Ham

We travelled down to Louisiana to visit friends for New Years.We drove back on New Year’s Day, but we got back in time for me to catch a few fish in Cotter just to start the year off right. I jousted with Windmills in Louisiana on 12/30 and 12/31. The Windmills won so it was nice to put that behind me. @FishNDave is going to be fishing with me at the end of the month so I needed to scout the area more. It was a chilly morning, but I knew it would warm so I took off through the mountains to get south to the Arkansas river. It’s pretty fun to trailer a boat on Hwy 7. I got there and the boat parking lot was almost full. What the heck? I’ve never had much company there, but whatever, I dove three hours to fish so I’m gonna fish. I wanted to learn more areas and I was gonna get my chance. Lots of boats, but not much catching. I felt like they would thin out and I was right. I picked out a spot and got bit right away. I got some White Bass, Yellow Bass, and Sauger. I know they were small.I’m still not tried of Sauger on fly. When I had room, I went up to one of “my” spots. It was slower, but I got a small spotted bass and some Schoolie Stripers. Good to see the Stripers, but they weren’t in a great spot for a fly guy. There is an adjacent area that is better for them, but it had a boat there all day. Casting over and over and over to same spot. 🎉🥳 I had wanted to catch five species and 50 fish. I had counted on catching a bunch of skipjacks, and they were there, but not playing. 1/2 the boats there were after skipjacks. Most left with a few, but far less than they were after. Well, I was way off my pace for raw numbers of fish so I slipped back down with current and started learning the areas better. I had my 9 foot Cajun depth finder and felt around for the edge of the flat etc. I had brought a 3 weight, 6 weight, 8 weight, and 9 weight flyrod. I made sure to catch fish on all of them. The skipjack started to fire up a little. I hooked less than half that bit and landed way less than half that I hooked, but I did catch a few. While I was screwing around with those guys I started to pick up Bigger Whites and I even got a schoolie Striper and then another Striper. And these fish could be targeted with fly. Once I got my 50 burger, I put the other gear away and got my 8 wt and 9 wt rods ready. I repositioned the boat back up in the higher flow. Adjusted the TM to run on constant but with just enough juice to make sure that my fly line with drift downstream just faster than the boat. Literally the first cast with the 8 wt, I had a schoolie try to take the rod away from me. Rude! I really took my time with him because I really wanted to land him. After all that excitement, I finally made another cast and BANG another fish. Lengthy fight etc. Another cast and BOOM I got a blow up, but I missed em. No worries, Next cast another Striper! So, I had to call Dave. I bought a sink line for my 9 wt and I have used it successfully in other areas, but I wanted it to work here. I swapped to the nine weight and started working. Nothing, nothing, nothing, missed a good tap. Changed fly. Missed a tap. Missed a tap. Nothing. Missed a tap. I finally woke up and moved back to where I started with the 8 weight. Boom! Hard take on the first cast. Hung one on the next cast and he came off. Missed a hard hit on the third cast. And caught my final fish of the day on the fourth cast. I finished with 55 to hand. I literally left em biting which sucked, but I had that long road home to deal with. Awesome day on the water and I feel even better about helping Dave get a Striper.

There is a Very Large and very easy to read sign at the confluence. Ignorance of the law is not an effective legal excuse and in this case a very flimsy argument. If you run Bass boats on the White and Buffalo for any length of time, I assume rocks are going to educate you to the folly of your actions.

The Feds don’t play. I would imagine there would be a LARGE fine for that behavior.

Round that sucker up to a 20 inch fish. Walleye on the Sac is definitely a thing. Start trying at the head of a pool fishing a swim bait down and across. You’ll lose a few baits, but starting mid February or so you have a shot at Big Females.

I did not see another thread to add to so I guess I will start one. 1) alligator gar on fly 2) musky on fly 3) get Lifelist to 250 4) 50 Bowfin on fly 5) 100 Bowfin on hook and line 6) 3000 fish caught on hook and line 7) get Freshwater Species on Fly up to 100 ( Magic Number is sitting at 11) I want to have Fun! I really got focused on the 100 species on fly thing. I should be a little more foot loose and fancy free this year.

Well, I guess it’s time for my final review of 2023 Fishing Goals 1) I only caught 4-5 North American Gar species on fly. I should have planned a dedicated gar on fly trip as soon as I caught a Florida Gar. My Bad. 2) I got my Life List up to 243 well above the stated goal of 225 3) my stated goal was 75 on fly and 150 on hook and line. I ended up with 104 species on fly and 158 species on hook and line 4) I wanted to get Lifetime on Fly to 100 species. I got that list up to 112 species on fly ( so I caught 104 of the 112 species I have ever caught on fly THIS YEAR !!!). 5) I wanted to add 7 counties in Arkansas. Total failure! I added no new counties this year. 6) Catch a Snakehead on fly. I did it! I had a great year. Looking forward to 2024.

Such pretty fish. Pretty good pull too and not always easy to fool.

104) Sauger Arkansas’s best place to fish for Sauger is the Arkansas River. I wasn’t really trying for one on fly today until I caught a couple on spinning so I changed boat location and put on a fly that I felt was a better Sauger choice. I was prepared to spent an hour trying, but it only took 15 minutes or so. I missed the first couple of bites, but I got a good take and a good strip set.

That’s Sad. I never had the chance to meet him, but by all accounts he was a heck of a fisherman. My sympathies for friends and family. with my work, I get a steady stream of reminders of just how temporary our presence is. That’s why I push so hard to get as many trips in as I can.

Maybe he wanted to release it, but dang.

