Ham

Hey Glen, Glad to see you're getting on the water and catching some fish.

You da man. I went yesterday, but I would not have gone today.

Fished Rim Shoals with a buddy for a few hours just to start the year off right. Air temp and wind speed were both in the 20's. Wasn't really the combo I would have asked for, but the trout don't mind. We caught about 10 trout combined with a few more pull offs (barbless doncha know) and missed take downs. Every fly we fished caught fish. Wind made it sooo difficult to control a drift or even fish down and across effectively. All the fish were decent, but best fish caught was in 16 inch range. We ended the day on a nice double. I can even feel my fingers and toes again. Flies used. Zebra midge, Y2K, WB, and Pheasant Tail nymph. Trout milling around my feet as I wade is awful distracting.

Tell me again why in the world MO allows gigging at all? Suckers CAN be caught with a hook and line if you want some to eat.

Well, Happy Holidays to you too.

I've looked at most of the lake using that Google feature and while there are things that are very interesting in the photos, I did't think I was seeing schools of shad in any of the photos.

I use a pair of fingerless polar fleece. They were an Orvis brand I got on closeout. Simms sells something similar though. It is a tradeoff, but I can still fish in those.

Gee Whiz Bob I thought ou were a canoer rather than a yaker.

So how was the fishing?

I'm really not happy with myself for not fishing 12-22-07. I have no good excuse other than it is such a PIA to get my boat out and tucked back it that I did not think it was worth it for a few hours. I did not think that the weather was going to be as good as it was either. MY BAD. AWESOME TRIP LARRY. for anywhere, but especially for up here.

Thanks Steady. I have found it on the map and had actually fished there earlier in the year and caught a few in that area.

Really?

I'd learn it IF I lived over that way, but I can not in good faith reccommend the BT to a person looking for one day on different water. Cotter or Rim Shoals or Norfork or Bull Shoals are going to be much easier for someone spending one day to have a successful trip.

Drive further south or further East. I'd rather spend my time at Lake of the Ozarks or Lake Ouachita. Drive a lot further south and really catch them at Toledo bend.

How far from Taney to Roaring River? I'd rather fish there than Beaver Tailwaters. No offense to the guys that have learned the Beaver Tailwater, but for the average Joe White River below Bull Shoals has bigger fish and higher numbers.

I sneaked in a few minutes of trout fishing on the Norfork near the dam after I took my son to Dry Run creek Sunday. I caught one decent Brown and a handful on SMALL brookies. I wonder if there was a recent stocking?

I broke down and bought a Screamin Eagle or 2. I don't know that I have caught a fish on the mian hook of a spinnerbait since I moved north. >90% of my fish are on the trailer hook. I have been throwing my SB's on 14-17 lb mono. Is that pretty standard? I'm almost done with SB's for this year and probably won't look to throw them until water temps are > 50' next spring.

Thanks for the reply Larry. I've been catching some fish on bluff banks with SB's and Hula grubs, but I wanted to try to get some crankbait fish. I don't know where that spot is, but I'll sure the heck try to find it. If for nothing else to see the rare and elusive Lake Norfork Shad.

Weather looked optimal for a crankbait bite. Socked in clouds with occassional rain. I left the sunscreen at home. Wind was light and variable. Very low light for the preceding three days. Air temp started in the low 30's and got up to low 40's. Water temp was in the mid 50's. It really wasn't bad at all. I had the area I fished to myself = no other boats on the water. Fished in Panther Creek and Float Creek. Looked great. Fished a variety of banks. Fist size to chunk to big boulders. Started out near main lake and went all the way back. Water was clear (duh). Some water running in, but no stained water was seen. We caught a handful of fish and the size was better than what I expect to be the average, but overall I was disappointed. I hear that Lake Norfork has shad, but I can't ever seem to find any. I really expected a good day and it just did not happen. The few fish we caught were barely hooked and the "hits" very very iffy. The fish sort of loaded on the bait rather than a good jarring hit. In retrospect, I wish I had just gone back down to Quarry Park to launch. I want to at least lay my eyes on every bit of the lake atleast once, but I can boat ride in ethe summer. This was a fishing trip and I wanted to catch fish. The worse part of it is that I don't think I understand why I did not catch em. If I at least knew what I did wrong, I could hope to do better next time. Most of the fish came on crankbaits, I got one on a spinnerbait. Hula grub got minimal throws and NO bites at all. We caught all three species.

