Ham

It is my understanding that it was the area below Newport (Augusta?) that was the hold up this time ; not that it makes any difference up here

I'm not 100% sure why the trout are so much Bigger than I am used to, but they are. Going back to before Jigfest, I had noticed the trout were getting Bigger. Then Quillback and I caught 4 or 5 Rainbows over 20 inches in one day. I didn't think I would ever see that again, but I went one Sunday and had 2 over 21, 2 over 20, and a 19 as well as some 18's. Lots of > 16 inch Rainbows and they ain't skinny.

Might be the last low flows I’ll see for a while

Well, my guys survived so...

I think it was upwards of 60K

Yep

I was told by a resort operator that the magic. Number For BSL is 694.2. The flood gates will be opened then regardless of downstream. norfork is being attended to first. If they get it down some, then they will slow that and release from BSL. The hope is they will keep and and all releases from BSL under 36,000 CFS. 😱

Normally, on Holidays, I let the tourist have it. I can fish later when it is less stupid crowded. However, we have guests in from Louisiana and they wanted to fish. so I loaded up Waldo. they boys fished and the girls kayaked. our friends stayed at Stetson’s. The crew at Stetson’s gas the place looking Great. I actually launched Waldo at Stetson’s. I dropped the Ultrex as soon as I pulled away from shore and we immediately started catching them. They were running about 2700 CFS and we all tied on 1/16 oz Zig Jigs and all had fish onboard within 5 minutes, but the chaos got to be too much for me. I could see 20 boats around us. TWENTY. Many we’re guide boats, but there were also lots of rental boats being operated by idiots. I ran up past Gaston’s hoping to get away from that chaos and found worse conditions with less fish. So many boats and no one was fishing solo. Lots of Power Bait gut hookers doing their thing. We were picking up one here and there, but stumbled across an area that had a few more fish. We worked it for all it was worth. They kicked up the water to 5000 CFS or so And I ran us all the way up to below the dam hoping that it would be less crowded anyway. Fishing was slower, but we all caught fish and had some BIG follows. They turned down the water and it started to get shallow up by the dam. I am not comfortable up there below 3000 cfs, but even at 5000 cfs you better watch your business. we ran back down and re-treaded our best stuff. Caught more fish. The boys decided they were tired. Girls were waiting at the cabin with KT’s BBQ. as was to be expected. Water was cleanest immediately below the dam. Water was trashy and heavily stained below Stetson’s. Boat traffic as much as anything I think. one of my guests had a 21 inch Brown. The other had a beautiful Cuttie. Both caught a bunch of fish. I would guess we caught btw 75-90 fish. Less than 5 trout under 12 inches.

So far they are not letting out insane amounts of water

Mojo, will there be any advance warning before they open Spillway on BSL? I’d rather not be on the White for that one. Waldo has demonstrated that 26,000 CFS on White is not uncomfortable BUT a man has to know his limitations

🤐

I love those in the Jr. I think that is a 105 size.

I'm sorry about the sideways pics. That was not by design nor choice

Nice fish. Sorry about the thumb. What pencil popper are you using? why aren’t you switching to sone other type of fish once they are done biting ?

I made a little trip to Norfork yesterday. I fished from 0730 to 1830. Water is stained in the backs of the active creeks. Clear main lake, but is as to be expected from a recent hard rise, there is quite a bit of floating debris in the main lake area. Boaters would be wise to run on plane, but give themselves enough time to dodge wood, etc. lake is stupid high at 578.2 when I was there. Water temps were 64-68 degrees. Wind was light and variable, but present. Heavy clouds eventually gave way to partly cloudy late. Most fish are post spawn. LARGE groups of bass fry were seen multiple times. way off shore around floating debris. They seemed to be left alone at this point. I never saw any males guarding them. I also saw large groups of shad working in the creeks. Main lake I saw fish actively busting shad, but it always seemed to be one fish busting small amounts of shad. Hard to pull them off to your bait in that situation, but I was successful a couple of times. Faster stuff was not working for me shallow. I did eventually catch some fish with weightless soft plastics allowed to settle around the outside brush. Big green leafy brush tops seemed better. Topwater plugs and buzzbaits never got a single look. Main lake I had some success on flooded flat clean areas. That's a pattern you can run, but it is a bit of a grind. 15-25 FOW worked best for me. I caught all three species of Black Bass doing that. I think I had around 15 bass. About half keeps. I lost a couple of toads. Sucked. Pics to follow. This post has been promoted to an article

Norfork is getting really close to being an issue and they have no off switch for the Buffalo River and Crooked Creek. gee whiz

You aren’t wrong, but I bet BSL comes up another foot overnight. It will come up again with TR releases Beaver’s water. We are one more 2 inch rain from them opening flood gates again.

I fished with Cajun Angler the last two Thursdays out of Diamond City. We caught 60 Bass the first trip and 65 Bass the second trip. lots of spawners the first week and mostly post spawn the second week ...BUT, you do have to figure them out. They were particular about what they wanted. We caught fish almost everywhere we tried, but we were looking for certain stuff and some areas were much better than others. lots and lots of keepers water was beautiful and water temps last Thursday was 62-67 depending Topwater is going to start soon and it’s gonna be stupid good.

PM him

That's pretty darn close to a Smile John. You must have been Super Excited!