Ham

I know you can catch em on the White. I wish you had caught them a little better on the Little Red. It's hard to make myself go trout fishing anywhere other than the White although the NFOW has its charms.

I think you've learned to tie what the fish like and are leaving it alone. I wish I could be more like that. For dingy water, could you tie in just a little chartreuse ? Any pictures of the crawfish jigs?

That's a great photo! If I was that young man, I'd remember that trip for forever. Trashy water, High wind, and muddy water are three things that make trout fishing with a jig difficult and much less productive. It wasn't your fault and might not have been all that much better upriver, but a location change If you have time is the thing to try. You can try to fish small protected areas and REALLY tight to the bank to scratch out a few fish. Sometimes I'll also throw a really visible jig that might stand apart from the suspended trash in the water. Did y'all get to fish anymore?

That's a fine looking jig! That head looks like a custom painted version of a jig head I love from Cabelas. it's a short shanked walleye jig head, but works great with a certain swimbait I love.

Well, There are a thousand fold more field rats than Bobcats and if you put some effort into it you could see field rats almost any day of the week. Bobcat populations are probably stable, but due to their position relatively near the top of the food chain, there are inherently a lot less of them and therefore much less common to see. I've seen one in the wild, ever. That makes more special than a rat to me. If anyone posts a picture with a pickup truck bed full of dead coyotes or feral pigs, I'll be proud of them and more than a little jealous. It's a fishing forum, people are going to post opinions. It's what we do.

The Current is a really interesting river. It has some species that I don't catch other places and different techniques than my usual seem to shine for smallies. It's far enough away that I only do overnight trips on it. Your crawfish certainly look tasty, but I'm more about the fishing than the cooking. I've got a proven gravel bar gourmet that handles the meals. I gather the wood, start the fire, and handle KP. Now if he decides he wants to gather crawfish and cook them up, that's what we'll do.

I rely on the various state DNR's to set wildlife regulations appropriately. I have NO beef with any licensed hunter, fisherman, or trapper behaving ethically within the laws and regulations. Use legal methods , stay within legal limits , and hunt or trap only in season. Lots of people on here seem to only follow the game laws they agree with and other than that they kn better than the DNR. I have no desire to hunt Bobcats. I'd rather watch them eat a squirrel or a turkey or rabbit ir whatever. I can understand where some folks do want to hunt them. I do think it's folley to kill a Bobcat because you're worried about quail numbers just as it was folley to shoot roadrunners because of any impact they may have had on quail. IF you are worried about quail. Look into habitat restoration and replanting native seed grasses they rely on. Lots of studies and programs out there for that.

I like quail more than the average person, but I wouldn't shoot a Bobcat to save a quail even if it would work. The problems with quail numbers are multifactorial and I don't think Bobcat are on the Top Ten. Habitat loss is huge. I would also think that feral hogs and coyotes impact quail more than Bobcats. Anybody still kill Roadrunners to save quail?

You could do a lot worse than an 1/8 oz Zig Jig. It's a maribou jig not a hair jig, but it is a great cool/cold water jig for smallies. I've used Brown/orange ; Triple Olive ; Black. They've worked for me in the BUffalo and WHite Rivers.

Hey Cody, You were doing fine with your TFO the other day. I bought a TFO for a trout rod, but I couldn't feel the bites well enough for me. I didn't know you were in the market for anopther spinning rod. I think I'm always in the market for another spinning rod. I need to quit that. Whenever I do one of these ridiculously short trips, I don't bother rattling anybody's chain. I assume it isn't worth their time to scramble for that short a trip. I'll be in touch. Hey Brett, I only saw part of it's flank. I'd guess somewhere between 18-24 inches, but that's a guess. The fish was really strong, but never seemed to have really hit his full stride. He didn't seem upset yet. I really wanted a better look at him. I'd feel better about it if I knew it was "22 inches" or whatever. Of course, if it was stupid big like your BIG Brown from the video and I got a good look at him befotre he got away, I would have pulled the boat into shore and had a good cry.

