Ham

Soooooo, why are you guys still going if the fishing is marginal? I’d rather drive hours and catch fish than fish close and struggle. I heart #FossilFuels

There is no safe speed. You either run the canals or you don’t. I thought it was a dumb place to hold a tournament, but they don’t ask me. I don’t think Ike was any less safe than the other guys. I think he rolled the dice and came up snake eyes. I saw lots of guys doing truly ignorant and unsafe things on the Red River tournaments and lots of them tore up hulls and lower units as a result. There are areas where there are long slow idles through stump fields to get to back water areas. You can’t run that stuff very long without tearing your stuff up, but they tried. It was crazy.

Gee Whiz Jeff did you see the area they were fishing when Ike had his accident? Narrow canals that have fallen logs in them under the water’s surface. All the competitors ran miles and miles to get to better fishing. it was VERY lucky that Ike and his guy weren’t hurt, but it was an accident, and most likely an unavoidable accident IF you tried to run that canal that had an under water log in just the wrong spot. I used to run that kinda stuff all the time, but our boats were much smaller and our motors only pushed us at 30 MPH. I don’t think I could run that stuff in my BassCat.

I hate it when that happens

👏🏻 We’re not worthy

Food poisoning is no fun at all. Been there, done that, never want to go back.

I’ve fished it when it was blowing a steady 30 mph and gusting to 40 mph. It was dumb and frustrating, but I can do it in my Bass Cat. You don’t get the monster waves that build on Toledo Bend or Sam Rayburn, but the wind cheats and you have a lot less protected areas than you would think. In a metal boat, I would think 20 gusting to 25 would be more than enough wind to make for a frustrating day, but if you pay attention and pick where you launch carefully, I wouldn’t think it was particularly unsafe.

Well, I guess it's better that you were using me to troll Marty than you forgot who you were trolling with the native fish thing

Yep, 3/4's of the cycle once again. Well if you want a Cutt in its native range, I suggest you carry your posterior WEST.

We’re at 1234 MC 7031. I’m dealing with a chest cold right down so do yourself a favor and stay away until I get healthy, but we need to stop in a say Hello.

Good God Man, we're freaking Neighbors. Do you live on MC 7031?

Man, I’d love to learn more about fly ridding from you. I thought you were a Texas guy that came up for a week at a time. Ill try to shoot you a PM soon.

I was going to fish BSL, but I happened to notice that ZERO generation was projected for the Norfolk tail water. That settled it. I wasn’t in a Super Big hurry to get started, but then I noticed my fishing license was expired which cost me a little more time than it should have. Finally got on the water about 10:30 AM with plans to be at the confluence for 4 PM. My wife was nice enough to shuttle me at the end of the day. air temp eventually got to Mid 50’s. It was sunny but a little windier than I would have liked. I fought a head wind all day. Blowing me upstream when it would gust. Not ideal. Water is still pretty dirty, but don’t let it get you down. Adjust your Jig color and fish with confidence. Shocking how many Good trout can be caught in that first big pool by the commercial trout docks. So much PowerBait gets used there. 1/16 oz Zig Jig got it done. I caught 11 fish before I dropped down into Long Hole. Several of them were really chunky. I also threw a BPS Mini Dad because I like struggling to remove treble hooks from trout. It caught fish very steadily, but they were smaller than the Jig fish. I’m actually always researching back up techniques for when I bring folks that can’t get the Zig Jig thing to work. I also threw the 1/32 oz Zig Jig quite a bit. It was definitely catching it’s share of fish. I throw it in the slower water or shallower stuff. Fish it patiently and you will get rewarded. I fish Norfolk when I can for size and variety. I had 10 cutties over 15 inches. Largest might have been 18 inches. No Bonnevillie Cutts were caught. I got several Nantucket Sleigh rides from trout today. 😁 I had a great time that passed far too quickly. I had a long cold paddle out in the shade with a strong headwind to push against. I finally caught a nice Brown. It was my 55 fish of the day and I decided to quit on Double Nickels so I could be on time at the takeout. Unfortunately, my wife decided to be 22 minutes early. What the heck? I wish the stars aligned for me to do this trip more frequently. I saw lots of guys with the long rod really whacking them. Maybe next time. It would have only been made better if I had a fishing buddy with me to share the experience. This post has been promoted to an article

I kinda like White River Zig Jigs. I use 1/8 oz , 1/16 oz, and 1/32 oz depending on the amount of flow.

I can’t seem to ever find my way there when I have ALL the time I want. Maybe that’s a Good Thing.

I ordered a sous vide set up yesterday. This is y'alls fault.

I was desperate to fish yesterday, but by the time it was close to 15 degrees the water rise from max generation hit and the water was trashed. I always enjoy my trips with John. Like several other of my OA buddies, John is saved by having a > 100 mile buffer zone. Otherwise, he would diasappear down the fishing rabbit hole with me far too often and his wife would hate me and maybe him too.

S20 is reel size not $20

So we had a fancy dinner with friends just before Christmas. The main course was Fliet Migion that was seared, sous vide, then seared again. Without a doubt it was the best Filet Mignon I’ve ever eaten. I’ve had other wonderful steaks out of other cuts of meat, but don’t discount sous vide with Filet Mignon.

Gonna scoot with that one! But you don't have to run WOT. Just sayin.

The water coming thru the turbines is a fairly consistent low 40’s. Trout bite just fine when it is cold. They bite when water is really cold. They may get even dumber than when the water is Mid 50’s. dress warm and you can fish when it’s really cold like low teens air temp.

I'll dress warmly. I'm happy to be back in the USA.