Ham

The answer is of course Yes. Highs in the teens starts being iffy. I plan on fishing this weekend.

There has definitely been a post holiday surge. People are tried of the restrictions, the masks, the social distancing, and the sacrifices. I certainly understand and share those frustrations. If the vaccine is all they say it is and vaccine production is what they say it is, I am hoping that we will soon see the beginnings of a gradual drop off in cases and that by the fall of 2021 things will be MUCH better.

You can easily find each states Covid stats online. When Covid 19 was savaging NYC and we had yet to see a single case, I was skeptical. I think we are going to hit 80 deaths today. About 1/4 of out census is Covid and Covid patients require maximum effort and resources. It is not a hoax even though it was used as a political weapon.

IF I had recovered from a confirmed Covid infection, I would want other ppl to get the vaccine first. I don’t think induced immunity from a vaccine is better than natural immunity, but down the road you might want to consider a booster from a Covid vaccine. Have the “family” docs that are not getting the vaccine explained why ?

I would love for there to be long term data about the safety of the vaccine, but there isn’t time for that right now. The virus continues to churn away. There are almost no ICU beds available in Arkansas. All hospitals in Arkansas have been asked to increase their ICU beds by 10%. We are on the cusp of having to stop all surgeries that are not life sustaining. We stay dangerously near no capacity On our non ICU beds. I’m on a call every morning at work where I hear the latest stats. Of late, each day Arkansas sadly sets a new high for active cases and hospitalizations. The deaths continue to pile up. Most people survive a Covid 19 infection, but there are lots of people that didn’t and the experts still have a lot to learn about the virus and how to treat it. Not surprisingly, the virus is mutating and a more infectious variant has developed and it seems to affect children more also. I decided to get the vaccine. I decided the virus was a bigger threat to me and my friends and family than the vaccine. I want to be able to travel freely, fish with ALL my friends without concern that I will give them the virus, and in general Live my life without constant self imposed restrictions. I choose to be vaccinated to be a small step towards the long term solution to the virus. I can tell you that I had minimal side effects from my first injection. I had some soreness at the injection site for < 24 hours. I can tell you that we did not have ANY serious or significant reactions amongst the 1176 people that got vaccinated in the first round of injections.

Honestly, your best bet is to get it from a local pharmacy. I do believe that my hospital is likely to assist the local Baxter County pharmacy get the maximum number of people vaccinated as soon as possible. To this point, we have 100's of hours of employee time invested and we have not charged anyone for any aspect of the vaccination program. The hospital did not pay for the vaccine, but we aren't even charging an administration fee.

Bobby I don’t have to wonder who is monitoring the temperature, I know who is monitoring it. I am with help from Pfizer. the vaccine came from Pfizer via UPS in a specially designed cold box packed with dry ice and a temperature sensor that is constantly monitored. I am the contact person for my hospital. I can log on and see the temperature from when shipping started to real time.. I will get a email alert and a phone call if it starts to go out of range. I replenish the dry ice every time we enter the package or at a minimum every 5 days. I am confident the vaccine is within storage parameters.

Well, the Devil is in the details. The Pfizer product has to be maintained at -80 degrees. The vials are good for 5 days once thawed. the vials are good for 6 hours once diluted if refrigerated and only 2 hours at room temperature. The Moderna product is much more portable ; it only has to be kept at -20 and is in pre-filled syringes. I believe the plan is for those vaccines to be used in Long Term Care facilities first. The Moderna product was a couple of weeks behind the Prizer product and I think they have had production delays. These constraints make it difficult to transport vaccines and most facilities that get a supply of vaccine want to do vast immunization events at their faculty. We have no control over which vaccine we get nor how much we get. We get fairly strict guidelines about how it is to be used and to ignore those guidelines would have consequences such as not getting future vaccine shipments. First come first served would be a logistical nightmare. Please understand that groups of well intentioned intelligent people spent a bunch of time trying to work out the best way to use the limited supply to maximize benefit for everyone. I agree that Vaccine sitting in storage is not doing anyone any Good, but it does take a while to set up the immunization event so there will be some delays between delivery to the facility and delivery to a patient. Please try to patient a little longer and give People the benefit of the doubt. The people involved want to get people vaccinated as soon as possible and are working as hard as they can to get this done.

