Ham

Very Nice Rob

Up and at it early putting in sweat equity at the Bluff lot. Drag limbs, weed eat, mow, repeat. Many sweat hours later, Come home load yak and hit the river. I knew it was supposed to be LOW water when I got there and I thought higher water would reach me about 6 PM. I spent a little time gather up my fly rod and the gear I would need with it. I also threw in a spinning rod and my 1/16 oz Zig Jigs just in case. I guess I got fishing by 3:15 PM. I paddled up to the John Berry Hole and got started. Water was low and very clear. It was hot so I availed myself of the opportunity to immerse myself and cool off. water was around 700 CFS. The fish wanted nothing to do with my fly rod offerings. I changed flys and changed locations and I got completely ignored. I never got a take at all. The bad news is that they would hit a Zig Jig. I'm going to have to leave that crutch at home IF I'm going to grind it out with the fly rod. I think a big part of my problem was that the water was much deeper than it appeared and my fly was not down where the fish were. I was in a little bit of a crunch for time. I knew that the water had turned up sometime between 1200 and 1300 and I figured closer to 1200. I absolutely knew the water would be there by 1800 so I planned on being close to the yak at 1700. I consider myself paranoid about getting caught by rising water. It has happened to me twice now and I really hope to avoid a third time. So after 30 minutes or so of having my fly ignored I started sling the Zig Jig and catching a few fish. It was slower than I would like, but at least I fished pretty clean. I was hooking and landing most of my bites. relocated across the river and got into a larger group of fish. Down and across and then work it directly down current. Multiple throws. Walk downa few steps and repeat the process. Change your angles. I was catching them and having a good time. I kept my eye on a couple of rocks at the head of the riffle and kept an ear to the sound of the flow. I was pulling in a fish when I heard the water change. The water had gotten just a tiny bit louder. I checked my rock and it was still visible, but maybe a bit smaller. I started wading for my boat. Hmm, water was deeper than I remembered, another couple of rocks where going under now, my boat that was beached a swell as anchored was now floating freely not drifting but floating, but no big deal. I got there and hopped aboard the boat. I checked my phone. it was 17:20. I looked back up river and my shallow riffle was completely under. They had increased the water to about 3000 CFS I eased down river with the rising water and caught a few fish along the way. A soft rise definitely sparks a bite. Good trip. Ended up with 27. I lost maybe 2 fish that I had hooked and missed a 1/2 dozen bites. Not a bad 2 1/2 hours on the water.

I guess they could be most anything. I need to catch some and find out.

Good for you. Glad you got out and caught some fish.

I will!

Nice crop of Mullen in the background.

I also tried a small spoon tipped with Gulp (they can pick the gulp off w/o getting hooked), a small jiggin Rap, a BG Baby Shad ( hung one of my biggest ones), Spy Bait (has caught big gills before), a small swim bait, and other various sinker hook rigging styles. The "problem" is that there is a lot of area for them to scatter out in. They will gobble the worms but it's tough to cover much ground. I tried the various horizontal presentations hope to pick off large aggressive fish and up my chances for a Yellow Perch. It looked like a lot of the blue gill were 5 foot off bottom. I saw the same digital signature on bluffy / 45 degree banks too so maybe you could drop shot there as well. I can see where bottom bouncing puts your bait down in Gill Central a lot.

Haunted by Bill Babbler's tale of big Bluegill offshore with a Yellow Perch thrown in I found myself dragging the Bass Cat to Tucker Hollow this morning. It was cool(ish) early and not crowded, but the one other guy there managed to make a two lane ramp and one at a time deal. SMH. Cost me a few minutes, but NBD. water temp was 82.9 before 7 am. Water had 5 foot visibility. Partly cloudy with a little breeze out of the W/SW. There is a topwater bite. I had some nice chunky LMB on a Super Spook Jr. I caught some smaller LMB schooling out over 80 FOW. Lots of schools of them playing that game, but most groups were low numbers of fish that seemed late for a party. They would come up and feed, but be gone before you could get there to screw with them. One group was quite a bit larger and stayed up long enough for me to get a cast in. I also got one on a 3 inch swim bait after the school was sub surface. The schooling fish I caught were 10 inches or so. About 0930 I started looking for the bluegill. The ones I found were in 18-25 FOW on deep flats near the channel drop off. I was in the Horseshoe Bend area. There are lots of them to throw at. Lots of water fits the bill and the fish are scattered roaming it. I had some nice ones and I had some small ones. I spent a lot of time trying to make them eat fake stuff, but they eat natural baits better. Sadly, it wasn't even close. I always want to try other stuff, but my numbers would have been better with a drop shot an red worms full time. No yellow perch for me. I quit fishing about 1 PM. The ramp was a disaster for such a small number of boats coming and going. A couple of well intentioned mom's were watching there kids swim on the boat ramp. I just shook my head. I'm going to guess they would give me crap for having my boat in the swimming area, but seem to have no clue what they were doing wasn't a great idea. Ended up catching a bunch of panfish and more bass than I expected. I brought one deep hooked bluegill home for my cat. Other fished were released.

They were found to be in possession of stolen firearms and drugs. Lack of evidence my butt.

It seems like they are spread from one end of the lake to the other (and down the White River), but no one seems to catch them in any number. I was told by a diver that he saw swarms of them in the lower mid lake area, but that has not translated to bites for me. It's been a more than a little while since I have caught one. Been a little while since I caught a gizzard shad too (just saving Super Dave the trouble of pointing that last part out).

FTR, the last time LSU lost a regular season game to a Non Conference Football team was when Saban was coach Just sayin Of course putting their record on the line against a good Wisconsin team out the gate.

It seems like looking the other way when "good" athletes behave poorly starts younger and younger. I would bet it starts at the Jr High level these days. The student athlete should be held to a higher standard and not a lower one. Is it really a surprise when professional athletes act a fool? They get thrown tons of money and tons of accolades and they've had years of not being held accountable when they act out and cross the line. They are still responsible for their actions, but often did not get proper education and guidance growing up.

I swear to God its Groundhog Day.

For me, there is no one perfect boat. My Coosa has advantages. My Tarpon has advantages. Are the advantages of the Coosa worth the difference in price, IMO No. < $500 Pescador is a better value than > $1200 Coosa I should have brought both boats with me and y'all could have paddled them both. Demo day. Next time IF you haven't bought a boat already.

You're taunting me with that yellow perch talk.

I'm going somewhere Saturday morning until 10 AM or so. Not jazzed about biting flies though.

I was talking more canoes and yaks than jet boats, but whatevs

I was thinking for Gulp soft plastics in panfish sizes on a drop shot rig.

Stein is fit and trim. He'd do awesome in a Pescador.

Preception Pescador at Academy. Seriously.

Seeing a 29 inch Brown caught would make an impression.

That's cool, but as far as I know only COE sells COE launch passes.

Have you seen Lamprey? Cutless fish? Sculpin? Carp aren't so bad. Or were you talking about Smalliebigs and his crew?

He can't sell them, but hopefully he was honest about it.

The walk over bridge is gone. One of the many high water events changed that area and it does not fish as well any more. Granted, its usually wall to wall with lawn chairs and Power Bait jars. I had a good time. I always seem to learn a little bit. I'm slowly adding to my knowledge base.