Ham

There were only 1000 of the creamsicles put in the river last year. That's a smal number compared to the 1.5 million trout dumped in the river. Let em grow (and glow) as long as they can. I'm SHOCKED that they haven't all been eaten by eagles/herons/brown trout yet.

Looking at the location column in Ed's profile (Heber Springs), I'd guess he's talking about the Little Red. If you're just getting started, you might want to consider a day on the water with a guide. That can really help get you on your way. A good guide can help you learn how to cast correctly rather than having to un-learn a lot bad technique later. The Curtis Creek Trout Manifesto is a great little book to help you learn some basic concepts as well. Also consider going to a local fly shop to get fresh intell on whats happening where you are fishing. Ask about hot patterns and then buy three of each fly you choose to purchase. You DO NOT want to have only one of the fly the fish want. OTF gave some very good advice. You might want to consider adding Zebra midges in size 18. Black with silver wire and bead is a classic, but other colors work also.

Thank you. I'll try to get out there and give them a try sometime relatively soon. I'll start with 1/4 oz and adjust if necessary and I'll start off crawling my soft plastic and try something different if I don't get bit.

Want to wager that BP only gets a slap on the wrist? BP is going to lose BILLIONS on this deal. Maybe you'll somehow spin billions as being a slap on the wrist.

Hey Tim, Is that smallie bite affected by time of day or weather conditions? I'm wondering if I can get an early topwater bite and then pull out and try that smallie bite in the middle of a sunny afternoon or if I would be better served hitting the smalliies early and late. Thanks, Ham

I've made a few trips fishing for river smallies to other areas of the country. When fishing those other places, bigger smallies were relatively easier to come by. So as I fish Ozark waters catching 10 inch smallie after 10 inch smallie, I wonder why we can't seem to grow them as large as the east coast (or Texas or Tennessee for that matter). I would think we have fertile enough water ; I think there is plenty of food for the smallies. We have a nice long growing season for them. Most of our rivers have deep enough wintering locations. I don't think we have significantly more natural predators than the other areas I have fished. I'm sure herons and otters get their share, but that sort of thing tends to work out a balance point. It could be too much catch and keep angling. It could be too many are dying from repeated handling even though the anglers are using catch and release. It could be a few too many bad apples poaching. Stream degradation from gravel mining or excessive nutrients from farming or mining runoff ? I have a lot more curiosity about this than answers. Maybe someone hear has it all figured out though.

I call them Creamsicles.

I show the lake level being 665. I fished some new water (new to me) on the lake today. I ended up with 6 species and 35 fish total. No walleye for me today. No smallies either which was a function of where I fished AND a bummer.

I'm looking to add a 4 weight to the mix. I love my St Croix LU's and part of me wonders why I would consider anything other rod. But then I look at the price tag and remember that this is a part time use rod. Fly fishing is about 20% of my fishing and the majority of that 20% will be done with a 5 wt or 6 wt. I'm looking mainly at a TFO Jim Teeny or the TFO Finesse. I'd love to hear opinions of this especially anyone that has fished with any of these three rods.

I have a Merc 20 jet. When running in neutral, there is a little forward push. You certainly should be getting a lot more when in forward. Reverse lowers a block that (for the most part) deflects the water to create a reverse push. My jet doesn't have much power in reverse at all. Carefully look at your external linkage to see if everything is in order there. I know you'd rather fix it at home. The lower unit of a jet seems pretty straight forward. I'm need to take mine down and inspect the impeller etc. There are jet maintainence DVD's available online for less than 20 bucks. If all that fails, there has to be a jet mechanic around here somewhere.

I checked the guages. It came up 10 feet in less than 24 hours and will take 7-10 days (my SWAG) to get back any where close to normal.

www.usgs.gov I'd guess blown out, but check the guages.

