Ham

Nanofil is a LOT more sensitive than mono, but not any better than braid. 1) Nanofil throws Great. 2) No noise in the guides 3) more sensitive 4) great hooksets from any distance 5) a very thin line that is very abrasion resistant 6) lower pound test lets you break it IF you need to do so. Oddly enough, I do not have it spooled on a crappie rod yet.

Hey WFJ, I may have some freebie stuff you can use. Hopefully, I'll see you when you make the pilgramidge.

It was a significant weather system that made any travel somewhat risky. I fully understand making the decision that it wasn't safe enough to travel long distances to sit in a boat in cold weather to chase trout with people you don't know. No fish is worth dying for. Let's all try to live to fish another day. Big ups to my new homeys.

Everybody has their own preferences. I tend to prefer longer rods. Anything under 6'6" feels short to me. I've heard good things about those Shimano rods. Good luck with your selection. I truly feel like MH would be overkill and would be harder to cast with, but to each his own.

Heck of a deal Bill. I prefer a little lighter rod than those, but they are a good value. You might want to do another post with just the rods. At first I overlooked the rods because I don't need a mapping chip.

A medium light rod will do that job and a medium rod will surely has the backbone for it. Please consider a medium light rod and spool up with 10 pound Nanofil. Awesome setup.

A few more comments about the fishing. I'm so glad that everyone caught fish so well. I want everyone to be successful and I want to do everything I can to help people fishing with me catch more fish. I'm always trying to be the best angler I can be. I try to catch every fish I can. I do get upset with myself if everybody else is catching them and I can't, BUT I don't have to catch the most fish or the biggest fish to be happy. I apologize if when I get upset about a missed fish or list fish comes across as me being overly competitive. I'm just crazy about fishing and love to catch fish. Doing long floats with a shuttle certainly saves gas and let's you cover a lot more water, but I don't know that it always the most productive way to fish. There are fish all up and down the river, but certainly some spots and lots better than others. I have certain things I look for that I feel set up well for me to catch fish, but I don't think it's accurate to say there are areas that hold "very few". Traditionally , I do find areas that are holding a bunch of fish and motor back up to refish those areas. We did very little of that this trip. I think our numbers could have been better IF we had done more of that. Water becoming off colored because of rain runoff and snowmelt hurt us a little be too. We had a fair bite. I caught around 10 fish an hour. A good bite is catching around 20 fish an hour. A great bite is catching more than 30 fish an hour. I don't agree that jigs are the best winter time trout lure, I think jigs are the best trout lure year round. There are brief periods during any year where the fish are keyed in on Caddis or Hoppers or midges and the jig might not be the best lure. A jig still produces, but it might be a little slower than usual. I'll fish a Caddis dry fly any chance I get. I'll fish hoppers when I can also, but limit me to one lure and it will absolutely be a Zig Jig. I appreciate all the compliments from the guys on my fishing. Nothing I'm doing is really all that difficult. Good fishermen pick it up pretty quickly, but I do get to practice doing it more than most. I am glad that I was at the very least able to show that I'm not just blowing smoke when I talk about catching trout on a Zig Jig. I would have felt pretty bad IF I had struggled to catch fish. I sure hope we're able to fish together again soon ; you guys are awesome.

What a Great trip! Again, A huge Thank You to Phil Lilly for having the forum and for joining us on our little adventure. I'm sorry that weather forced Phil to bail before LRF and I got back. I wanted to learn from him, but missed my chance. Another BIG Thank you to Richard Cross for the sample jigs and t shirts and hats. I know they were used and appreciated. I freaking love the Zig Jig. I'm so happy to meet some ore OAF guys and what a great bunch of guys they were. I'd be more than happy to fish with any and all of them again and I hope we can do so. Wide variety of backgrounds, but we share a love for fishing and outdoor sports. Real good people out there, don't let bad news make you think otherwise. Gotta run for now, but I really had a great time. thanks to all who made it possible.

FWIW, you might plan on a 45 minute shuttle. It took me quite a while thru the ice and downpour last night. Big ole snowflakes last night (closer to morning), but I doubt there was any accumulation.

I have a GREAT time today. My finger tips got cold a time or two, but we all dressed well and I think wverybody was comfortable. The bite was decent, but not outstanding. LRF is sand bagging. He did great with jig. I knew after his cast that he was gonna be just fine. The road down to Rim Shoals was an iffy deal and I'm so glad Hoglaw has point and set a proper pace. Even in 4 low I was sliding down the hill at times. Boat ramp was better, but still had some ice. ZERO sunshine, but minimal wind which was nice. Richard Cross sent me some Zig Jig SWAG and some sample jigs. He wanted to make the trip, but had a business obligation. I really appreciate all the goodies. Got Muddy made an excellent brisket. Baked beans. Somebody had brought Slaw and Potato salad. Quill back and Terrierman will fish with us tomorrow. I look forward to LRF's catfish tomorrow.

I guess I would pick y'all up at where y'all are staying right?

