Ham

I've done spinning, but prefer a medium action baitcaster with 10 lb fluro for throwing the Keitech 3.8 inch stuff. I use a fast action rod, but that's gonna be a personal preference thing. For a regular old grub, I love my GYCB drop shot rod. Soft tip, but plenty of backbone.

OMG! was the lid to your livewell open? Was a "keeper" actually kept? From Table Rock? Say it ain't so. The fishery might collapse. jk ok

. Wee small Hybrid Striper that ate a crappie jig when I was hurrying it back to the boat

I had to convince this guy to eat. He popped it a handful of times before holding on. I've NEVER caught an Ozark Bass in Bull Shoals. Several from Norfork

catfish are predators too

Green Sunfish eating it too

crappie on the Ned

It's so obvious how much love you have for your son and how much fun you are having with him as he grows up. God Bless you guys. Maybe one of these days I'll get to catch my own first Mayo Ditch perch too.

I like to fish them down and across in a current situation especially through a riffle. I think fish follow them a lot, but bite them better when they get a brief window to hit it. I have though caught bass in the past using a small Panther Martin (silver blade / yellow hackle) use slow rolling it in the spring. I kind of went overboard on the finesse stuff 20 years ago.

I think the non friend group would get them 3 for $5, but that's just me. Your time and your money so you charge what you want.

I don't know if it is a function of poor reading comprehension or what, but I sure don't get the hostility either. Dave has stated multiple times that Ned doesn't like that it got named after him. We call it the Ned rig because it is an easy name to use that gets us all on the same page. The Midwest Finesse guys have been sweating the details and screwing around with this for a long time, but I don't think any of them are claiming I did it first or look at me I do it better than you. The jig worm concept has been talked abound for at least three decades in various forms. I'm glad that it works for other ppl who found it (mostly) on their own, but don't understand how that invalidates the discussion of the Ned rig. I grew up fishing areas that would not allow the use of an open hook worm on bottom. It was a snag every cast and after a while Dad would have me take a break so he could fish instead of get me unsnagged AGAIN. It was Texas rig or nothing. Times change. I live up here now and much of my Atchafalaya Spillway fishing doesn't translate. I'm not so proud of my past fishing that I let it keep me from being open to new ideas. I appreciate the nudge to use the Ned rig . I'd read about it before, but I had thought it had more to do with the metro lakes it was being used in. Look, I have 100's of brand name Senkos and Dingers BUT I choose to use the cut Zeros because IF you glue it on with LocTite Gel that little chunk stays on there for hours and it seems to improve with age. I tried the cheapo super glue I use for other stuff, buit the Loc Tite is soooo much better for the Zeros. I can't make myself use GYCB 4 inch grubs anymore because I have to replace the grub after every fish. I can't imagine I would stay in my groove very well if I had to put another 1/2 chunk of Senko on after every third fish or so. I will use a 3 inch dinger on a crappie jig head in a creek scenario. I got 6-8 fish per dinger and I can live with that. Heck I've got to paddle down the creek every now and then anyway. In general, there is SMH about stuff on forums. Ppl just let stuff get under their skin too easily. IF reading about the Ned rig bums you out, don't click on the thread. Or here's another wonderful feature. The ignore button. Add users that annoy you to the ignore list. It's so nice.

Caught em on Morels I guess. NIce fish.

That ain't slow Dave that glacial. Good Grief man. I'll consider myself a work in progress. I spent a couple of hours on a 200 yard stretch, but did feel like I was moving too fast at times. I rolled the dial on the Minn Kota back to 30 (instead of 60 or 70) to make myself move more slowly. BTW I wonder what that Big LMB bass has been doing. Check out the tail. Just to remind ppl what you have said in the past, The Ned rig is not a search technique. It is a catching technique. Find the fish wth someting else and then catch them all with the Ned Rig aka little rig aka this tupid thing that shouldn't work but does. I got to the point yesterday when I cast was over once I caught a fish. Otherwise I'd just shake in place or hop it again. I had to talk the catfish into eating it.

You need new friends. They ought to be saying Thank You.

Zig Jig's. They are almost all I fish with for trout anymore. I buy mine by the dozen off the website, but they are sold in 3 packs at Harps in Mtn Home. There are lots of jiigs that work well. Lots of ppl like the PJ's jigs. I think the Zig Jig is better, but that's just me. I haven't been on the White in a while, but they eat Zig Jigs in almost all conditions. I shy away from jigs when they are running > 20,000 CFS. It's also tough to catch them when the water is muddy or trashy with loose bits of algae. I've posted lots of trip reports and detailed sizes and colors of jigs I use and when and where. I hate to keep reposting the same stuff. I've caught literally hundreds and hundreds of trout out of Cotter. It's a nice area and fishes well from 800-8000 CFS. I'll fish from the first big river bend above the 62 Bridge down to the water treatment plant downsriver from Roundhouse Shoals out of the Cotter ramp. IF I want to be further downriver, I launch at Rim Shoals. I also carry inline spinners (Rooster Tails) and spoons (Thomas Bouyant) for folks that can't get the feel of the jig at least a little bit. Most ppl can catch at least a few fish on the Zig Jig. The first few are the hardest to catch. It gets much easier after the first few fish. Look at the Zig Jig website as well. Richard fishes the jig differently than I do and He catches the fire out of them. He has a pretty detailed break down on how to fish them. You do want a quality 4-6 lb line and a decent rod/reel combo. Lots of jerkbaits work, but you need some flow. I tend to use F7's and F9's in minimal flow and CD7's or CD9's in higher flow on spinning or Rogues nad McSticks on baitcasting. I do a much more subdued jerkbait retrieve for trout than I do for warm water species, but play with retrieves. What the trout want varies day to day. edited because I'm a knucklehead