Thanks Rick. I'll PM you when I have some dates lined out. I'd love for you to come down again.

I had hoped to get out yesterday, but circumstances did not allow for it. I had to work the late shift today so I wedged a short fishing trip in the morning. Truck thermometer read 22' when I was backing the boat down the ramp. I heavy fog hung in the river vally. All the spider webs looked like nanofil because of the mist frozen to them. Still it wasn't too cold because the wind wasn't blowing and I had hopes for a warming sun in a few minutes. I had looked at the water guages and saw that they were releasing a little over 4000 CFS for a few hours in a row. I thought hard about RIm Shoals and that's were I should have gone. I was concerned that the water might start dropping out on me before my 2 hours of fishing time were up so I opted for further down river. Bad choice. The stained water from the Buffalo definitely impacted my fishing. I had flow, but I also had off colored water. Things were pretty slow until the sun started hitting the water good. More and more, I am not an early or late in the day trout fisherman. I want sunshine and lots of it. Getting there extra early or staying extra late doesn't equal a lot more bites for me. I did start to get bit close to the bank and especally when I found pockets of clearer water from clean run off. The bite improved as my minutes ticked down and I pretty much left them biting. I had one nice Brown about 16 inches. I lost a BIGGER Brown that left me broken hearted. It stayed down. I got it close enough to see it was a Brown trout before it went down, down, down again. It managed to throw the barbless hook before I could land it. It was on for a fairly long time, but I didn't get the feeling I was that close to catching him when it got off. I ended my 2 hour fishing trip having caught 32 fish. I think this was my last trip of the year. I finished with 3174 brought to hand. My best year ever numbers wise. Next year I'll still keep up with numbers, but it won't be a focal point. I still think somehow I'll catch > 2000 fish. The important number is 52.

Again what a great picture. I'd love to see another Bobcat, but I have ZERO desire to shoot one. I would on the other hand like to drop a hammer on about 100 feral hogs.

http://www.roughfish.com OMG, There's guys a LOT crazier about their fishing than I am. Yeah, 52 species don't look so tough now.

I promise you that no matter how horrible the weather is you won't have the water immediately below dam to yourself come 2-1-14.

On the graphite content thing, most likely because there isn't a real hard and fast industry standard. Some of it is science, but there's a lot of smoke and mirror stuff too. I share your frustration and I wish buying a great fishing rod did not involve so much trial and error. Especially the error part. I've made lots of rod purchasing errors.

IF I'm remembering correctly, 2010 was pretty great. I had to fish thru a bunch of fish, but I got my limit several trips in a row and had fun catching the shorts too.

Someone suggested at our White River get together that the Rainbows on average don't last very long in the river like 7-30 days or something like that. I wonder if anybody has a link to that information?

I'm about 6 years in but they've been 6 really strange years with record high water levels and yoyoing water temps in spring.

I'll be letting you guys know when I have open seats in the Supreme. Hopefully, some of the alumni can shake loose.

I do appreciate the interest and the folks that listed all the different fish. Thanks Kayser. I'm gonna try real hard to get both Banded and Ozark Sculpin. I get Chestnut Lamprey attached to trout fairly often so that's another one.

I'll keep you guys updated, but try to remember y'all asked for it. I'm going to try to have photos of them as well.

Fish it all! If there are trout in that area, they will bite. Re-fish stretches where you get lots of bites repeatedly. Move on when it slows down OR you just want to catch fishin a different area. Richard has caught fish on the Zig JIg everywhere he's tried it and he's fished quite a few areas. I can't imagine Little Red trout turning up their nose at a ZIg Jig. I hope you catch 100!

i have an Uncle that is a VERY good fisherman. He uses CRAP equipment. I often wonder how many more fish he would have caught or how much better he could have been with good gear. I'm not talking abouit the most expensive stuff going, but just "good" gear. Old Plug sounds like you do very well for yourself. I wouldn't change a thing either. Not everyone would do near so well as you using your gear, but you're dialed in with it. It's all good.

ohhhh ONO = Wahoo. I'd love to catch a Wahoo.