Ham

Shimano spinning reels don't bind, Frog Toggs don't fall apart, and Fishing Reports don't hurt small fisheries. Or so some believe.

It is listed as a MDC access. I'll have to figure out how to drive to the Bird Island place. I don't mind paying for a service and I'll mind my manners and behave.

Is there any signage at Berry Bluff to help you find the actual access?

I love my Tarpon(s). I fish all the rivers you have mentioned except the Mulberry. The Tarpom has never let me down and I've never been disappointed with it. AND there have been some positive changes made since I bought my Tarpon in 03(?). I think the gear carrying capacity of a T120 is under appreciated, but it isn't the pack mule a canoe can be. Read the links Gavin posted for you. PM me if you want more of my take on things. Quick answers though. Tarpon is best at Class I and maybe some Class II. There are some maniacs using thigh straps putting a T120 through Class III water. That ain't me. A Tarpom is a great day boat. It CAN be an overnighter boat if you can live without the kitchen sink. Full discloser: I consider overnight trips to be more fun with someone else. I use a tandem canoe for overnight adventures. Solo canoes arer another great option. Look at both before you decide.

I throw dollars at more expensive baits so take what I'll say next with a grain of salt ; If you caught 100's of quality fish on the stock baits, do you expect to catch multiples of that on the ones you prettied up? How much of the $20 are the super hooks? Have you tried the baits with the bad paint jobs with the better hooks? Would the better hooks alone be a good enough improvement? I tend to worry about color schemes a LOT more on topwater baits and susp jerkbaits so I would sweat the details there as well. Fair Warning : Keep running your mouth about that Norman Top Dollar bait and I'll stock up on them as well. PS: Th efeathers you tied in look just fine.

I'll be keeping any that I catch that are large enough to eat. I wish I knew how to catch more of them and the larger ones.

Crooked Creek is a shadow of what it used to be. I think Gravel Mining was the biggest part of its degredation, but increased fishing pressure took a toll as well. If you think Crooked Creek is one of the Top Five Smallmouth Stream in America, you are either delusional or ignorant. I don't mean either of terms as an insult, but just descriptive of fact. I'm not sure that Crooked Creek was ever in the Top Five. Go fish some rivers in Maine, Minn, the New River in Virginia, John Day River, the Columbia River, the Susky, and about 100 other great smallmouth rivers and get back to us on Crooked Creek being in the Top Five. I love Crooked Creek, but I don't lie to myself about it being one of the Top Smallmouth Rivers in the country.

Sorry to hear about his health troubles. It's great that ya'll are able to share your love and your love of fishing. I was happy to see your recovery and I'll be happy to see Champs recovery. God Bless and Good Fishig as soon as he is able. If you need intell on Bull Shoals, PM me. I'll start fishing BSL agin in a month or so. I'm still creekin right now.

The dredging is just another insult to a nice river. Bad in the short term, but most likely no big deal in the long term. The young drunk and stoopids are a much bigger problem and reflect the attitude the locals have about that river. If the locals don't care enough to change things, then I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I'd like to get over there and fish again, but I won't fish it any where near a weekend from May through September. PLUS, I've got lots better lots closer.

Thanks Eric. I could not have said that any better than you did. You believe what you want GM, but you are bringing extra pressure on the areas you fish and that is NOT a good thing. It's worse when you bring extra pressure on areas that I fish.

One of the best ways to avoid problems with spinning reels is to get the line on THIGHT and twist free by trolling it out behind your boat without a lure on it. Let the line out and ease along with your line trailing out behind you. After a few minutes, wind the line back on against the pressure of the moving water and the line wil be on tight and mostly twist free. Line twist can be the issue, but as often as not, the problems I run into are loose loops of line coming off from underneath other line. I routinely "trail" my spinning rods and don't have much of an issue with it. There are real advantages to braid, but there are real disadvantages as well. I do use braid for certain applications on spinning and baitcasting, but braid IS NOT part of my normal river/creek fishing trip.

Seaguar Abras X 15 lb or the new Trilene 100% Fluro.

Call the guys at TW and ask. I was guessing they are custom repaints of stock warts, but that's as much as I thought about it.

I took the 4 wt out for a spin today. I was pretty darn pleased with it. I fished a stimulator with a beadhead midge as a dropper. It is SO MUCH fun watching a trout rise up to slurp that stimulator dowm. I fshed a scud under an indicator as well, but I was ruined by having fished the topwater stuff first. After one wind knot too many, I tied a solo hopper on and fished my way out. I ended up giving 17 trout to hand. No browns but I did get a cutty. I got lots of looks. I feel like I learned a lot about fishing hoppers today. Stuff to build on. If the 4 wt did ok with a big ole hopper pattern, I don't expect to have many issues with smaller drys and soft hackles.

Sounds like a heck of a place.

Run the other way as fast as you can!

