Ham

Weather looked optimal for a crankbait bite. Socked in clouds with occassional rain. I left the sunscreen at home. Wind was light and variable. Very low light for the preceding three days. Air temp started in the low 30's and got up to low 40's. Water temp was in the mid 50's. It really wasn't bad at all. I had the area I fished to myself = no other boats on the water. Fished in Panther Creek and Float Creek. Looked great. Fished a variety of banks. Fist size to chunk to big boulders. Started out near main lake and went all the way back. Water was clear (duh). Some water running in, but no stained water was seen. We caught a handful of fish and the size was better than what I expect to be the average, but overall I was disappointed. I hear that Lake Norfork has shad, but I can't ever seem to find any. I really expected a good day and it just did not happen. The few fish we caught were barely hooked and the "hits" very very iffy. The fish sort of loaded on the bait rather than a good jarring hit. In retrospect, I wish I had just gone back down to Quarry Park to launch. I want to at least lay my eyes on every bit of the lake atleast once, but I can boat ride in ethe summer. This was a fishing trip and I wanted to catch fish. The worse part of it is that I don't think I understand why I did not catch em. If I at least knew what I did wrong, I could hope to do better next time. Most of the fish came on crankbaits, I got one on a spinnerbait. Hula grub got minimal throws and NO bites at all. We caught all three species.

I like Shimano for baitcasters, but I will not buy another Shimano spinning reel. I have first hand knowledge of a shimano spinning reel binding when it got wet. My creek fishing trips are often full immersion smallie baptisms and I have no use for a reel that can't take a dunking. Okumas are heavy and have less line capacity. If you fish braid, line capacity might not be an issue. I've got a couple of Okuma Epixor 15's and tehy will do as a panfish reel. Okuma is fairly priced and durable. Lots of folks love them. I fish Daiwas. SS1300 is old reliable. I have a bunch of the SSII 2500's as well. The SS1300 was less bells and whistles, but it is bombproof. The SSII2500 borders on being a little too big, but I have adjusted to that. The Mitchell Avocets seem to be a servicable reel. They get the job dome w/o costing a ton of money. Pick your price break point and make a choice.

Hey Steve: I'll pick up a copy next time I drop by. That DVD will pay for itself the first trip I make after watching it. Time on the water ie precious. Anything that puts you ahead on the learning curve is worth its weight in gold. I stopped by Mountain River Fly Shop and met Steve yesterday. As those who have met him know already, Steve was very friendly and very helpful. On the way home, the pieces kinda fell into place and I remembered the thread about Steve moving from the Beaver Dam tailwater to Cotter. I'll probably manage about 15-20 trips a year on the White and a lot of those will not be all day trips. I look forward to learning it though.

I dunno, I kind of like the drive up to Table Rock. More bites on "fork", but less size than the rock.

We fished daylight to dark. Launched at Quarry Park. Cool and windy first thing. Warmer and more wind later. Some clouds, but they were high and thin clouds. Water temp (surface) 57'. We got 16 or 17 bass in the boat and lost a handful more on the way to the boat. NO fish on topwater. Several patterns are working, but we junk fished using a little of this and a little of that rather than sticking with any one technique or type of water. Got there early looking to play with some stripers. Saw a few and had a few half hearted swipes at surface baits, but no hookups. Caught some smallies and largemouth on mainlake deep banks draggig a jig around. Caught a couple of nice fish on a blade on windy banks (most banks were windy, some were very windy) with chunk rock(softball to basketball size). FINALLY caught a few fish on banks not on the main lake. On a cloudy day, I would have spent a lot more time doing this. We caught a few crankbait fish. Mostly smallmouth, but a largemouth or two as well. I caught the only spotted bass on a grub near bottom in 20 foot of water around a boat dock. He was nice sized though. Watched AGFC release 5000 8 inch blue catfish into the lake. Saw a Bald Eagle resting in a shore line tree. Finally caught a single small striper right at dark on a grub. A really great way to spend a day with a good friend. The number of fish and the activity level was good enough, but I need to find some bigger fish. We would have had three keepers, but all fish were released.

Some units come with more maps "pre-installed". The map you buy depends on what you want it to do. You can buy topo maps on CD and upload selected maps into the GPS unit or marine mas or more detail street maps. Mine came with some maps on CD and they upload to an SD chip inside the unit IF I ever get around to installing the drivers and breaking out the cable etc. The only way that unit is going to be useful to you is if you go play with it a bunch. Garmin makes great products, but you have to develope a skill set to get the most out of the unit.

