Ham

Hey Wrench, not a shot just an observation. I'm you enjoy your boats. I know I enjoy mine.

Hey Wrench, you missed my point ; Lots of new fishing boats on the market that the total cost of GREATLY exceeds 30K. Glad you're happy with your choices. Nice to see you're still making friends.

The guys in Kansas spent a whole lot of time sweating the details and were nice enough to share. If they made some money off of it, more power to them. Making a little money off something DOES NOT make you a bad person or make your actions less valuable. I'm amused by all the folks that get center hung on the idea that "they didn't invent it". Cool. Hang your hat on that idea. Meanwhile, I'll go catch 100's of fish with it and wish those guys all the success in the world.

So Bill had the Ned since 2010 and was holding out on us?

Wrench, you need to take another look at new boat prices.

Yep. Log Perch. yaknar catches a bunch of them. Cajunangler caught one on a Ned Rig this year. I caught one on NFOW on a Zig Jig. Largest member of the darter family.

wow

I may go Thursday and just force myself to stay out and fish the 20-40 foot zone. I'm still catching plenty of fish shallow, but they are mostly small. I am getting a few keepers per trip, but not as many as I would like. In years past, I could go out there and drag a tube and get GOOD fish. All the fish would be good chunks. Not all of them would keep, but all of them made me smile. I also would get a few eyes thrown in the mix. I was surprized at first how many eyes were biting the tube, But not anymore. I may very well do a solo trip and just grind and try new things. No pressure to put other people on fish. I picked up a nail or something and I will have to get one of my boat trailer tires repaired first though.

I've seen almost no surface activity and when I do see surface strikes, it's one fish and not a group of fish, sorta hurts my feelings.

My fish are changing daily. I am NOT seeing the seasonal pattern set up the way it has in the past. We had 6 fish at noon and rallied to finnish with 60 bass brought to hand, BUT many of them are small. I had one non bass. Another channel cat on a finesse soft plastic. It would be interesting to try to catch catfish right now. I'm saving that for a Mississippi river trip though. Water clarity was very much reduced from last Saturday. 10 foot or so instead of 20' I spend all morning trying to target bigger fish deeper. I was fishing water 15-30 foot. No soap. I caught the vast majority of my fish < 15 FOW. We had 2 fish on baitcasters every thing else was on spinning. Very different weather than my last few trips, and my fish were not where I have been catching them. I had to find new fish, but I did find them.

Great fish and an absolute BEAST on a fly rod I'd bet.

Good for you and good for him. I'd probably get him a gift card to somewhere (Bass Pro, Cabela's, Chili's, Outback, etc) as a Thank You.

It is a massive lake and the different parts of it can fish very differently. I'm not finding stuff to be quite as easy as they are. Still catching them though.

Just fish 1/32 or 1/16 oz Zig Jigs with your flyrod. He also sells micro jigs for your flyrod and I personally have caught dozens of trout on them as well.

I use everything from 1/32 oz to 1/4 oz depending on flow, but I mainly use 1/16 and 1/8 oz. Simple version : less than 2000 cfs = 1/16 oz > 2000 cfs = 1/8 oz more than 15000 CFS don't jig fish. buy three colors. triple olive, olive/ginger, and brown/orange that is my go to three colors. I carry more than that, but those should work for you.

remind me when this is closer. IF I'm not working and the wife doesn't have me chained to a wall, I may well be interested in fishing together. I have a trout boat , canoe, and kayaks so we ought to be able to make something work.

Yep, It's definitely a spinning reel deal. Richard Cross swears by 4 lb line for the Zig Jig and Phil Lilly stands by as light as 2 lb line at times. I mostly use nanofil with a 6 lb leader, but I always use spinning. I find a UL or light rod throws better and doesn't overpower the trout as bad.

"open face" does this mean baitcaster or spinning reel? I can't imagine fishing Zig Jigs ona bait caster, but somewhere someone probably does.

so was the recommendation approved?

Simply put, IF they are running big water > 18,000 CFS any 5 HP on any frame is going to have trouble going upstream. I would guess that you would float at least 15 miles over the two days. If you were lucky and made 5 mph headway against the current (and I think it might be less), that's 3 hours motoring back on the second day. I'd rather fish than motor back for 3 hours.

I think the campground is named "Blue Heron". And I agree completely that running back up is not going to be optimal.

Are you fishing the midwest finesse rig on baitcasters too?

I have not fished the trout water section of the current river, but I am very confident that Zig Jigs would work. The other lures you mentioned should work also. I prefer the single hook on the Zig Jig both for the fish and for me.

As with many things, the knots yiou can use get easier with practice. I tie a leader long enough that the knot is just shy of being on the real. That gives me several re-ties before a new section of leader is required. I use the leader until it gets down to 18-24 inches or so. I won't start a trip at 18 inches. I'll re-tie before a trip IF the leader is fairly short. I use the Alberto because it is slimmer and flies thru the guides easier, but a uni to uni works also. Neither knot takes very long once you tie them a few times and BOTH knots are very reliable.

That's a GREAT boat at a very good price for the right person. I started off in sometihng very much like that rig. Great bang for the buck.