It was a day custom made for Ned fishing. Norfork had lots and lots of traffic as well. I had a spot I wanted to fish again ONCE the fish got going in the afternoon and I could never get back on it. It was a new spot to me, but a dozen other boats must have known about it already.

http://www.hogsonthefly.com

Awww man Les, I wish I had known you were around. I could have told you where NOT to fish for crappie. I caught a pile of shorts on Tuesday. I had one real nice crappie on the Ned. I did pull up to a dock and se a HUGE school of crappie. They were sillouetted by the sun. I could count 30, but I'm sure there were many more deeper in the water. But seriously, always give me a call when you're in town. I might have intell that will help. I'll help if I can and I won't shoe horn in on your trip.

Lake Level 554.36 at launch , water is gin clear at dam slightly stained in creek arms until you go ALL the way back. BLUEBIRD skies. Wind less than 5 MPH. I got a late start. I put the boat in the water about 0815. I launched at Quarry Park. I'm dealing with another cold and not sleeping well. Felt pretty run down, but I had been dying to go fishing for quite a while and this was the hand I was dealt. at 0815 the sun is FULLY up and I had no morning topwater bite. I started off trying some flat gravel points looking for smallies. I love a grub bite, but I found no takers. I mixed a jerkbait in a little too. Water had 20 plus foot of visibility. I tried multiple points and high spots way off shore, but nope. Water temp was mid 50's. I spent a couple of hours trying to make something happen before I ran to my fish from last Tuesday up a creek arm. I got to my place that was magic with the Ned Rig last Tuesday. I threw a Ned and a Tube for quite a while before I got my first fish. A 2 pound Channel cat on the Ned. I slowed down and grind out some bites, I had 5 fish in the boat by noon. I had a few fish come off and I had a few bites where the zero gets skewered on the hook preventing a hookset. This is annoying when you are struggling. BUT I was starting to dial in where my bites where coming from and what I thought the fish were doing. I finally bailed on my magic spot and relocated to the bank I was looking for. I tried spy baiting looking for cruisers off a bluff wall. ZERO takes. I saw some fish easing around BUT They wanted nothing to do with the spy bait. I busted out the Ned again. First cast I caught a nice spotted bass. Second cast another fish. Third cast, I lost a fish on the way back to the boat. Dialing in now. I continues to pick up fish down that bank. I exhausted that area and ran to some docks looking to punish some spots on docks. I got a nice Ozark Bass, but no spots. I headed to another bluffy bank and it was game on. Fish, fish, fish, fish, Fish were scattered from 5 foot to 20 foot. I felt some bites, but not most. I got to 50 fish before 5 pm and 77 fish by the end of the day. the VAST majority of which came of the Ned. I released multiple limits of keeper spots. I had a few keeper LMB bass as well. I had a handful of SMB, but they were all small. Location, location, location. Smallies can roam where ever they want, but they don't like where I was very much. Spots like it very much. I used PBJ and Green Pumpkin/Orange Zeros. The fish did not want my watermelon red one. I got a few on Bama bug late. I used 1/16 oz heads. Old school Gopher and Skinny Bear weedless. 8 lb Nano with a 8 of 10 lb leader. EASY fishing. I caught 7 different species of fish. Around 5 pm the floodgates opened and I had boats all over me and the areas I wanted to fish. I'm sure word is out that Norfork is fishing crazy good right now. As usual, not much being said about Bull Shoals. It sure was nice having a 15 minute trailer home at the end of the day.

The deadstick technique is so counter intuiative to our normal fishing techniques. Heck, it's hard for me to dead stick natural baits. I also worry a little bit about gut hooking smallies this time of year as well. I've got an area I'm going to spend hours in tomorrow. I fished it for about 30 minutes Tuesday and I had a bite almost every cast. One of the benefits of nanofil is that it will float on the surface and you get a nice strike indicator without having to have a tight line on the fish. I love the easy and solid hooksets too. Oddly enough, I'll be fishing Norfork tomorrow. I have that key area I'll be going to. It won't hurt my feelings if I work it back and forth all day, but I have a couple of nice looking areas nearby that I'll hit if I have time. Including a nice looking off shore ara where fish might stage.

I fished with my Father in Law from 0900-1700. We were hoping to get into some crappie. They had been biting, but today was MUCH slower according to ppl we talked to on the water. I did a lot of searching and eventually a lot of catching. Sunny weather and clear water are a bad mix. We did not catch a crappie until I went way up a major creek and found off color water. Quite the multi species day. White Bass, Hybreds, Smallies, LMB, Spotts, Black and White Crappie, Bluegill, and a Walleye. But only one keeper crappie was caught. I had 38 fish. My father in law had less, but he caught more than a few. I busted out the Ned for about 30 minutes and caught 6 bass and lost about three more. That little sucker was on fire. I can only imagine what a full day fishing the Ned would have been like.

I understand the "new" cover in Bull won't last forever. I hoping for good spawns for a while 659 doesn't restrict my access at all.

I freqking love the new minimum flow and I think the new 659 as normal is really going to help the warm water fish of Bull Shoals.

I'm all about multispecies fishing. I'd give the bluegill a little while to get going better. Like a few weeks.

Pretty interesting. I might get a couple of packs the next time I place a Tackle Warehouse order.