Ham

Talked with Ben and Gabriel Levin. They are brothers that guide. They echoed my thoughts that Rainbow numbers were down. They are having to work for them, but upper 5 miles of river are fishing better which is no surprise. Water looks better this morning.

Well.... river is blown out BROWN again this morning. I'm fairly convinced these conditions are not at all helpful for the fish. Weather is sooo crappy today. I'm off and you would have to pay me $1000 to go get in a boat and go fish. Only $500 to get me to wade fish though.

Rain moved in but lightening quit so I went fishing again. I wanted to test my theory and go upriver to see if it were better. Short answer: not really. Water was a little clearer but still plenty of trash in it and floating on it. Wind blew me upstream and rain made me bail the boat out. A lot. I had only caught 4 fish in 2 hours when I found a wad of them midging in a back eddy. This is why you need 1/32 oz jigs. I caught 24 in 45 minutes and left em biting to go scream for my Penguins and against the Caps.

I knew I had weather moving in this morning, but I was determined to get a quick trip in anyway. I'm frustrated by the weather situation, but I've just been inconvienced. I feel a little silly complaining about the weather considering the massive difficulties that some are dealing with. I spooled up the two new President 6930's that Pete told us about. I put 6 lb Nano on both. One with White and one with Chartreuse. 4 lb leader on the White and 6 lb on the Chartreuse . It took longer than I wanted, but I should be good for a over a year of hard fishing. 3000 or so CFS. Water was stained with lots of trash. More wind that I wanted. I was getting blown upstream at times. Cloudy weather had the Browns playing pretty good. I'm going to try to get a personal best this year. It won't take much. I don't think i ve ever caught one > 23 inches. My second fish of the day was a 21 inch Brown. It really fought well. It lept clear of the water 5 times. Several really nice runs. Most of my Rainbows were either really close to the bank or mid river riffles. I got 25 to the boat in less than three hours. Lighting ran me off the water. I would suggest fishing further up river. I would have if weather had not been an issue.

Awful

There are "pros" that cash checks fishing retreads right outside the off limits areas where bass are released. I saw it myself at a FLW event on Red River below Shreveport.

I think the water quality upriver would be good. Fishing is Not happening below Crooked Creek for a while yet, below Buffalo river longer still, and below Norfork who knows. Unless they are handcuffed by downstream flooding, I would expect them to run a lot of water. Traditional wading is unlikely.

Yesterday water was brown, but today it is only stained. The water coming out of Cotter Spring is dirty though. Too windy for my taste today AND kinda chilly. I imagine that I need to get my excrement together so I can be ready to go. I have Wednesday and Thursday off. Not sure I can find a launch on Bull, but I know I can catch the trout on the White River. PSA- for guys looking for a place to fish

Yesterday water was brown, but today it is only stained. The water coming out of Cotter Spring is dirty though. Too windy for my taste today AND kinda chilly. I imagine that I need to get my excrement together so I can be ready to go. I have Wednesday and Thursday off. Not sure I can find a launch on Bull, but I know I can catch the trout on the White River. PSA- for guys looking for a place to fish

Watch the videos on the Z Man site to see who they sponser. Luke Clausen is another one I remember.

I've not had that problem, but Super Dave sets the hook really, really hard with 6 lb line.

Never you mind laundry woman.

Nanofil is annoying in heavy wind, but I love it. The extra casting distance. Enhanced sensitivity. Long distance hooksets. Freaking awesome

Thanks for the tip Pete. You cost me $100

2nd round is set. I'm especially interested in Pens vs Caps of course, but almost as interested in Oilers vs Ducks. Interesting to hear talking heads saying that Caps might expose the Pens D without Letang. I think the Pens could certainly benefit from having Letang, but they've had time to adapt to being without him. The Caps ran into a HOT Leaf goalie that made up for the Leaf D, but if the Caps didn't run roughshod over the Leaf's D, I'm not as worried for the Pens. Lets Go Pens!

In regards to spawning fish, it seems like to me the SMB are less likely or at least a lot slower to follow the water up and spawn on what's normally high and dry. LMB not so much. Have you seen that in your years at TR?

Gary and his wife do a really good job there. You'll be in a good spot. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and you'll have an awesome trip.

Both are fun. Both are productive. I enjoy fly fishing and spin fishing.

Boating is often the better option and boats are available at Rim Shoals. Gary Flippin also provides a water taxi service and can take you to areas to wade. Look back at older posts. Spin fishing is usually MORE productive than fly fishing if you can learn to use a Zig Jig.

I'm sure the idea of being a guide is VERY different from the reality of being a guide. i suspect you'll have some great clients , some good clients, and some absolute turds. The costs involved and the time involved probably make the $400 guide fee = just a little bit more than minimum wage at the end of the day. I could guide trout on the White River right now. There are days I could guide on BSL, but a lot more days where I would be scratching my head and apologizing profusely. By the time I know enough to guide, I'll be too old to do it.

Whoa now, there have been and will always be VERY good fishermen that don't want to fish tournaments AND I'm not sure dock talk means a whole lot. Guy might not hang with thiose guys. I would have Thought that a reduced rate for the first couple years was a reasonable idea to built a repeat customer base that a nd some version of no fish No pay guarantee

My Dog woke me up at 3:30 AM and I thought "Pens beat CBJ".

1) Scarf joints 2) Stein has ALMOST as many fancy C clamps as Dave has Zinkers/Zeros 3) look forward to you being around more

I disagree, Lots of people use squid scented candles for ambiance.