I'm glad you guys had a good trip. It might be a long drive for you, but BEFORE she turns 16 you NEED to take her to Dry Run Creek. Check out the regs carefully, but the numbers of the trout and the size of the trout just can't be imagined. She will in all likelyhood catch the biggest trout of her life.

I have the Cabela's Dry Plus wading jacket. They areon sale right now. I wore it yesterday in the mid 30's with a misty rain. It did great. Kids did well at Dry Run Creek.

Uhhhhh I'm glad ya'll get along, but I REALLY DOUBT I'd do that if I were in your shoes. Good on you I suppose.

I've got the Olympus SW 720. I love it. Cajun Angler has the Pentax Optio, he's happy with ihis camera as well.

Hey JE I'll be glad to take a look at what he has. I probably would be plenty happy with what he has skirts and all. I'm not as OCD about spinnerbaits as I am my spook type baits, I just want some shaddish colored stuff. I've seen the War Eagle Purple shad color work behind me when I was throwing a "Spot remover" type color so I am interested in picking up some shad colored skirts with a little purple in them. I also have some spinnerbaits that I think wll work they just need clear water skirts. I've run across a few brands of skirts now so I might be able to fins what I want. Skirts do have a shelf life so I need to be careful about how far ahead I get. I do the cable tie thing once I have a good skirt on a good bait. BUT that sort of makes on the water changes more difficult. low rolling through rocky points with sunken cedar trees will help me use up some of my existing spinnerbaits though. I had gotten used to throwing spinnerbaits on 20/25 pound line in Louisiana, but I guess I'd be better off with 14-17 lb up here?

I'll be trying some of the War Eagle SB's next year, but at first blush, I'm not wild about the hook they use. I'd prefer it to be a round bend Gammy or Mustad Ultra Point. I'll be buying some War Eagle replacement skirts for sure and wish I could get their Purple shad or smoke purple. I really want to avoid having to make y own baits or skirts BUT I will IF and only IF I have to do so. I really don't care if the spinnerbait head is painted or not. I've caught too many bass on plain leadheads to worry about it.

I've recently moved up to Mountain Home,AR from Minden,LA. I'm getting more time on Table Rock and Norfork. I'm not sure how much I'll fish Beaver and Bull Shoals, but we'll see. I've been using spinnerbaits with decent success. I have mainly been slow rolling them, but I have also caught a few pretty shallow when the wind was blowing into the bank prety good. I've got lots of spinnerbaits from my mudhole fishing days that have large blades and lots of chartreuse in the skirts. Up here, I've been using clear skirts with a little hint of color (blues,greens,purple over clear that might have some very small silver flake in it). I've caught more fish on double willows, but I'm certainly fishing them more too. I like the profile and blades size of some of the 1/4 oz models, but the delay in the bait getting down is troublesome and at times I will need a retrieve speed that will be too fast to allow the bait to stay down. I have considered adding weight to the hook shank to keep the same profile/blades but be able to retrieve faster while staying deep. At night, I think I have what I need. Black with colorado blades. I will be doing the majority of my lake fishing in Spring and Fall. I'll see how miserable full on winter fishing will be, but likel;y I'll be a trout guy during the winter and a river smallie guy during summer. I hope that spinnerbaits will work through late fall and again pre-spawn. I would appreciate feedback on what type of spinnerbait others have had success using (head size blade size and/or brand name), Areas of the lake you like to use them, Time of year or better yet water temp and conditions that scream spinnerbait at you, and how you prefer to retrieve it back to the boat (slow roll , bulge, steady retrieve, stop and go, etc. I ain't asking for much am I?

Still learning the lake. Weather was interesting. Windy then calm. RAIN and then sun. Some big nasty static electricity (also know as lightening) a little too close for comfort. Most of the time we had enough wind or rain or clouds (or combo of all three) to help keep the fish active. The shad have not moved in the backs of any of the creeks I have seen yet. The shad I graphed were in the 60 foot range. We caught a fair number of bass (LMB, spots, and smallies). Nothing of any size really. We did have several legal spotted bass, but it was a C&R trip. Water temp was about 64' on the surface. We caught fish on grubs, cranks, topwater, and spinnerbaits. Water color ranged from very clear to way too d*** clear. I saw isolated blow ups way off shore which I guess was stripers, but we did not catch any of those. I need better electronics and the gps waypoints for about 1000 deep water brush piles. I plan on fishing Norfork spring and fall. In the winter, I'll trout fish and once it warms, I'll be on the rivers and creeks.

Thanks Don. I'm going to try a few of the expensive options. I may just give that Jackall a try.

