Ham

How can you not catch one of those little demons? They are the prettiest fish that swims in our waters, but dang they can be annoying.

I foul hooked a nice spoonbill on TR up the James River arm years ago. I gut him in the dorsal fin with a Norman Little N. It came within inches of spooling me, but we chased him a little bit and I wore him down. Way too big for any net and we had no net in the boat anyway. A couple of quick pics boatside and then I popped the hooks out. I don't think I would do the true snagging thing though.

Sounds like a great day to me. Sounds like I need to put the Bass Cat in over at Bull Shoals.

You can always motor up a good ways from the Buffalo, but there is an area that is all but dry in drought years for a LONG ways up. In low water years, that's a deal breaker. This year hasn't been dry, but it is still likely impossible to go all the way to Rush.

Throw it where the wood ain't. Lol. I still get snagged on wood and occassionally rock. Trout will use wood as a current break and as cover. I do try to fish it, but I visually work the jig thru and around it. Sometimes, I get lucky.

I figured roughfish.com would be of interest to you. 27 it is. The sculpin would not play. Yet. John have you caught any sturgeon yet?

Thanks Guys! Honest to God, I had some periods where I felt like I was struggling. I sort of expect a bite every cast. I expect to hook most of my bites and land most of the fish hooked. If I go 10 minutes without a fish, I start to press. The wheels never came off though. I kept tweaking location and the types of water I was fishing. The fish do move around and concentrate in different areas from day to day. I could have fished better. 200 is very doable, but it's difficult to fish hard for 10 hours. It was a numbers trip. I prefer to fish with others and I can't get these numbers UNLESS it's a solo deal. I'm not going to hog the fish when I'm with others. I want the folks with me to catch a lot of fish too. Maybe one less than me, but still. I had an unexpected amount of company, but that will wind down. Other than my sucker fishing, everything was on a Zig Jig.

It seems a lot of the one a year floater types throw their entire trash bag into the garbage at the end of the float. I rescue a couple of new ish trash bags every so often.m

The deer are out and about. I saw multiple different Bald Eagles. I saw several different mink. Of course, I also saw Great Blue Herons, Fox squirrels, Kingfishers, Crows, turtles, and buzzards. Most of the day was perfect weather wise. I got chilly running first thing, but that was my bad. I got annoyed at the wind, but it would have been great for bass fishing.

I fished with the jigs I had tied on from a few days ago. Olive/Ginger and Brown/Orange. I did indeed buy some Pinky Bling. I thought about using one today, but I was getting bit as it was. I would have loved your company today.

Northern Hog Sucker from today.

I planned an all day trip setting my sights pretty high. I wanted >100 trout, >10 smallies, a sucker, and a sculpin. I got most of that done and then some. The day started off cooler than I had dressed for really. Sun was really bright with lots of glare all day. I also had a lot more wind than was originally forecast. It blew me upstream at times that sucks. I also had more company than I wanted all day long. I had the boat in the water a little after 0800 and made a lengthy run up river. I struggled at first and had only caught 13 fish by 1000. Not good I tweaked location and presentation and started picking fish up more steadily. I was up to 47 sih when I stopped for a quick sandwich. Switched location and got my smallmouth fix. I caught 11 in the first location. I found a new hotspot and added 4 more later. I also had a very confused Largemouth in the bunch as well. I also caught a big bluegill and a handful of Long Ear Sundish. I lost a huge smallmouth. I'm sure in was >20 inches. I was totally shocked that I stumbled across one that large. I fish my Zig Jigs barbless and it cost me today. I had that fish on for a long time and I was winning, but on one of the fish's last few runs, it ruined it's head just right and the jig came out. Returned to trout fishing, I dialed in better on the water the trout wanted today and my numbers improved. I headed back downriver when I got to 100 fish. Picking up a few smallies along the way. I had rigged up a live bait rod and quickly picked up a Northern Hog Sucker. I couldn't keep the trout off of it long enough to get any more suckers. The trout kept making a mess of my rigging. Freaking worms get but early and often by trout. Put that stuff away. Finished my day in one of my favorite stretches. I worked some big boulders with a tiny jig looking for a sculpin. Dis not happen, I gave it about 30 minutes, but nothing. Odd. Worked 1/16 oz and 1/8 oz jigs through faster water late and put the finishing touches on the day. I had kept three trout for a coworker. So I quit fishing at 1800 to clean those fish and put it on the trailer. I caught 162 fish on day. No trout >16 inches but lots and lots of > 13 inches fish. Fat and happy No Brown trout. Zero. One trout caught with a lamprey attached. Several more with lamprey wounds. I also saw a few swimming with a lamprey attached. It will get worse before it gets better. The trout are biting.

