Ham

Very Nice!

Hey John, I know where you can catch one. Just sayin.

Have you seen any of the Bonnevillie Cutties lately?

I was thinking 2-3 inch on 1/8 oz jighead. Catches a little bit of everything

Set the little guy up with a small swimbait and have him throw it towards shallow water and have him fish it low, slow, and steady. He will get bit.

Stein was spared any and all live action texting. So many Johns, so little time. The hookers lament.

I was surprised/disappointed that I didn’t get bit on small square-bills or Shad Raps. You guys motored way up there, well past where I would be willing to run my big rig, but you know the river/lake up there. I do not. Glad you caught some fish. I was happy to see big numbers of smaller fish.

Thank You for the feedback. I’ll definitely try both those ideas next time I experience that situation

The Tragical History Tour continues. I committed to working a 1/2 day on Sunday to help my coworkers out, but wanted to fish in the afternoon. I knew Saturday was going to be the better weather, but I wanted to spend the day with my Wife on Saturday. So, I looked at my Sunday options. Beaver Creek, Swan Creek, NFOW for White Bass or Norfork River for trout. Given the predicted wind, I opted for trout boat over yak and decided on Tecumseh. I like that area and I reasoned that it would fish smaller and I could find the fish easier. somewhere in all this I touched base with Les and he decided to join me. I’m sure that seemed like a good idea to him at the time. Best laid plans and all that. The park at Tecumseh is heavily damaged. The road to the ramp and the boat ramp itself are destroyed. Toast. Gone. Maybe I knew that and forgot, but regardless now I’m scrambling to find another boat ramp and communicate the new rally point to Les. We ended up getting boat in the water at Liner Creek Off Hwy T. Ok for smaller boats, but I’m not launching my BassCat there ever. Also, it is low ground. Look carefully at Norfork water level. I’d bet the ramp area is under water at 554 maybe less. So, I caught small LMB casting from shore while waiting for Les. Really small fish, but encouraging none the less. That part of the lake is wide open ground and was very wind swept. I really enjoyed running into the teeth of the wind and bouncing across white caps in the Supreme. The windswept boat spray was very refreshing. We hop scotched our way up towards the Hwy 160 Bridge, but due to time and fuel concerns (unwarentted) I shut the boat down about a mile downstream from bridge. Les had caught a few smaller bass on Ned on the way up. I had caught a few more on small swimbaits, but the search for white bass was still continuing. Wind really limited the touchy, feely options. I have no clue how Les felt anything on Ned. I was cycling through my preferred White Bass options, but kept coming back to the swimbait. I missed several jarring strikes on a Road Runner that I know were White Bass, but I never caught a fish on anything except small swimbaits. We finally started catching a few White Bass. They wanted the bait very close to bottom in fairly shallow water, but we never caught a sow so maybe the females were being closed mouthed in deeper water. We did Fish deeper with a variety of baits and never got a bite. We did see ppl trolling crankbaits catchingrd a few fish in the channel swing pools. Those fish did not seem to be better than what we caught and well I mean, it’s trolling. I did get a bonus walleye on the swimbait. 17 7/8 inches long. First Wally of the year for me. The catching continued. We found a stretch that was relatively “loaded” with fish and fished that hard until we had to scoot for the ramp to beat darkness. I had been uncomfortably cold for hours. Les never complained. I whined. A lot. I wish I had taken pictures of Les and myself. We looked like Eastern European hobos with all the layering of cold weather gear. I appreciate Les going with me, but it does make me question his judgement. I finished up with 29 Fish brought to hand. Spring is coming along. This post has been promoted to an article

Well done.

I always have annual in 3 states. Louisiana (lifetime), Arkansas, and Missouri . I may add Oklahoma to that annual mix and then go 3-7 day in other states. I’ve simply got to get going on catching a fish in all 50 states.

I’d keep a few and /or transport them to a new home. I’m not gonna “Bank” a largie in the name of conservation. A clicker is the only way for me to honestly say how many I have caught on the good days. I would quickly lose track of what number I was on. You be you.

I still really think the big problem was the Shad kill. You just can’t catch many fish when there is all that free food to be had.

I hate I missed it.

Been there done that. I’m sorry we have that shared experience

You can’t do worse than I did. No real consolation, but no one I talked to admitted catching anything

You’ll be Golden. It’s coming on. They will flood shallow when it starts.

In hindsight, any other choice would have been better. I could have tried Theodosia, or Tecumseh or Lake Norfolk. Guys are reporting warmer water and catching fish on Table Rock. I don’t understand warmer temps further North, but I will accept the data. Im still trying to learn, if any one wants to offer suggestions on what I should have tried amongst the dying shad, I’m all ears.

I felt like it was too early

With the recent rains and warmer weather, I was hoping I could find a Wart bite. I did not. Water is now >660 up over 8 feet in 10 days. Lots of debris in the water. Not the best time to be running WOT. I’d suggest running low 40’s in MPH to give yourself time to dodge stuff. Water temp was basically unchanged from pre rains. Mid 40’s to 48 degrees max. Water color was stained to pretty dingy. MASSIVE amounts of threadfin in the creeks and lots of gulls feeding on dying Shad. I feel like the bass are too. I get that Shad struggle with cold water. I dont get why they are struggling with mid 40’s. I still have a lot to learn about fishing Shad kills. My preference is to run away to areas without dying Shad. I could not get away from the dying Shad yesterday. I threw a lot of different stuff, but minimal to no response. I swung a couple times with odd stuff on Ned, but no sure thing looks. I swung a couple times when the Football Jig got heavy, but it was loaded with algae. I felt A rig plowing through Shad, but no bites. It’s a lot more fun throwing jerk bait when it gets a bite every now and again. Wart and or RK bumped and ground through good stuff and every once in a while stuff felt “alive”. It was odd, but I eventually tail hooked a monster carp which explains the live feel. It was full grown and tested my gear pretty good for a long time. It Pulled the BassCat around which was interesting. That was the only fish of the day. I am working up a serious animosity towards Fish in general and BSL bass in particular. I will get a lot of payback. I won’t slow up and I won’t quit until it gets dark or I catch 100 that day. I’m still going to catch and release most of them, but I’m going to try to sore mouth ALL of them. I’m ready for Spring and 50 something degree water. View full article

I understand. I hope we can work it out.

John, you and I need to do a Mississippi River trip. Cast net up Shad god Bait. Carolina rig cut Shad below a sand bar. 3 inch gulp minnows below wing dams Small jigs to try to catch a “gamefish “ shad chunks of worm on smallish hooks for whatever white bass, yellow bass, drum, sturgeon, stripers, bass, panfish, catfish, gar, etc

Ouch, that does sting. You could have gotten lucky and got the yellow line close enough to go all indigenous ppl on him and hand line him in or maybe tie the yellow line onto your line with a quick uni to uni, but no doubt odds were stacked against you. Ahh Springtime heros or heartbroken