little gas and run as far up the creek arm as I felt comfortable. I shut her down when the main channel on the bluff side was 10 foot deep. Ned fish. wart fish. swapped sides of the creek. Small Walleye on a swim Bait (only my second Norfolk walleye). Ned fish. Crappie jigs. More on swim baits. some big stripers showed up and were blowing up, but nothing doing for me. Super Spook Jr got no love at all. oh well. 32 fish in 5 hours was a Good time. Raced back to ramp at 70 plus MPH trying to beat darkness. This post has been promoted to an article

Seems like a Good deal. Those sure look like Matzu Sickle hooks instead of VMC Barbarians.

I feel better after reading this. I own less gear than a fishing guide. A little less gear so I feel a little better.