Thanks PC. I have a 9' 4 piece 4 weight ordered. I was able to use a Cabela's coupon that runs out on 8-10-10 and cover the shipping as well. I have the reel and the line all ready to go so I should get to try it out this time next week.

There's a world record Brown trout swimming in the White right now. Getting it to bite and landing it once you hook it are all that stands in the way. The current Brown Trout regs are going to give us a LOT more chances at catching big browns. About the only regulation changes I'd be passiomately in favor of making would be to make all on the Norfork river below the dam to the confluence TOTAL catch and release AND stopping all fishing when the oxygen levels get too low. Let the biologist set the boundries for that area and set up the oxygen parameters and monitors.

No doubt Al. I'm sure I could learn a lot from you and I'd love to talk fishing. I'd bet I could turn that solo canoe over a lot faster than you would roll my Tarpon. I halfway expect to stumble across you in Montana BEFORE I run into you in Missouri.

The front hatch comes off plenty quickly enough for me. The newer boats have an even better front hatch system than mine. I generally have three rods (spinning and bait casting) out and at the ready, but my flyrods get stored inside the boat when the boat is moving. For my flyrods especially, I'll trade immediate access for 100% safety. I have a rope tied to the front handle and a looop in the rope for my hand. Stand up and take off. The hull slides along very easily. The canoes I have used always hang up more on rocks, etc. with the wider sides and flatter bottoms of a canoe. My gear is pretty much always secure in a yak or in the tandem canoe, but as always the more secure the gear is the slower the access to said gear. I have spent exactly ZERO time in a solo canoe. Solo canoes are not readily available to rent and when I choose a canoe it will ALWAYS be when I am sharing the boat with someone else. I am not at all afraid to use a kayak in cold water. If the water is too cold to wet wade, then I'll put on some version of waders. I'm quite certain that I can pack way more stuff in/on my boat that I could in a backpack AND I'm pretty darn certain that I could do a three day trip out of my back pack. Odds are that if I'm doing an overnighter, it will be with someone else because I enjoy the company and then I'll be in a tandem canoe. When I say I'm not limited in fishing gear I mean it. I take 3-5 fishing rods, a tackle bag with 4 or 5 3600 size boxes, a couple of tupperware tubs for jigheads and spinnerbaits, and various bags of soft plastics. Most days I could have all I NEED in a shirt pocket, but don't get the idea that I'm just getting by based on lack of storage. The listed weight for my Tarpon 120 in 64 pounds. Yep, thats almost twice as much as a 33 pound solo canoe. I don't have a scupper pup or any other version of a cart for my yaks. . Most of the time I'm not carrying my boat so far that it is an issue. So Al, How much time have you sspent fishing out of a Tarpon 120?

I disagree. The wind blows on creeks and rivers too so the kayak wind advantage is not lmited to lakes. Rods and gear are completely bomb proof when stored inside a yak and are subject to being lost or broken when a person dumps their canoe. I can carry much more than I need for a days fishing and could do solo over nighters from a yak w/o too much trouble. I am not gear limited because of a yak. I think that kayaks are MUCH easier to start, stop, and manuver than canoes. I think kayaks are much easier to learn than canoes. I think SOT Kayaks are much easier to deal with when you run out of water and have to drag it over and along. I think SOT kayaks are easier to get on and off of than a canoe is to get in and out of. I never have to bail/sponge my yak water will build up in a canoe and have to be bailed or drained out. For most people, kayaks go back upstream far easier than canoes do. Solo yaks are less expensive than the solo canoes I priced. Both boat designs certainly enable us to fish easier. Both boat designs have passionate fans. I don't offer the blanket statement that yaks are better than canoes, but to say that canoes do everything a yak can do and do most of it better is an opinion that's hard to defend. As others have said, your best bet is to try as many options as you can and go with what you like best. Foe me, that's a Tarpon 120.

I'd suggest some inline spinners (Rooster tails), some spoons(Bouyant), and some ZigJigz. PM me if you need help with sizes or colors.

Use the right tool for the job. UL set ups can catch a lot of fish. They do tend to limit the lure size and the types of lures that can be used. The majority of the baits I choose to use for river smallies can NOT be fished effectively on UL outfits. You can not work the baits properly and can't set the hook when you get a bite. I would think for most situations a Med Light spinning rod with 8 pound line would be a better choice. Depending on what creek/river and seasonal conditions, I use everything from light spinning with 6 lb to medium spinning with 10 lb. I also tend to have a baitcaster along that has 12 to 14 pound line on it.

ZigJig I use 1/8 oz most of the time. Double Olive. Olive/Ginger. Olive/Back. Olive/Orange. I fish them on 4 lb and 6 lb co-poly. I pinch barbs. Easy hooksets and I'm total C&R for trout.

I have the first one skeeter mentioned and I have been very happy with it.