I'm trying to learn the wake bait thing as well. Yesterday, I tried it off and throughout my day on Lake Norfork (it was my 2nd trip to the lake). I've looked back and forth doing searches with various key words about waking but IF I overlooked something and ask a previously answered question Please forgive me. I'll be fishing Bull Shoals and Norfork mainly. I'm going to guess this is primarily a Spring and fall technique since the fish in the summer and winter will be very deep. I'm there on line and rod selection. I was going to stick with shad like colors. I caught one and hung another, but I had a lot more follows than takes. Is this normal? I had a big ole saltwater sized jointed Redfin. I really struggled to keep it throwing a wake and wiggling good. I understand that not all baits of the smae make and model work equally well and I had that bait along for stripers, but tried it for waking since I had flat calm and plenty of shaded bluff banks to throw at. I also got bit on a Bandit Foot loose while waking it. I tried a variety of different sized spooks, but no takers. Has anyone tried the the high dollar import stuff? If they worked, one at $15 bucks might be cheaper than buying 4 of the "cheap" ones before you get one that works. I'm not buying anything until 2008, but I'll look through all the stuff I have looking for other baits that might work in this role, I've already tried a half dozen that did not.

Nice report. About what time of day was the topwater bite? I was on Norfork yesterday, not too too far from the area you described, but a miss is as good as a mile. I caught a few fish, but I would certainly enjoyed your trip.

After all the tourneys are done for a bit, I'd like to discuss the techniques for slinging a blade at TR, BS, and Norfork. Depth, speed, blade type, etc I've had some success, but I am always looking to improve.

Hey Al: Go dip up a bunch of scuds and sowbugs. Dump those in and watch the feeding frenzy that takes place. Frozen cubes of bloodworms should work and they would "move" as the outflow from the pump broke up the cube. Young Bullhead catfish are fun. They find very interesting places to hide. I've had various tanks at different times and while they were lots of fun, I don't want to go there again.

Hey War Eagle, Not that you asked, but you really should spend some time in open water learnig to safely run your boat. Get a feel for how to run rough water. Get a feel for getting on plane and coming off place. A big ole glass boat sits down when you get off the gas and you WILL take water over the stern until you get the hang of how to do a rapid stop. FWIW 4000 rpms burns a whole heck of a lot less gas than WOT. I have fished from boats with outboards for 40 plus years and the move from a 40 hp to 150 hp was still a learning curve for me. I rode in some big boats before I ran mine, but I still had to learn for myself. Heck of a first boat! Enjoy it, but learn to use it safely.

I'd agree that all three are good boats. Sometimes a dealer will have one of the three on sale or you get a chance at a used one or whatever. I'd like a tarpon with NO keel or at least a greatly reduced keel. Glad to hear that MR has changed their design. Hopefully the good folks at WS will do away with the leaky center hatch as well. Enjoy your boats.

I have a Tarpon 120 and my wife has a Tarpon 100. Granted each year they make slight changes, but I have not had the water via the hatches issue. My boat only has two hatches. Both are on the center line of the boat. One is immediately behind the cockpit and then there is the forward hatch. I have not had leakage issues. I have read about guys developing leaks in the Manta Ray on the leading edge of a scupper hole under the seat area of the boat. All boats will develope leaks eventually if used on shallow rocky rivers during low water. Folks using a boat on lakes and ponds won't have these issues. I kinda felt like MR and the Redfish had copied the Tarpon hull very closely. I want my scupper holes in tracks so that rules out the MR. I want a big front hatch so I can stow fishing rods inside. I like the seats Tarpon have. I find them to be very comfortable. I do get out and stretch from time to time though. Lots of goood boats. If I found a better boat than a Tarpon, I'd buy it BUT so far I haven't seen better than the Tarpon.

Looks like a nice boat. I'm wondering if you looked at the WS Tarpon series before you made your choice. If you chose the Redfish over the Tarpon, I'm wondering what helped drive that choice.

Oh Bobber I wish I was. Kyle's was worse,but I had some idiot James Taylor wannabe singing far into the night at Tyler Bend. I'm ok until about midnight and then I start getting PO'ed. Agreed about the road to Kyle's. We stayed there during a monsoon weekend the ruts got worse and worse each trip in or out. Several places I didn't dare slow down as much as I would have liked to for fear of getting stick, but I was fairly white knuckled trying to keep the truck on the "road". Kyle's will teach you to use L1 or L2. Steel Creek ain't a whole lotta fun, but it's worse if you get in a hurry.

I've stayed at Tyler Bend. It can get a little noisy until the wee hours on the weekends as well. TB should be a good choice for the listed reasons, plus it has some hiking trails and the vistor center. I have friends that like Buffalo Point a lot. It is as nice as Tyler Bend from what I have heard. Off season would be better, but you can't have everything.