Ham

Casting that jig or long poling ? I like doing both, but I've been missing long poling.

Wow

If it is sunny, I always reach for Olive/Ginger first UNLESS I'm fishing a shad kill below a dam. I'll always reach for White first when fishing immediately below the dam when a shad kill is happening or might have been happening soon. I use Triple Olive a lot. I probably start with it first if it is cloudy. I also use a lot of Brown/Orange in the fall. I tend to reach for straight Ginger if there is a lot of loose algae blowing down the river like after a big increase in generation. Color matters when it matters. Some days its huge and some days they bite all the colors about the same. I think you bought two good colors. Talking with Richard, he says different guys have all sorts of different colors they swear by. I think he said he offers them in 47 colors or something like that. I'm trying real hard not to carry all 47 colors. I talk pretty openly about trout fishing. I'm not saying anything to the general public about my river smallie fishing and I don't give up my crappie spots either.

Man That's Great. I'm super jealous. I've got to take the time to catch more crappie.

I've just gotta so spoiled by Zig Jigs. The boat caught over 100 fish and yet the fishing seemed much slower than usual, BFT, there is a brief window of time were the bite is exceptional between the dam and the upper edge of the State Park. The large numbers of trout that have had three months to get fat, dunb, and happy w/o being harassed by fishermen are in that upper section get tired of boat traffic and being caught. We had 6500 CFS dropping to 2000 CFS. I would have loved 10000 CFS dropping to 6000 CFS. We caught fish above the park, but caught as many or more between the Park and Gaston's. Don't rule out trying that area.

It was my pleasure to make a trip with Richard Cross and Brett LRF. We used Brett's Supreme today. It's a nice boat. The 48 inch hull makes a difference and I like his Merc Jet. I ran the boat all day which made me pretty nervous. We started up at the dam. The bloom is off that rose a bit. We caught them OK, butt not great. We broke for lunch at 1 PM. Richard was very gracious and picked up the tab at KT's. Good freaking eats boys. We fished out our afternoon at Buffalo City. We caught them a little better down there. ( I actually caught almost the same exact number of fish both places). I know it was kind to Brett and Richard. I think we caught fish on like 9 different colors of Zig Jigs. We had plenty of fat and happy Rainbows. Late in the day, karma rewarded Richard with a very nice 23 plus inch Brown he caught in High current. There's not only photos but also video. We shot a lot of video today. It will be edited down into a show one of these days. Brett will put up a link when that's available. Brett ran cameras all day, but still managed to catch some good fish. No doubt that hurt his numbers some. Richard's the man. He clearly caught the most fish and had big fish of the day. I ended up with 39. The bite was only fair. I think I caught a few more that I forgot to click, but I stand by the number that actually got documented. I had so much fun today and learned a little more about Zig Jigs and fished some water more thoroughly than I ever had before. It was a beautiful day especially with what's coming tomorrow. Gosh, I'm going to sleep well tonight.

I prefer the Zig JIg over PJ's jigs. I think the Zig Jig has a better hook and a little better head design. BUT having said that, the PJ's jigs are just fine and if Richard ever decides to stop making Zig Jigs, I'll turn to PJ's when I run out of inventory. The moral of the story is that if you have plenty of PJ's jigs, I'm not sure you need to go buy any Zig Jigs.

I think it's a pretty cool deal. I'm usually working or in the middle of an OOT fishing trip. I'm been to some of it a couple of days. I usually turn the river over to the out of town guests during that event. I have the reast of the year to sore mouth them.

Lots of good looking boats on the market this spring.

I'm still rolling in my 2003 Tarpon 120. I also have a 2005 Tarpon 100. Both of tyhose are fine boats, but my next one is going to be a Coosa. It isn't the absolute weight that has to be considered. My Tarpon 120 is around 65 lbs. Lifting a 65 lb barbell over your head is no big deal. Put 20 lbs on a long awkward to hold level and it gets more interesting. I throw my boats in the back of a pickup truck. Very easy.

A Coosa is going to be my next boat and I'd love to get a used one that's in as a good a shape as this one. I think it's a good buy for someone. Be advised you can rent one from Justin @ Sunburst and try before you buy, but be warned once you try one, you're really gonna want to buy one. I'd bust the road trip to St Louis to get it BUT I can not take on more debt right now.

LED light on headband. LED lantern for in the tent. 6V LED flashlight just in case. Relatiively cheap. Easy on batteries. Pretty lightweight.

I'm planning on spending significant time with 1) Ned Rigs 2) Tubes with insert jig heads and 3) Spy Bainting.. I'm still hoping to get on a post spawn Topwater bite.

Congrats joeD you've joined a select group. Please feel free to ignore all future posts from me regarding the White River and any other subject, but since you are a self described "selfish prick" I doubt you'll do so. I expect you'll keep reading my posts taking whatever information from them you can and offering your signature sour grapes in return if my results exceed your abilities.

Thin rope or cord to hang clothes and/or secure canoe. Piece of plywood to make a table top on the cooler for supper. gloves to handle hot roasted corn on the cob. gotta have chairs fire grate and wire brish air mattress change of clothes and dry shoes so nice to change out of the wet stuff at the end of the day. IF it's warm, soap/shampoo to wash the grit off before supper. you guys nailed all I look for in a gravel bar. I want smallish gravel under the tent. Hate sand. ample Firewood is a must. A little elevation in case of a river rise. a little open terrain to let a breese blow the bugs off. running water to suppress unwanted noise. I want to be under stars and NOT under branches.

Nice Looking boat. I can't buy it right now, but I hope someone takes it off your hands soon.

I like a Fat Ika. I use it as a heavy solid body tube on a football head. I've caught good smallmouth on it.

I guess we'd all rather have the old ones, but the new ones work. Troutgnat schooled my butt at bull one day. He out caught me about 5:1 and it was all technique driven. He puts a lot of thought and effort into each cast. I was chunking and winding. I need to improve.

Yeah. I'm not wild about the concept, but it's what my Dad wanted.

I mostly got White Crappie, but I got a couple Black Crappie too.

Day 3 we opted for Big Cypress Bayou at Karnack Texas. It was a zoo. People everywhere. It took a while, but we managed to long line some crappie. We also got some LMB, Bluegill, and some male White Bass. I caught 15 and my Dad had a few less. Lots of bites, but wind, current , and boat wakes made strike detection difficult.

big sow

It isn't illegal to hand feed Eagles in WI?

It was toasty warm and Spring has arrived down here. Wind was light and variable. Fish location was so random.