Ham

UNLESS there is some flood event that turns the water into Chocolate milk or there is a nasty algae bloom/die off, the trout always bite. Everyday. Sometimes they bite better or worst, but you can always scratch out a few fish. I fished again this morning. I made a tactical mistake and ity limited my catching, but people were catching fish. Read the reports by John Berry and Larry Babin at Ble Ribbon Flyshop. Excellant advice. The fish do seem to bite a little better in the afternoon than in the morning. Some of the old standbys are working well. Egg opatterns, SJW. Zebra midges. I got some fish on emergers. Guys tthat are good with WB's are catching fish on them as well. Spinning rods are taking plenty of fish as well.

Try dragging football jigs down 45 degree banks instead of soft plastics. I use 15 pound fluro instead of mono. I think it helps me.

Low water in the morning so I fished at Rim. After lunch, I hooked up the boat and fished at Wildcat. Egg patterns are working now. Brown trout are definitely on the move and can be caught w/o looking for fish on redds.

I really like the one close to my Dad's house ESPECIALLY when I used to live relatively close to my Dad. Good sale prices. Excellant mark down/clearance prices. They had Lunker City jigheads and hooks. SOME of the H2O baits are GREAT and cheap. The Zoom stuff was cheap compared to a lot of places and the color selection was very nice. The colors were right for that area. Good selection of other hard baits and semi-regular sales on outboard motor oil at VERY cheap prices. HOWEVER: I would be much better off not buying ANYTHING fishng related for several years.

I live him and I laways have to work during the FFF and the Sowbug. I kind of like the Sowbug better, but there are always good speakers at both events. I tend to let the out of town guys have the river during those events. I'd really like to go to next years Sowbug.

I didn't know you were into bug porn wrench.

No, but I guess I should. The trout totally refused a smallish yellow foam hopper. If that fly gets refused like that again, I'll move those to the panfish box. The one they ate good was a tan foam body with a synth over wing and a little white bucktail to help see it better. Pink silicone rubber legs. At some point though the light changed and they went totally cold on it.

Slung a hopper at the banks today. I caught plenty of small Browns, some decent Bows, and a pair of real nice Cutts. They did seem to prefer some hoppers over others so take at least 3 flies of three or four hopper designs. I need to restock. They get mangled in a hurry. I used a 6 weight to make sure I got the hopper to go where I wanted it to go. A 6 weight is a pretty decent trout persuader. I got frustrated with the hopper eventually and threw a Zig Jig a little while and got a nice 18 inch Brown to eat the jig. I only fished about 2 hours and left on a high note immediately after catching the 18 inch Brown.

I think he got most of his bites using it as a slow moving popper. I did notice it sail off at odd angles a few times. That flat side catches in the air funny and all bets are off.

I fish year round, but I'm not real big on Winter fishing for bass. I'll concentrate on trout once the water gets really cold (~40') until the water warms up to around 45'.

It is a long way off, but the Red River near Shreveport has a lot of the fish you are looking to catch and photograph. It is LOADED with Spotted Sunfish along the rip rap.

Fished with a buddy who used a Top Dollar the other day. It walks with an extremely irregular cadence more in keeping with a seizure disorder than normal walk the dog baits. I usually can get a Gunfish to walk better than that. He got a fair number of looks on it and caught some nice fish, but I think you're on the right track changing out the hooks.

It's your property. You can charge whatever you want. That said, I think $5 a boat should cover leaving a vehicle there as well, but hey that;s just me.

North Fork of the White River is the main creek arm, but there are several other major creek arms. While Norfork CAN be very clear, there is often off colored water further up the creek arms if you choose to target those fish. I would expect the fish to be biting and thinking about a move back to shallower water, but not there yet. Early and late give you a shot at some topwater fish. These would likely be fish that are busting shad. read random events that I can't name locations. Points and bluff banks let you fish a wide range of depths in small distances. I would expect there are fish to be caught from 15-35 FOW on jigs. Where do you live now? To me, Bull Shoals fishes easier and better than Norfork, bt Norfork is still a very nice lake. Norfork is known more for its striper fishing than any of the other fish, but the bass fishing is good as well.

Going a little larger on the mono helps as well. The fish don't seem to mind. I like 15 or 20 lb Big Game. Tangles less and is easier to get untangled that smaller line.

Wow, Gotmuddy you mean fish activity and location varies with the time of the year and related temperature changes? Thanks a bunch man, you've opened my eyes to lots of new possibilities.

I've been fishing versions of that for almost 40 years. Yeah, they work. I'd go with a lighter jighead like 1/16 oz and not worry about doubles.

If all else fails, throw that SOB in the Finley, and buy another one.

It sure looked like smallie water when I was catching trout there 2/2/10.

Good trout fishing in the winter.

The gar you see in the Buffalo are Longnosed Gar. That is the only species of gar ever collected from the Buffalo in the scientific fish sampling studies from 1975 thru 2003. There have been 74 species of fish collected from the Buffalo River and its tributaries within the NPS boundries. I googled up a USGS STudy that I found pretty interesting.

You might be able to embarrass the authorities into action. Take some photos and go talk to one of the local TV stations. Maybe they'll do one of those stories where they help fix a problem by making everyone aware of the problem.

How was the water level?

Take a look at Blue Ribbon Fly shops website. They generally have a recent fishing report with fly suggestions. Hoppers are working now. Nymphs always work. Zebra midges always work. Wooly Buggers always work. Scuds and sowbugs are forgotten flies, but they still work. It might be a little early for egg patterns, but they might work anyway. I'll be reaching for Y2K's pretty soon and fishing them real regular until March.

Before you order, consider Appomattox. ARC I've found them to be a low cost, high service outfit. They'll be glad to discuss boat options on the phone. By all means, choose what's best for you.