I graduated in 1979. How did I get to be one of the old guys ?

Braid is very light and the spool has less momentum to keep spilling line out. fluro has more weight and backlashes worse than mono. it doesn’t have to be a Big Deal. Set your spool tension and your brakes correctly and keep an active thumb. you can make a long cast and then pull off 30 more feet of line and then put a piece of electrical tape on the spool. It will not backlash past the tape.

Whoa !!! Tap your brakes some. NFOW is going to have too many drunk floaters regardless of what any individual invested. Words matter and that’s too strong an opinion for the subject matter. Save that for drug cartels or something

I think Dawt Mill is the lake. Spots are in the upper lake for sure, but largiesxare more numerous.

I’m 58 and definitely limited in how long I can throw and actively work a jerk bait. cranks are no problem yet, but I’m not ever gonna throw the giant ones.

2) Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) Baby Brown but the first of the year

Careful John! I expect there will be an Invasive Carp tag to raise money to deal with them.

I really like the rock crawlers. Cast great and run deep. You really can slow it down and stay down. To be fair, some days all the want is a wart. Been there and seen that. I ended up having to borrow one. True story.

1) Rainbow trout it was little, but it was my first fish of the year. I caught two bigger ones with nice colors and.........didn’t bother to take a picture

The “wild” trout in NFOW had 50 plus years of making it own their own. You can tell the stockers that have dodged Power Bait for a few months from the fish that were dumped in a few days ago. You can certainly tell the difference in a fish that hatched in a River vs a raceway. either way, it’s going to be a long time before we get back to pre flood fishing

Or better yet (maybe) egg boxes. For Bows, Browns, and Cutts

I live on the White River. I like fishing it. I have caught literally thousands of trout from the White. So, I have more than little experience with stocked trout. Prior to 2017, I made a trip or two in the fall after most of the drunken floats were out of the way for about 5 years or so. I loved fishing up there. I didn’t catch a lot of fish each trip, but the ones I caught were healthy, pretty, no damaged fins, and all fought HARD. I didn’t catch any fish under 12 inches and several of the largest Rainbows I have ever caught I caught up there. I had a 23 inch and two others over 21 inches. I caught them in heavy current and they fought really well. Those fish WERE SUPERIOR to the stocked Rainbows of Spring River, Taney, White River, and all the Trout parks. I’m not super romantic about trout. I enjoy catching them, but I do not hold them in higher regard than other fish. You are of course entitled to your opinion, but it would carry more weight it you had fished NFOW prior to the 2017 flood.

Happy New Year Pepe. First of all, I hope you enjoy the new home and new area. Shoot me a PM if you have questions about local eats etc. I’m not like everybody else. I would rather trailer to where I’m gonna fish and not run in the boat a long way, but there are lots of ramps on Bull Shoals that you should be able to use. CR15 is a good ramp way up Howard’s Creek arm. Road is rough right before the ramp so just take it easy on that last 500 yards before the ramp. That one is just up the road from you off Hwy 5 North. Bull Shoals Boat Dock is usable until about 574. Water gets over the road too much after that. I was the last boat out one year before they closed the road for weeks. That ramp puts you at the mouth of Jimmy Creek. There is a nice ramp right at the dam, but kind of a run to get to the fish. I love fishing the Oakland area and there is a ramp there at the park. Those four ramps all have courtesy docks which makes solo launching much easier and better. There are lots more, but that gets you started anyway Good Luck and Good Fishing.

Some people chase and some people catch 😥

Man, when you settle down in that trough and lose the horizon completely, water is way above you on all sides, that’s not a Great feeling

We were in the Five Fingers area when the wind got up. We had to cross the lake back to where we launched. We were in a 19 foot bass boat and very carefully made our way back. I wasn’t sure we were going to make it and I would rather not ever be in stuff that waves that big again.

Rayburn gets BIG waves when there is a wind from the Northwest. Scary Big. It has been fishing well of late. Toledo Bend should be on your list as well. Caddo has fun scenery and some Big fish. I love the bayou that runs into it (Big Cypress Bayou) and its backwaters, but I am not sure I would consider it a Big Fish destination trip.