Don't leave at 0400 on my account, that's just crazy. We can start later or something.

My preference would be to fish Rim Shoals down to Buffalo City and shuttle back up to get my truck leaving the boat at Riley's . Is that Ok Got Muddy and LRF?

I should awake by 0530 or so. I need to get my daughter going in the AM. I think I'll have that under control by 0745 or so. The boat will be hooked up and ready to go I should be able to get to most any ramp by 0830-0845

For those that might want/ need it, my cell number is 870-736-3130.. It looks like we'll have good water all day. It also looks like weather is gonna be tough. I plan on having a heater on board. We'll keep it As far away from the gas tank as possible. I had planned on a lower river trip which would help get that brisket on at _____PM and maybe pickup Quillback. It was been a while since I fished that far up river, but we can do whatever, i don't think we're going to find a crowded river. I would have guessed we would have planned on a eating a little earlier since it gets dark at 5 PM, but whatever. I might be looking at it wrong, but I thought we would only need two boats. Hoglaw's and mine ; my preference is to have a total of three in my boat, but I don't want anyone to get left out. I'm pretty darn excited abouth meeting errrbody, but not as thrilled with the weather.

Hey LRF, Take a look at the Cabela's Guidewear stuff as well. Bass Pro copied it for their 100+ stuff. They will frequently mark them down in the off season to reduce inventory or if their is a style change from one year to the next. I love my Guidewear stuff. It has lasted for many years.

The only little snag I see is that I'll have to help get my daughter's car out of the garage and driveway Friday morning. I've still got my fingers crossed that we'll see a lot of melting today and IF we don't I'm going to put out salt in select areas. I should still be on schedule UNLESS there is a problem I don't anticipate. GM, man I don't care too much about where we fish so we will look at water flows and make a group decision BY PHONE if possible. We can fish for a few hours and make a move IF we aren't happy with the results BUT the days are short as it is and a relocation does eat fishing time. Rim does offer an advantage that some bends in the river offer a bit of a wind break. HOPEFULLY, the wind stays under 10 mph.

I must be the only knucklehead that prefers sunshine, < 2 units of water, and wind under 5 mph. I can absolutely knock em dead when I find those conditions. I still catch em other times too.

I'm planning on being at the ramp (some ramp) 8 ish on Friday, but I can wait a while if that helps.

I'd need to rent on first and IF I liked it , I'd need to buy one. Great looking work for sure. I'm impressed.

It seems like how fast the water gets there can vary a little bit. It takes a little longer from dead low when they don't run much. It takes a less time to notice a change when they've been running water and they go higher quickly. I basically consider the water to move at 3 or 4 mph so you can look at a river map and divide the miles by 4 BUT double check you math and try to be smart about it. Try not to be mid river with no good escape route the last hour or so before you expect the water to get there. Nibble the edges IF you have to fish to the last minute. HOWEVER, way down river is far to predict because it's level is so multifactorial and rises and falls are mushy. I consider Rim Shoals to "get" water in 6 hours or so. Cotter = 4 ish. Buffalo City = 9 hours or so. BUT again these are just rough guesses. GM, I'd like you to fish with me on Friday or Saturday. I've got LTR on board for Friday and Terrierman onboard for Saturday. My jet ain't the fastest boat and it sure ain't quiet, but lots of trout have come over the gunnels.

I'll be there fairly early Friday. Brett we'll need to coordinate so I can meet you for the afternoon. I'll probably fish down river to make things easy for the afternoon pickup. I may look at some new to me areas Friday morning. So it looks like I have an open seat Friday morning and Friday afternoon AND two open seats on Saturday. Weather forecast is changing so quickly these days, but I'd plan on a chance for a cold rain on one or both days. FTR, The upper end of the State Park is the start of the No Fly Zone, I like water less than 10K for my jig fishing, but I've caught in 20K water so that's that. I'll start watching water levels and generation now that we're close. But it's still anybody's guess what will happen on Friday and Saturday.

Just throwing this out there, we are going to have more boats than we need. Folks that are trailering long distances MIGHT want to leave their boat at home and ride with a local. HINT. I'm willing to drive my boat or ride in someone else's. I have a jet so low water is NO problem but high speed is NOT happening. I'd rather leave my boat at home IF it's not going to be used than leave it unattended at the boat ramp (grew up in Baton Rouge area where petty theft was a constant annoyance). BUT PLEASE UNDERSTAND that I will fish Friday. It's starting to get close enough to start guessing who's fishing with who and where we're going to meet up to fish. I want to avoid wasting half the day looking for someone that I'm going to fish with. Please help a brother out on this.

I live local and I'm gonna sleep in my onw bed. I'm down with the struggle, but I need to tend to the home fires too. I'll fish Friday and Saturday as early and as late as other are interested. I plan on being their for both meals. I'll have ice and soft drinks and some solo cups.

Ohhh I've touched the surface , the bottom, and been swimming in it a few times during the heat of the sunmer, but it don't take very long to cool off no matter how hot you are.