Ham

I'm surprized by the amount of night fishing done for White Bass. Lots of folks fish for White Bass in Louisiana where I learned to fish, but I've never heard of anyone fishing for them at night.

You simply can't say that what works in Wisconsin will automatically work here. Different climate and different type lakes with different species mix. BSL is fishing great right now. Risking the known quality of the lake for a shot at great striper fishing is a hard sell to none striper fishermen. I'm pretty sure we could maintain great fishing at BSL by maintaining water levels 5-10 foot above pool until the middle of June once every 3-5 years.

I have a Tarpon 120. My wife has a Tarpon 100. My son has a Ocean Kayak Drifter and my daughter was a OK Venus.

I'm looking forward to kayak trips more than ever this year. Nice photos. thanks for sharing. I plan on throwing more hard baits this year. I also want a 200 fish on a flyrod in one day and I know where to do it.

So how did you do?

That sucks Larry. I didn't even notice when we left the ramp. I'm sure I had left plenty of room between rigs. I had pulled straight in from the ramp. I had almost no steering to do. Crap.

Fished out of Oakland with Larry Richards yesterday. It was a very enjoyable and successful trip althought not at all what I expected to find. Water temps were 53-55 in the Oakland area and 55-58 in the Pontiac area. Water is VERY clear in the Oakland area and has a little color in the Pontiac area. The wind blew pretty hard in the afternoon and affected where we could fish effectively. I got a couple of keeper walleye on a jerkbait. We got a few smallies. I caught two carp. One on a roadrunner and the other on a 4 inch grub. The RR carp was that run of the mill 3 pounder, but the one on the grub was a giant. I saw that beast run and get my grub about 15 foot down and was hoping it was a monster SMB. About 15 seconds into the deal, I figured out what it was. About 15 minutes later, Larry got a net under it. I also caught two Drum on the 4 inch grub, both of which ate a grub like a smallie and pulled like a mule. Big fish mon. We each had a LMB over 19 inches on a jerkbait and Larry caught a Dandy 21 1/2 inch LMB on one of his home crafted skirted jigs. Larry was talking to them with that jig. He was talking to them witht he jerkbait pretty good too. We had a half dozen "keeper" spots. We had a boatload of big ole White Bass that hit hard and pulled harder. 10 to 1 sow to males. The smallies were not on yet, but soon. Maybe. The LMB were not back shallow like I expected them to be, but soon. Maybe. Lots of traffic on the lake for a Thursday. Lots of new brush in the water that I plan on catching lots of crappie off of. Somebody did a lot of work. So go. Keep an open mind and a bait in the water. You'll catch fish. Read Mike's reports. He gives details that I won't, but his stuff is spot on.

I got a 21 1/2 and a 23 1/4 on jerkbait under a ball of shad. First I've caught since early Jan. I hope it's a sign of better things to come.

Ditto what Brian said.

I fished in the HEAVY wind yesterday afternoon from 1 pm -6 pm. I fished the back third of Jimmy Creek. I found water temps from 48-53' Not much off colored water from the morning rain. Enough rain to get my truck and boat muddy on the way in though. I found a few scattered fish. I think I would have caught more if my boat had not been so frequently overpowered by the wind. It about to be crazy good.

My (very limited) understanding is that the original Supreme guy got back in the business by starting up NRI. A nice shiny new boat would be great, but tons of good deals on used boats out there IF you are open to that idea. I saw a center console Topwater the other day which I thought was an interesting idea, but I'd have to think it through before not going with this classic White river setup.

Maybe Ken should sleep in and be a little more thick skinned. taxi was trying to help folks out with a fishing report and you had to get snarky.

Looks a lot like the Osprey I saw come down and get a trout out of the water near Cotter on Thursday 3-31-11. I'll guess Osprey.

Is there a magic water temp mark where they really bite better? A couple of trips this year I've been pretty sure we were on a bunch of fish, but they just wouldn't bite very much. I've never really worked out the details on White Bass too much because I was fishing them on the Sabine River and most of the time it just wasn't that hard. Lots and lots of fish and most of them were pretty darn big. I do miss the Sabine River and Toledo Bend.

I love Bull Shoals just the way it is. I'd be fine with limited annual stocking of say 2500 fish a year. You'd maintain the trophy striper fishery w/o rolling the dice on the rest of the fish. Norfork fishes differently from BSL, but I'm not sure what part (if any) of those differences the Stripers cause. I think the comparative lack of cover in Norfork compared to BSL would be the biggest difference.

No one jig does it all. Good points from other posts. A #4 hook is great for open water, but in thicker brush a #6 may be a better option. Another good point is that the jig head needs to match the size of the soft plastic being used. Sharp fine wire is a must. Weedless jigs have their place. I prefer wire over fiber guards, but you can't always get what you want. 1/8oz, 1/16oz, and 1/32oz all have their place, but these days I throw more 1/32oz than anything else. Don't overlook 1/16oz roadrunner heads with a soft plastic. Been catching lots of big crappie on full sized jerk baits. Not my normal crappie fishing methods.

Great job guys.

The one I caught at Lake Whitney was the prettiest bass I have ever caught. It was about 17 inches long basically looked like a spot that was an overcoat of rich olive color. NO Doubt about what it was.

You da man D!

What crowd?

wait a week

I've caught them in Texas (Lake Whitney) and Arkansas (BSL). I don't think I've caught one at TR yet.

The original post seemed just fine and dandy to me, but I know Larry. I know that Larry served this country honorably in the Navy where he spent time overseas. He likely knows a hell of a lot more Japan and it's people than most here do. I feel certain he meant no disrespect. I know that Larry used Megabass BEFORE every else knew about them, but has since moved on to fishing his old school Rogues and does just fine with them. I know that Larry has fly fished high altitude streams out west for tiny but beautiful native trout on flyrods in the past. He enjoyed it, but chooses not to fly fish at this time. I don't know anyone living in Japan at the moment, but that doesn't preclude me from having great sympathy for the people of Japan. I think this disaster will have a great impact on the world economy as well as the people of Japan. BUT, I just can't understand why so many people are critical of a post ON A FISHING FORUM that points out how the cost and availability of a popular fishing lure may be affected because of this disaster. IF you're a Megabass fan, consider it a PSA. Get em before they are off the market. If you're not a Megabass fan, don't read stuff into a post that isn't there. Rather than calling for threads to be locked or deleted maybe people should learn how to be more selctive in the threads they read. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it again and you sure as hell shouldn't feel the need to comment on it.

I'm willing to share water with folks willing to come spend their hard earned dollars in our local economy. Surely, such a dedicated and experienced fly fishing angler such as yourself can hit some areas of the White that won't be wrapped up with folks from out of town. If need be, you can kayak away from a access point and fish riffles that rarely see a fly. We have the rivers all year. Just sayin.

I was thinking the same thing Larry, but I hate to spend a bunch of money right now. I'm pretty well stocked up and the colder water period is drawing to a close. Hmmm.