Ham

I fished BSL up the Theodosia arm yesterday. I tried to keep the boat speed down because I was dodging trees. The fish are still there and TCB. Use caution, but go fish!

I primarily fish for a kayak so I carry a 1/2 ton of lures. I use most of what I carry from time to time. There's a lot of the same baits in different colors. A walk the dog bait, buzz baits, some top waters, some cranks, some jerkbairs, some jigs, and a lot of soft plastics which are generally fished on jig heads. I am very satisfied with what I carry. I'm not looking for any more stuff to carry AND I'm not trying to convince anyone else to carry what I carry.

I'd love for BSL to go to 664 or so about every third year and slowly drop to 654 by August, but again the water management totally ignore what would be good for fishing.

How far are you from Roaring River? It recovers from high flow quickly and there is water there that isn't like Disneyland.

Regardless, a great story. Thanks for the pictures of the little guy. Several decades ago my Dad and some fishing buddies were cleaning fish on a camping trip, and found a baby turtle in one of the fish. It was closed up tight in the fish's stomach, but revived once washed off. They released in back into the water and it swam off apparently no worse for wear. Your little turtle would likely go all medieval on a small crawfish or an earthworm. Avoid the red Wigglers as a food source though. Too high in nitrogen to be healthy for the turtle. It'd still turn it loose if it were me.

Hog, P-Line CX Premium is a co-poly. Mono covered with fluro. Thin and supple, but the fluro coating will get damage if you wrap it on a guide or something. I have been using a uni to uni knot for braid to mono or flour with 8 turns on the braid and 5 turns on the mono, but Cajun Angler showed me the Alberto knot which shapes up a little slimmer. I'm going to give that a shot this season. For fluro to mono, I use a surgeon's knot.

I look forward to the pictures.

I've used McCoy's and it is a good line. I think that they "under label" their strength. Ie I think their 8 lb is likely a 10 lb line. Seemed thinker for 8 than it needed to be. I used Silver Thread AN40 and Super Silver Thread for years. It is a good co-poly line that I was able to get very inexpensively in bulk. still use those for lake fishing. I went to the dark side with CX Premium for my smallie fishing to get smaller diameter and hopefully less negative drag on the bait. BPS Excel is a perfectly acceptable line and is quite inexpensive in the 4-8 pound range. It's even on sale right now. I've heard it's Trilene XL, but you hear all kinds of things.

12 or 14 pound copoly for baitxaster. 6 and 8 lb P Line CX Premium on spinning. I have been using Power Pro 20/6 on one of my spinning rod to help with hook sets. I've been happy so far.

Bring your favorite 10 colors. Throw the one that looks best for the water you are in. I've caught a few nice fish of all three species of bass at TR on Senkos, but it wasn't magic or a secret color.

Thanks Bry!

What's the expression about wishing in one hand? It won't hurt my feeling if they make A rigs illegal, but I'll fish them up until they make them illegal.

It'll be stupid good in mid May. Do an archive search for Table Rock fishing reports and read what worked in previous years. Fish will MOST likely still be fairly active and fairly shallow. You'll want to be on the water AT daylight and dark. There will be less ppl water sking then.

I didn't know anybody fished anything but an Alabama rig anymore.

Has the courtesy dock at Oakland Ben repaired or replaced? I may need to launch there soon. Thanks, Ham

Oh hell yeah playa. Let it warm up a tad and I'm there. I'll call to make sure of availability first.

Wobblehead's originated in the Monroe, La area. I was all but forced by law to use them some when I lived in that area. The only way I rigged them was with a straight tailed worm. Floating worms or Creme worms. The only way I successfully fished them was slow and steady winding them in around vegetation or wood cover on flats. Kinda of a strange bite. Fish seem to nip at it some before they take it. I had to make myself wait until the line got heavy before I set the hook. I still own several heads and the worms to use with it, but I don't seem to fish water that would make me reach for it.

I love loons. I enjoy watching them and hearing them call. Cool bird. I hope they take the appropriate steps the reverse the problems in that part of NE where the study was done. Have the studies been duplicated in other areas of the country? Is lead in fishing lures used in AR and MO an issue for loons or other waterfowl here in Arkansas? If the lead we use in our lures here in Arkansas is not causing ham to birds here, why should I give it up?

Caddis already?

Big Creek on Bull Shoals is on the North side of the lake roughly inbetween Buck Creek (tot he west) and Oakland (to the east). I would guess the mouth of Big Creek to be about 10 miles by water from the Oakland ramp.

Railroad track is surprisingly dense. Hard to believe how much a 4 foot length of it weighs.

Sheet metal screws.

Jason ONLY uses Flyrods and he mostly fishes musky back home so he was pretty locked in on the hero or zero big streamer deal. He had an extended follow from a GIANT Brown on the White. He also got all four species of trout, but not all on the same day. Maybe next time. I did get him to use his 4 weight a little bit. He's good with that too. I enjoyed fishing with you again. I also enjoyed meeting Duke the International dog of mystery. Throw us a fishing report from the land of beer and cheese from time to time OK?

It is certainly possible to overfish them. I am total catch and release on White Bass s I doubt I'm denting the population much. I think their population is always going to be cyclic with weather variations impacting the success of the spawn, but high rates of fish being kept can impact their spawn as well. I'm good with whatever the Wildlife and Fisheries guys recommend, but it seems like 10 fish a person per trip would be plenty.

Thanks for the report.