My fish nerds say River Carpsucker

I headed down to the Arkansas River yesterday to try to get a Sauger on my flyrod. Seems like a great idea for someone that has never caught a Sauger on the Arkansas River right?I was Happy to see them running water when I got there. I didn’t put the time in to find a link online to their generation schedule. I scrambled down the rocks and through the garbage to my first stop. In just a few casts, I was losing the first of many flys that I would feed to rocks. My theory is that the sauger are gonna be tight to the rocks and when the fly swings close by they will nab it. I was there for 5 hours and I used a flyrod for more than half the timethis was the only fish I caught on fly. I might have missed a bite or two on fly or maybe not. I tried to fish worms on a drop shot. Got some bites and lost some rigs. No fish caught. But what did work was a small swimbait slow rolled along. they were full grown and just crushing it. Kinda hurt my hands when they struck the lure. The generation seemed to wax and wane which made the current seams move around and the water level dropped, but they never stopped generating. Pretty decent largemouth bass slurped the swimbait. I fished spinning long enough to make myself feel better about things. When I stopped fly fishing, I picked up a bag of garbage. When I went back to the truck after catching a few on spinning, I picked up another bag of garbage. Maybe if some bank fishermen weren’t lowlife slobs, they would not lose access to places to fish. It’s gonna take a lot more people like me and a change in the behavior of the bad actors to make a real difference. I carefully moved the truck to the other side (low clearance) and started up fly fishing again. Back eddy and reduced flow. I tried and I tried and I tried. I gave myself another spinning rod session before I left. I ditched the drop shot set up and up on a jig. I moved down the bank making a few casts with the jig and a few casts with the swimbait well, the jig worked and they quit biting the swimbait. I got this fish while tapping the jig off the rocks down and across. Jury is still out on the ID, but it was a Lifer. Next cast was another White Bass. Next cast I hooked a mystery fish. Slow heavy pull with big head shakes. I’m guessing catfish or gar. I have to guess because it gave me the slip. I decided to sweeten the jig with some worm. I did not care for the extra drag, but I felt like it might get me another weird bite. The best fish of the Arkansas River rolled up. This guy was very studly. I followed that up with losing rig after rig after rig. I was out of time for re-rigging leaders and digging out jigs. I fished the swimbait for the last 10 minutes without a bite. It should have happened, but it did not. Then I did the long drive home. I got 14 fish to hand. I missed some soft bites and some hard raps. It might not have been cold enough for the sauger to be there yet. I think was 250 miles round drive. Just under 6 hours of driving for just over 5 hours of fishing. Maybe I’ll get that Flyfer Sauger next time.

More armchair lifers to come? The Orange Throated Darter complex keeps getting split out, but I’m not sure all the LES splits are going to become recognized.

I’m only interested in fishing for fish.

Photo Upgrade for my Hybrid Striper. I had caught one very small hybrid Striper. I made a trip hoping for the photo upgrade of the hybrid Striper or a walleye or a sauger. I got my upgrade, but no walleye or sauger yet. in fact I got two upgrades Man, do those things pull hard.

If you’re gonna drop hints Jeff, you ought to be after the goose jerky.

So, I have 1 GSO8M and 1 GS76SG. I use both with a 10 lb braid and 8 lb leader to vertically fish brush piles for crappie. Usually with jigging spoons. it turned out to be a lot harder to photograph than I anticipated

I have an over abundance of options and I really don’t have water very close that sets up for jig pole fishing, but I’m always tempted to buy more of the ACC poles. I have at times felt like I was under powered with some of my B&M jig poles. I have not felt that way with the ACC. I will try to get out there and get you the model numbers in what I have. They are the only ACC sticks that I have used

103) Yellow Perch So, Yellow Perch were illegally introduced into Bill Shoals Lake. I’ve heard they are quite numerous, but I have only rarely caught them on Bull. A few years ago, I saw a Yellow Perch in the White River and tried unsuccessfully to catch him. At some point, I caught my first White River Yellow Perch down below the Buffalo River in a back Eddy above Shipp’s Ferry. I have a pattern now and I have caught them from four locations and have a few more locations to try. I set out yesterday afternoon to catch on on my fly rod. Started fishing at 1:30. I caught the Cutty at my first YP spot. (1:46 PM). That took all the pressure off. moved to my next YP spot. I got my YP! Pretty quickly too. 2:10 PM. I started swapping back and forth between fly and natural baits. You have to fish through rainbows. So we ended up catching nine yellow perch on the day. Most on red wigglers, but I think I missed other bites on my fly rod. The Yellow Perch really hug the bottom. I suspect the ones that don’t feed Brown Trout. we quit fishing at 4:00 PM. I feel like I know how to catch them better now.

102) Cutthroat trout (Snake River?) I know it’s a baby and I might try to get a larger one next week, but I got one.

Maybe? I don’t get a lot of yard passes and I have a fair amount of crazy trips already in the planning stages

I have a couple of the ACC rods. I don’t have that model. I have been happy with them and caught good numbers of fish on them. Build quality seems nice and they are very functional. Not too light action, but not too heavy either

But a bunch will be legal next Spring.

101) Striped Bass I made a trip last in February this year looking for one of these on fly. I had truck trouble on the way home which ended up in me being without a tow vehicle until May at which time the window on Stripers at this location was CLOSED. I did not forget about them and hoped they would be there before the end of the year. They were and I made the long drive down to try again. I was disciplined and dedicated to the task. I had Spotted Bass, LMB, Yellow Bass, and White Bass helping me not get too frustrated. Eventually, I got a big eat and managed to stay pinned to this schoolie Striper. i wish I had had heavy clouds or more wind or rain or something. It was kind of slow. but after catching one, I was free to play and learn the area better. I moved and tried another area and caught three more Stripers. They sure are fun.

I’m got some spots that I am very protective of. I’m just a rare visitor there.