Ham

This is Phil's site. If you have a concern, I would bring it to his attention with a PM.

The first plastic worms I remember were Fluttertail brand. You got them ina bag of mixed colors. All the colors of the rainbow in one bag. Soon after Fliptail worms became available. I caught a pile of fish on the Crème rigged worms. I threw them on my Zebco 404 before I moved up to a Zebco 606. I had a really good Zebco 33, but it was a little light for the fish we were catching on the rigged worm. I slow rolled them around coontail beds in the Bayou Pigeon area. Some of the grass had not topped out and you could slowly wind it over that or you could retrieve it aound the edges of the beds or in the channels between grass beds. Simply awesome. Flood waters of 1973 killed all the coon tail and caused massive areas to silt in. I so wish I could go back to 1972 and fish with the equipment and skill set I have now.

Not me Bro. I'm a river guy until at least October.

I'm looking forward to doing it again. My boat is out of the shop and hopefully fully functional. I need to test that theory soon.

42

Seriously, y'all can have all the Double Ploppers. Zero interest.

I'm waiting for the Vienna Double Plopper. A Double Plopper designed for you to thread a Vienna sausage on.

Gee Whiz John, I'd be looking at the non traditional game fish in that area instead of the silly old trout that you can catch any ole time. Any squawfish or Chub-Pikes or whatever?

What?

If I had Hebrew Nation Dogs, I'm stopping for a shore lunch and I'll just have to catch my fish on something else.

I would love any additional regs that would protect SMB on the Current. I'd be all about protecting them from Round Spring to the 106 Bridge. Two easily to identify landmarks with a one fish over 20 inches or 3 fish under 12 inches would be fine by me.

I've seen reports of large bass caught on half a Hot Dog. I got dibs on the Ball Park Franks.

It is an odd balancing act for Game and Fish. WE want what we want. We want more and bigger smallmouth with minimal harvest, BUT their are other user groups that want to go to the river and get some fish to eat. I think I am right to want more and bigger, but what makes my opinion better than the other guy's. And what if there are more people in the "catch and eat" group than the "release and protect" group? Do you really expect Game and Fish to listen to the more passionate minority rather than a majority that thinks things are fine as they are? I appreciate that there needs to be science behind decisions, but the science is only as good as the methodology and it takes a long time and a lot of money to get good numbers. Obviously, there are plenty of smallmouth in plenty of places. I hate that people would rather eat them than release them, but that's where we are. It is a shame that guys are holding up improvement in the Regs on the Current River so they can run up and down the river in their jet boats and trade money having smallmouth tournaments. They could change the format of their tournaments with catch, measure, and immediate release which would benefit the fish and they would still get their ego stroked. IF MDC wanted to grow the biggest smallies possible in flowing water, they should focus on the heavily spring fed systems like the Current due to the year round feeding and growth cycle. Educate anglers and minimize harvest. Maximize the benefit for the fish my having special non weigh in regs on tournaments.

Zero interest. Not me. Not this time. Nope. Right it down. I will never buy one nor fish one. If given one, I will give it away to someone else.

So many fish, so little time.

It was a long time in the offing, but it was well worth the wait and the effort. I had been wanting to fish with John for literally years. Following along his adventures thru OA, I knew he would be a Good dude and a kindred spirit. I was not wrong. I had a great time and look forward to fishing with him again. I wish I could import all my friends to the Mountain Home area to make it easier to fish together. We both got to the meeting location early. Good Sign. A quick loading of the gear and off to Round Spring. I caught a little smallie first cast, another Good sign. I was shocked when John did not catch a Shadow Bass in the first 10 minutes. I have a Bluff that usually holds good numbers. They weren't as thick in there this time around, but there were some there. I think John's first 5 fish were LMB. I think I caught 2 LMB all day. But the catching was pretty steady. Trying to catch a lot of species in one day is a logistical nightmare and eats up a ton of time as well. I had a weeks worth of stuff I wanted to try in one day. So, there was always going to be a time crunch. Time management issues were gnawing at me all day. Now, I had to put my jet in the shop last week. Terrible timing. I was not going to postpone the trip again. I had a fall back plan to use the canoe on Jack's Fork if we had to, but a friend graciously loaned me his Supreme. He has a 10 HP yammy prop. When I picked the boat up, he showed me that the prop needed to be replaced. He had already abused it pretty hard so it did not have all its usual thrust. I learned first hand that the Current River is a jet boat river. We had some issues with areas I have breezed thru in the past. I won't take a prop boat on the Current River again. We would have been better served to fish the Round Spring area or the Two Rivers area, but not both. I wanted to show him both and I had spots on both areas that I was dying to put him on. He caught his PB smallie on one of my Big Fish spots. He did a great job on that fish and I was thrilled he caught it. I was also stoked to see that the super spooky Drum can indeed be caught. Kinda bummed that I wasn't able to get one of my own, but I have caught many this year. I did get a Chain Pickerel to show John and it was a called shot. I had another one on a Zig Jig that came off on a cart wheeling jump. The skip jack thing really got under my skin. I am learning more about them, but it is more thru failure than success. Below tail races in off color water, they can be dead easy to catch. In the super clear water of the Current, they are not. I've caught 4 of 5 all together on the Current on the various trips so I know it can be done, but I have also been frustrated by them before. We had multiple locations were multiple fish were running our baits at the same time rolling all over the bait without taking it. I felt like Charlie Brown trying to kick a football. I will fish the Current River again this year. I will get another shot at them. I'll upload a Pic of my little Banded Sculpin later. The Studfish was a Lifetime First. The Bleeding Shiner was a lifetime first although my son caught one with me earlier. I'm pretty sure I had caught a Rainbow Darter earlier this year, but it was nice to catch one with the armchair taxonomist and be sure. I hope we can do a springtime micro/mini trip and spend a day and a bunch of gas hitting different spots and catching fish with their party clothes on. I'll tell you guys again. We all have limited days. Take the time/make the effort, these trips are special.

I also like the Float Master brand indicators.

1/8 oz Zig Jigs in the Holy Trinity. Brown/orange, Triple Olive, and Olive/Ginger

I never fish below 6x for trout.

Man, I think I would have asked them what they were using. Typically, the answer on Norfork is go smaller than what you would use on the White, but it seems like you were using small enough stuff. I'm better with a Zig Jig.

I'd just shoot myself. I can't limit myself to 2 grub colors. I could get to 1/2 dozen colors after great effort. Gun to my head, I could get it down to 4. 2 is not going to happen, no way. I almost always start with GP, but I have to tote more than that. Swim bait: pearl, some kind of shad Jig: Green Pumpkin , Missouri Craw

I Love and Hate every indicator I have ever used. In general, I love fishing under an indicator, but there are always the practical downsides of them.

I found one of the "Air Locks" floating. I want to buy a couple, but all I have seen are JUMBO's that look like I could fish a live sunfish under one of them for flatheads.

I guess I'm going to have to troll to catch one.

It screws down correct. It is the same plastic bubble like a Thingamabobber right. I didn't know the proper name.