Zippy, I was actually surprized that no one brought the bedding stream smalmouth issue up earlier in this thread. Go to River Smallies and start this same thread (cut and paste if you want), and you'll get a lot more negative comments than positive ones. So, I guess there are quite a few high horses over there. I don't have an informed enough opinion to feel real strongly on one side or the other. The studies I have read on fishing during the spawn that say it isn't harmful are mostly LMB studies done on southern mega lakes. I am mostly not on streams during the spawn because I am having too much fun on lakes AND it is a little harder for me to catch water levels where I like them on streams/creeks during the spring. If I am going to fish smallies streams and not catch any fish somewhere in the lengthy spawning process, I'd better wait until July to fish. I don't EVER keep ANY smallmouth from any lake or river, but that's just my overly tender hearted choice. I don't purposely target spawning smallmouth in creeks, but again that's just my choice. I am quite certain that I have unknowningly caught spawning smallies from creeks/rivers before. I don't beat myself up over it. Pollution, gravel mining, wanton catch and keep in willful ignorance of the fishing regulations all pose a bigger threat to our river smallies than catching and releasing spawners. PLEASE keep the details on the down low. I'd rather you didn't educate the catch and keep crowd on how to target the biggest smallies in any given river system while they are on the beds though.

Yep, the "worms" eat all the leaves and poop everywhere, but it doesn't hurt the trees and what a wasted resource. People will pay to get those "worms". Sprayed em. That bums me out.

You should have taken a rod. The Caddo can be GREAT.

Let me get this straight, you had worms on your trees and sprayed them with a pesticide?

Thanks to the Basscat OI tourney, I managed to get Larry Richards off of his beloved Lake Norfork and over to BSL. We fished out of his pretty Champion 190. That is one smooth riding boat. Drives pretty easy too. We fished in a major creek that is within sight of the dam. We caught fish early and often on a WIDE assortment of baits. So, lots of stuff is working and lots of species of fish are active. We ended up catching around 50 fish total. We got 7 different species. WE caught more than half of our fish on topwater baits using various colors,sizes, and lure designs based on the amount of wind, water color, and cloud cover we had at any particular moment. It was a total catch and release trip, but we had a fair number of "keepers". Another good trip with Larry.

I've heard several Whip Poor wills this year. Heard my first Rain Crow of thw year on Mother's Day. I would love to find an active Catalpa tree. I'd do a natural bait catfish (and everything else) trip just for old times sake. I think catalpas work almost as good frozen at least I need to believe they do. Gosh, the good times I had gathering bait before the real fun of fishing. I need to plant some Catalpa trees here on my place. Maybe I'd be blessed by the moths using my trees.

Only seven species? I'd bet you could get 10 species with a little luck. It does seem like a lot of stuff is working right now and most all of the fish are fairly shallow and biting. Hope the clients were happy. Sounds like you put them on the fish.

a guide might be a pretty decent idea. Make sure that you want to learn some seasonal patterns since you'll be moving to this area. With any luck, you'll catch some fish AND put yourself much fuirther along on the learning curve. IF you can communicate with the guide well, you might want to hire him again for a lesson on summer or fall fishing also.

That looks like a ton of fun. I'd love to get some carp on the fly. I'll have to look into how far away that is for me (likely too far away).

I wonder if that fish didn't have a tumor. In-fisherman has shown photos of pike (and stuff) that were grossly distended like that and it was a result of a tumor.

Phil, could you make a sticky post that listed available ramps and water levels that they are usable? For instance, the ramp at Jimmy Creek nearest to the main lake is closed at 642, but looks like it wouls be ok to 690. Oakland can be used from about 648 (swag) to 663 (parking lot flooded) but then the road in can be used at 670 or so Pontiac can be used from ???? to 674 Spring Creek is hard because tthere is a very ackward range where it is too difficult and then if it gets high enough it reaches a steep section of road leading to the ramp that you could launch off of. Theodosia Park ??? to 671 but it might be possible to launch off the road down past Cookies at even higher levels than 671. Buck Creek works from 648 (lower?) to 660 w/o too much trouble, but the road down to the ramp could be used above 664 or so. maybe some of the other folks that use the lake a lot could help with this. If you could/would, putting it in a spread sheet form would be great

Why so light on the fluro? Get the Eakins Jig Rod and don't look back. I have it in the Cara version, but the Lowrider version would be nice as well.

Glad to see you still fish Bobber.