Yes, Harp's in Mrn Home has them. That might even be a 24 hour store. I think Crandield Junction might have a few. Harp's have a decent selection. It is the three pack and they retail for $6.00. Good jigs. You should average > 30 fish per jig.

That's what keeps me from a trip up there. You better have a plan B and a plan C and a plan D for when the weather screws you and won't let you play on the big water.

*speechless*

Oh, I'm never ready to quit fishing, but at some point I like to eat.

I just hate to see you handicapping yourself fishing that noodle all the time. Just imagine how good a fisherman you could be with a real fishing rod. Lol. That's actually a fairly scary though. Lol.

There will be no shortage of boats. I'm good running mine or rising with others. I enjoyed being a part of the show and I think it would be fun to film Jigfest. We still have a little time to think about things. One thing we could improve on is maybe cutting the fishing time just a little so that we can get the food in the evening going a little sooner. I don't remember eating breakfast or lunch either day and that might be part of why I was in a hurry for supper. One of the worst things is not being able to fish with everybody before the deal is over. It's a good problem to have I guess.

I feel certain that I could build brackets that would allow me to use exiting Bimini tops. I'd want to able to quickly connect and disconnect the Bimini top. The brackets would stay in place on the hand rails. I'll talk to Dean's and see if this wheel has already been invented.

Gets a little warm in the summer sometimes. Anybody seen a trout boat with a bimini top? I might inquire with the good folks at Deans. I'm in no hurry and it might even wait until my next trout boat, but just wondering if anyone has done this or seen it done.

Current in MO. Yes, I had a goal of 52 species this year. It was always going to be very difficult to get there and I have missed on multiple attempts to catch some odd ball stuff. I actually had a Rainbow darter hooked up and lost it before I could get a hand on it. I still think I can get to 40 or so species this year. I don't know that I've ever done a complete life count of species. I really should. Check out www.roughfish.com I think it would be right up your alley. I think they've added another bass species recently. I fished the LLano River and caught smallie/ guad hybrids. There aaren't many full guads left. I'd love to go catch Shoal Bass and Suwannee Bass though.

It all honesty, I would have been much happier if they had just been able to replace the rod that was broken. I only had it a month and I loved it. It fished the Ned really, really well. I never felt under gunned on the hookset and it let me enjoy the fish. Very light in the hand. Has your farming buddy fished the River Runner rod? I immediately thought of him when I was fishing it. It would me much more responsive than the noodles he prefers, but still soft enough to let the fish load on the rod. I bet he'd love it. I appreciate you pulling your boy out of school for the day. I'd wager he learned more with you than he missed out on in class. Not suggesting that he doesn't need school, but a day fishing with Dad every now and again is a GOOD thing.

Left work a few minutes early to make a mad dash to the river this afternoon, I got the boat in the water right at 5 PM. I motored downriver a couple miles and started fishing. I was into fish immediately. They were biting about as well as I have ever seen. I was getting bitten nearly every cast for extended periods of time. I had gotten a warranty replacement rod for a Fenwick Elitech Smallmouth rod. A young man that was using it broke it while fishing a Ned Rig with me. It took kinda of a long time, but Fenwick sent me a Fenwick Elitech River Runner 6'9" LF-2. I was anxious to try it out. Previously, I had bought a St Croix Premier 7 ft UL rod. I caught a fish on the very first cast I ever made with it. I decided I wanted to catch a fish on the very first cast with the new Fenwick too. You get one chance ever to pull this off. No pressure right? I made a big cast out and across the river and instantly got whacked. Nice 14 inch colored up Rainbow. I had gotten it done. I caught a bunch more on that rod before the trip was over. it took a while to get the feel for it and in some ways I know it cost me some fish, but I wanted to try it. It's a good trout rod. Super light weight. A true light action rod. I had hopes the Fenwick would be a great crappie rod too, but It isn't going to replace my old Shimano Aero rods. It is a joy to fish with, but I still prefer to use my Dorber OMT rods to the Fenwick. They are more sensitive and I can lean on them a little more. The Fenwick is light,pretty, and fairly sensitive, but soft. I did notice that a lot of the trout had taken the jig in much deeper with the Fenwick than the Dorber. I don't feel the bite as soon and I can't snatch it away form the trout as easily. It loads and throws little jigs a ton. The Fewick is way too light to be ANY sort of bass rod. The FE Smallmouth rod fished a Ned great, but this rod is far too light. With our high humidity levels, fog started building up early. It made me cut my trip short. I put the boat back on the trailer before 6:30 PM. I fished about 1 1/4 hours and got 44 to hand. Lots of real nice fish, but nothing over 16 inches.

Only 26. My homey caught this beautiful Northern Hog Sucker on a grub. . Still pretty jealous. I've caught em before just not this year.