Ham

That's a fantastic photo! The trip was worth it for that alone.

I hemmed and hawed, but finally decided the White River Zig Jig deal was not doable in the wind we had.I needed to be back in town for 1730 and would rather have fished the White. So, I got a little bit of a late start, but I finally manned up and made it on the water about 0915. Wind was awful and the wind chill was nasty cold. I had a fair amount of clothing on, but more would have been better. I launched at Pontiac knowing the ramp was protected from a north wind. Water temps were int he 59-60' Range. Water was beautiful in most areas. It picked up a little stain in some of the shallower wind blown areas as I ran up towards Theodosia. Wind was really bad to start and gradually got to just painfully annoying. I broke out the drift sock on multiple occassions. Handy, but the drift sock requires some effort as well. I tried slinging a blade on a proven main lake point. No hits, no looks, and no follows. I did get frozen hands out of the deal. I headed to a more protected area to get feeling back into my hands. Ned to the rescue. I quickly caught a largie, a smallie, and a chunky short LMB. My first fish was a pretty decent LMB that would have scared 3 lbs. The smallie was a chunk,, but not a "keeper". Feeling much better about things, I eased around and got a keeper spot on the Ned in my next little area. I tried the blade in another wind blown area with big chunk rock and again. No looks, no strikes, and no follows. Not good. I ran up Spring Creek into a little finger. And finally got some action on the blade. I caught three bass and lost another one I had hooked. I also got absolutely lit up and missed that fish clean. But I also missed a hard hit on the Ned and lost a real nice Spot that I had on the Ned. So with the sun starting to break out and having more Ned areas than Blade areas. I starting running my Ned pattern and I would pick up the blade and sling it when it looked right. I got a lot more fish on the Ned and never another look on the blade. Maybe, I just have commitment issues, but I want to catch fish and not freeze to death. If I had gotten more bites on the blade, I would have been willing to suffer the elements. As it was , I was pretty cold all day long. I ended up with 21 bass and one Green Sunfish. I had a pile of keeper spots, several keeper LMB, and a handful of chunky smallies. No keeper size SMB. I used various colors on the Ned. I'm not married to any color. I pick based on water color and available light. I've caught fish on all 13 colors I tote. Yesterday, I used four colors. Fish were in general much shallower than I expected and all the fish felt warm to the touch Lol. I love my BassCat. She ate those White caps like a fat kid eating doughnuts. No problems at all. Despite the wind, I stayed dry. I might be getting used to running this boat.

More than any Brown trout I've ever caught. A bunch! 8-10 sounds right

Kept or released?. That's a fat pig either way.

Wind > 10 MPH bums me out with the Zig Jig. It's doable, but it bums me out. >15 mph and I don't jig fish.

Bring it LRF. I'll be fishing Tuesday.

That's a nice fish to be sure.

Gar do feed heavily on crappie. I've seen big gar swimming with keeper crappie sideways in their mouth. I don't worry about gar and bass very much, but I do worry about throwing a Megabass when there are lots of gar around. Crappie populations are very cyclic and are somewhat like rabbits. As many as 50% of the total crappie population leave the system every year. And to that wildly flucuating success with the spawn and you can see how numbers go up and down.

I've got a couple of broken Megabass that I might try to covert into spy baits

Glad to hear that you've been getting after them. My schedule has not been favorable with hte weather of late. I'm due to get screwed with by the weather my next day off as well, but I'm planning on going anyway. Thank You for the information.

Hey Super Dave is back! Actually used it on a stream in a COLD water situation recently. I had not really expected it to work nearly as well as it did. It outperformed a skirted jig and trailer that would have been the traditional choice. I alternated between the Ned and the Zig Jig. I felt like we did really well. I've been using the Ned in tandem with a tube the LITTLE bit I have been on the lake. Both got bit well.

I need to fish more.

Jackson!

Hey Pete, I'm 6'5" and I don't do SIK. I use sit on top yaks. and FWIW, the TM would make almost no difference in my opinion of using Pond Barge on the White River.

I'd really suggest renting a yak. It would be managable IF you really paid attention AND you had a managable water level like 1000-2000 CFS, but I wouldn't do it.

Y2k's with a zebra midge or prince nymph behnd it. Or a Zig Jig on spinning rod.

How much did the Crooked Creek and the Buffalo come up? The lower river might be dingy if those streams got a significant rise. I wish I was off, but I'll be working Friday thru Monday. PM me if I can help y'all

I rerally enjoy the natural sights and sounds that signal the seasonal changes. I enjoyed hearing the geese flying overhead last night also. I really look forward to hearing the frog songs of spring though.

No interest at all.

NIce fish man.

I know where I might go throw a baby crappie pattern squarebill soon.

I'd like to think that I'm starting to figure the Zig Jig thing out a little bit, but honestly with a little instruction and practice most anyone can catch a bunch of fish with them. You can catch more trout with them than is believable to some folks. Lol.

Generally speaking, If you fish with me, you get to use my stuff if you want / need to do so. I'm like a crack dealer giving you the first hit for free. Zig Jigs will ruin you quickly. I've got lots of jerkbaits, spoons, inline spinner, and trout crankbaits that rarely hit the water anymore. I still have some sample packs that Richard gave me to hand out last year. I've been giving them out ever since then. I'll be glad to hook you up with one of those.

Hey QB, For me, minimum flow equals 1/32 oz mostly with 1/16 oz in deeper holes or higher flow areas. I use 1/16 oz when I get water > 1000 CFS to around 2000 CFS. I'll use 1/8 oz as often as I can get away with it. I can usually get away with it when the water is > 2000 CFS, but the trout will quickly tell you what they do or do not want. IF you KNOW you're on fish and are not getting the bites you expect, try a different color or size jig. I carry more colors than are really needed. Get yourself 3-5 colors. in equal numbers of 1/16 and 1/8 oz. Just a guess, but I expect water btw 1000-5000 CFS.

You don't know us until you come meet us. You will be made welcome for sure, but be aware it is called Jigfest for a reason. I'm sure we'll have enough boats to find you a seat. It's gonna be fun.