Ham

It took me a little while to get it, but I eventually did.

I really hate to read about that. It is a shame that we have to lock things up at all, but man to have to worry about running inside for 2 minutes. I was hoping to read a fish story. Maybe about a big gar that grabbed it boat side or something.

An 1/8 oz RR with a Berkley Gulp Minnow 2 1/2 inch in dingy water will get smacked.

Very Good results for a short trip. You don't need a lot of time if you know where to throw.

It really varies a lot day to day. I don't know that there has been much of a pattern per se. I am concerned that with the warmer temps, they will be running less water than last year. BUT there's always minimum flow. If need be, I might lead a kayak brigade on of the two days. Today has been minimum flow. With a jet, you have limited mobility, but you can ease around on minimum flow. Min flow is around 700 CFS. No all areas are great at 700 CFS, but I can sneak around some. I'll need folks with a prop to give us a little more information, but there are definitely areas like Rim and Buffalo City that will be fishable for props at minmum flow. White Hole too I believe, but that's no my really my "home waters" When they have run water, it has been around 2000 CFS for the most part. That water level brings 1/8 oz jigs into play and lets us go a lot more places. I really like to have a nice 10-12 hour run of water to give us safe margins downstream.

I thought that White Nano was the ugliest crap ever when I first spooked up with it. Now,I think that's it's the best line ever developed for spinning gear. I'll buy $1000 dollars worth of it IF I hear they are pulling it from the market.

There will be room in a boat for errrbody one way or another. I just hate I can't fish with everybody. Logistically impossible. I hate it though. There are a variety of group think myths out there. "jigs won't work on this river" , "fish won't bite on falling water", "it's too sunny" , "trout won't bite when it's calm", "trout won't bite jigs on low water" , "bait will catch em when jigs won't " If the wind will allow you to fish, the trout will bite the jig. If you aren't getting bites, you either are not on very many fish or you are fishing it wrong. Play with size, play with color, play with retrieve. They will eat.

Yeah Jeff, I've had a few unproductive trips. Usually, they are because of tough conditions. Muddy water or water full of stirred up algae and debris is pretty difficult to deal with. You simply must find better water. That means trailering upstream or well down stream. High wind makes jig fishing a miserable experience. Spoons, spinners, and jerkbaitsn are more productive under those conditions. Dr Lincoln Godfrey got me started on fishing jigs. He showed me a little about how to fish them and a lot about how effective they can be and got me going down the road. He's a very good jig fisherman. After that, I made a lot of solo trips learning how to catch them and where I can catch em. I have stuff I look for and areas that I know will hold fish. I like different areas at different water levels. Fishing with Richard showed me a lot too. Richard Cross is a machine. He can flat out catch em. Anymore I consider Less than 5 fish an hour to be very poor. Catching around 10 fish and hour is an average bite. Getting >20 fish an hour is a good bite. Most of my trips are <5 hours long. I still love it. I enjoy every trip.

Fantastic trip. I had a big pile of fun doing it. The crazy part is there was enough material for about a 1/2 dozen shows in there. We caught a pile of fish.

I have a lot of things I like to throw at White Bass, but baits with one hook are a lot safer for the fish and the fisherman. Evr fool around with Road Runners FW?

Goodness Gracious ! That looks like fun.

Pretty fish.

Go fishing every chance you get. Spend as much time as you can on the water on the days you can go. Try to learn someting from every trip.

I don't think any other plastic gets bitten better than the GYCB plastic, but it is so fragile. I will not EVER buy any more GYCB grubs. I will use up what I have, but I can stand the constant re-rigging. I have a large amount of brand name Senkos. I need to find ways to use them up here. They were a springtime staple for me down south. Maybe on a shaky head or if I get back to Stockton in the spring.

You're Welcome. Thanking me once would have been plenty. Lol.

ehhhhh I'm pretty sure that version of the Senko has been around a while. The Senkos will work, but man you would be re-rigging all the time

My little 42 inch bottom is a slug. I mean it is s-l-o-w. I need to do the impeller maintainence. It's also running weird. It starts fine, but starts to run too lean and I have to pump the bulb. It's starving for fuel for some reason. Maybe someone will leave me money to buy a Topwater with a 40 HP jet one of these days.

I was throwing the spybait on my Dorber OMT 84 UL. They call it an ultralight, but it's really a light action spnning rod. It's my trout set up so it had 6 lb Nanofil with 6 lb P Line CX Premium in moss green. It throws it a ton and loads nicely when they eat it. The panfish bumps will drive you crazy, bt no hook or rod is going to help much when those monster gills pop it. The spot in the photo was absolutely drawfed by a larger Spot that was hanging around hoping to take the bait away from the one I caught. The big one wouldn't play after that.

so let's try to figure out how many boats we need. IT looks like we need thre for Friday and Saturday. I figure mine is in the mix. It will fish two or three. So two more boats.

Hey Drew, I could swear I saw an interview where McClleland says that he wanted to make a bait like the 110. Basically his take on the 110. Spro has a lot more original lure design than Lucky Strike does and more than Strike King for that matter. I still think it's dumb to make a Jr version of a specific length. Is a 12 inch ruler a Jr yardstick?

My first Drun on the Ned. Typical crushing strike followed by a lengthy fight which made my arm hurt.

. Bull Shoals doesn't have a lot of Blue Gill, but it has some big ones.

best smallie. 17 1/2

Started this morning about 0800. Air temp, low 40's, very cloudy, damp all day. The sun thought about coming out late in the day and then changed its mind. Water temp was around 51-52 degrees all day. It was warmer than the air so it felt good when I rinsed my hands off.. I took a co-worker. Multiple times we left fish so that I could show him more areas. We made it all the way up lake to Big Creek. All of our fish were main lake fish. I did show him sone areas just off the main lake and we just could not buy a bite. I honestly believe every bluff in the lake is holding fish right now. Most of what I'm catching is 10-14 inch Smallies, but also catching Largies, Spots, and some Jumbo Bluegill. I got a nice 14 1/2 inch Spot on my first cast with a spy bait. I got few bumps after that, but no more hookups. I got a few fish on a crappie jig including a 17 1/2 inch smallie, but no crappie. Most fish came on the Ned. Again. Shocker. Some bites in 5 foot of water some out to 30 foot range. So that helps right. The boat caught over 50 today. We could have caught more if it ham not been a magical mystery tour. We saw one other boat all day.Cool day on the water, but a lot of fun.