Ham

What The Hell Dave? You have intell on a fun little fish in a state I haven’t fished yet and I have to read about it on OA?

I think most animals have more going on in their minds than we give them credit for, well except for armadillos. They are myopic and very dim.

Well, now that you mention it…..

One of these days maybe

No Worries John. I’m not sure how you managed to pull it all together as it is. I guess you have all three lists and I just have one. I do appreciate it. I know that took some doing and aggravation.

White perch is listed twice. please add Dusky Striped Shiner Holy Crap that’s a lot of different species. I’ll double check my list.

I'll get a multiday shad trip in eventually. The first one of each species will be Special, but I am there to catch as many of them as I can. Cracks me up when guys say "You can catch all the White Bass You want". If I caught 500 White Bass in a single day, that might be enough. Might.

You got a Big Gizzard on a Shad Dart also? Is this Big Stinky Native ok Marty ? IMG_0820.MOV

It took a surprising length of time to sync up notebook and phone list to get this all straightened out. as of 12/31/2021 I was at 40 of the Arkansas counties completed. I should be able to get to 10-12 this year. Trust me when I say the easy ones (travel wise) have been done.

I was smelly the rest of the day

So, it’s complicated. Multiple variants of a novel virus. The effectiveness of the vaccine over the first variant may have been different than it’s effectiveness against the omicron variant. It seemed like we had much lower rates of infection with the first two variants. Omicron is MUCH easier to catch and ppl are done with being careful by in large. I’m never, ever in favor of a mandate than ppl get a vaccine or drug therapy. I would love for reliable scientific data to be so overwhelmingly positive that people want the treatment or vaccine, but it is completely wrong for the government to force people to get the vaccine. If you are an enlisted person, you signed away your rights for a lot of things. with this virus/pandemic or whatever, the information has been anything but reliable. I thought that the vaccine was supposed to prevent infects, stop/slow the spread, and maybe improve outcomes if infected. With the latest variant, it seems to be this helps your chances once infected, but does little to keep you from getting infection and little to do with slowing the spread. That scenario changes the mental calculation to decide if you want to take this vaccine.

I saw a big brown running through a group of little Brookies at the mouth of dry run creek. He would just run through the group of them over and over and over.

So, it seems like a lot of fish that predominately eat algae or detritus aren’t opposed to a little protein to the diet. It can be scuds or insect larvae or tiny crawfish. In theory, if you pick some tiny buggy looking thing and present it appropriately some oddball fish are going to eat it occasionally. now, I’m I going t be patient enough to do the right thing for a couple hours without a bite? Sadly, not likely. I probably lack the patience to grind out Pygmy sunfish because you have to drop tiny baits into small holes in vegetation over and over and over again until the stars align. I also believe that during certain times of year you get reaction strikes that are way outside the normal behavior of that fish. I wish I knew how to take advantage of that better, but I’m always trying. for example, I caught a Striped mullet on a Spinnerbait. He smacked the crap out of it and the hook was way down his gullet. Only time that’s ever happen for me and I used to fish around mullet a lot. Gizzard Shad are normally pretty shy about hitting baits, but there are windows when they will. I think it tends to be either when plankton numbers are super low and they get hungry or related to spawning ive seen Gizzard Shad following spawning White Bass around enough to make me think they maybe feeding on the eggs. I think I’ve seen common carp feeding on crappie eggs that were being deposited in a brush pile. Carp are a lot more aggressive towards baits in early spring. They seem really hangry.

I often call the Brook Trout Pretty, but expensive Brown Trout food. I love the little guys.

Fun read.

I would think with some advance conversation you could get by a resupply bag and ice delivered by Dirst Canoe. I would expect to Pay a small fee for the service and sync it up with one of the their normal runs to either Dillards Ferry or Rush Landing As I am sure you know, Rush is your last chance before the final 28 miles

I hope for you to do most of that in one day in April!!!!

Mike, In just a few months Del is going to have you knowing more than me about the lake. That’s Awesome and Good Luck!

Zig Jigs

I throw Rogues at trout more these days. I would still throw Rogues more if I was fishing Louisiana more. You don’t need the extra depth. My biggest LMB came on a Susp Rogue. The original shorter one in Clown. 11.15 on a rainy New Moon in November in Caney Lake Louisiana (before they ruined it with Grass Carp).

Well Done Jeff

1/5/22 finds me at 12 of 40 caught. i hope I can get a few this year.

" Have you caught anything in Crawford County?" I caught some fish out of Clear Creek in Chester, Arkansas. Longear Sunfish and small Smallmouth Bass,

0832 1/1/22 I got my first of the year a Knobfin Sculpin.

You are correct Sir. If I remember right, Dallas county is gonna suck. I’ll be fishing a roadside ditch most likely.