I like Shimano for baitcasters, but I will not buy another Shimano spinning reel. I have first hand knowledge of a shimano spinning reel binding when it got wet. My creek fishing trips are often full immersion smallie baptisms and I have no use for a reel that can't take a dunking. Okumas are heavy and have less line capacity. If you fish braid, line capacity might not be an issue. I've got a couple of Okuma Epixor 15's and tehy will do as a panfish reel. Okuma is fairly priced and durable. Lots of folks love them. I fish Daiwas. SS1300 is old reliable. I have a bunch of the SSII 2500's as well. The SS1300 was less bells and whistles, but it is bombproof. The SSII2500 borders on being a little too big, but I have adjusted to that. The Mitchell Avocets seem to be a servicable reel. They get the job dome w/o costing a ton of money. Pick your price break point and make a choice.

Hey Steve: I'll pick up a copy next time I drop by. That DVD will pay for itself the first trip I make after watching it. Time on the water ie precious. Anything that puts you ahead on the learning curve is worth its weight in gold. I stopped by Mountain River Fly Shop and met Steve yesterday. As those who have met him know already, Steve was very friendly and very helpful. On the way home, the pieces kinda fell into place and I remembered the thread about Steve moving from the Beaver Dam tailwater to Cotter. I'll probably manage about 15-20 trips a year on the White and a lot of those will not be all day trips. I look forward to learning it though.

I dunno, I kind of like the drive up to Table Rock. More bites on "fork", but less size than the rock.

We fished daylight to dark. Launched at Quarry Park. Cool and windy first thing. Warmer and more wind later. Some clouds, but they were high and thin clouds. Water temp (surface) 57'. We got 16 or 17 bass in the boat and lost a handful more on the way to the boat. NO fish on topwater. Several patterns are working, but we junk fished using a little of this and a little of that rather than sticking with any one technique or type of water. Got there early looking to play with some stripers. Saw a few and had a few half hearted swipes at surface baits, but no hookups. Caught some smallies and largemouth on mainlake deep banks draggig a jig around. Caught a couple of nice fish on a blade on windy banks (most banks were windy, some were very windy) with chunk rock(softball to basketball size). FINALLY caught a few fish on banks not on the main lake. On a cloudy day, I would have spent a lot more time doing this. We caught a few crankbait fish. Mostly smallmouth, but a largemouth or two as well. I caught the only spotted bass on a grub near bottom in 20 foot of water around a boat dock. He was nice sized though. Watched AGFC release 5000 8 inch blue catfish into the lake. Saw a Bald Eagle resting in a shore line tree. Finally caught a single small striper right at dark on a grub. A really great way to spend a day with a good friend. The number of fish and the activity level was good enough, but I need to find some bigger fish. We would have had three keepers, but all fish were released.

Some units come with more maps "pre-installed". The map you buy depends on what you want it to do. You can buy topo maps on CD and upload selected maps into the GPS unit or marine mas or more detail street maps. Mine came with some maps on CD and they upload to an SD chip inside the unit IF I ever get around to installing the drivers and breaking out the cable etc. The only way that unit is going to be useful to you is if you go play with it a bunch. Garmin makes great products, but you have to develope a skill set to get the most out of the unit.

I'm glad you guys had a good trip. It might be a long drive for you, but BEFORE she turns 16 you NEED to take her to Dry Run Creek. Check out the regs carefully, but the numbers of the trout and the size of the trout just can't be imagined. She will in all likelyhood catch the biggest trout of her life.