Devan S.

I am glad you are happy. I loathe Beaver Tailwater's treatment compared to others on the white river chain but it is home and that is where my heart is. I don't know the rest of your plans but if generation gets in your way, just remember that a 1/4oz. swimbait head with a keitech(or other) slowly scrubbed around the dam site, indian creek or other general locations in the area will at least lead to the tug of a mad smallmouth. SWMO/NWARK where you can snag spoonbill, catch walleye, rainbows, browns, sunfish and perch, all the bass species, maybe even find some catfish in a 1 mile circle.

Its really quiet the feat. Going from the tailwaters down river to say roaring river arm isn't all the surprising even with the drought we've been in there's plenty of water with generation to get started down river. What is impressive is the upstream travel up roaring river. With the drought roaring river has been really low and there hasn't been any sustained high water short of the 4-5 days right before the fish was caught.

If someone has never done a crawfish boil this is the 1 single tip that will cause chaos if not thought about ahead of time to me. Make sure you think about how your gonna get the inner strainer pot out of the bigger pot when your ready. My inner pot has a hook but if its under water or at the boil level that puppy gets hot. When I do a big boil its hard to pull a pot of 10-15lbs of bug, plus the fixings straight up and out without touching the strainer somewhere, sometime.

Good news: I checked off Indiana at Brookville Tailwater. Caught several small browns. Bad News: I am in Cleveland just outside Rocky River and they are catching steelhead. Work is calling, I've broke my last airstream rod and all I have left is my 4wt fly rod.

Basically any spot they stock. Bertrand ramp, Parker Bottoms, or the dam ramp. I haven't been down since right after the big freeze and I almost exclusively stumble around in the dark down there but any access above Bertrand should have a lot of open bank to move around and find fish.

They are back to stocking albeit I'm not sure how much. The biggest deal right now is that the water is very low. Table Rock Lake is low which means much of the water above the 62 bridge is inaccessible by boat unless generation and then you don't want to be caught. Right now between the lower water, reduced stocking, and getting close to spring walleye. The trout are getting a bit of reprieve in the upper sections. Could start raining next week and everything I wrote be out the window though.

On Table Rock Lake the only lower limit of fish is Walleye and per MDC/AGFC its nearly a put and take fishery. Nobody with any significance catches and releases walleye. I've been criticized over the years for throwing back big fish. Panfish, I can nearly keep coolers full. Nobody bats an eye for bait or eating. Crappie identical to walleye in that nobody in any significance catches and releases but people keep coolers and freezers fill with em. Catfish, I can use about any lazy method to catch and can keep 10. Yet all this pressure always talked about being insane is catch and release tournament fishermen not the slicer and dicers. Those guys are out chasing other species and they might catch and keep a few bass but its acceptable for every species except bass. Literally blows my mind.

Current Status as of Feb. 2026 I checked of Louisiana and Oklahoma this weekend. LA had a target of Turners Pond in Minden, LA. Supposed to be stocked a couple weeks ago but the ice storm delayed things until the 5th. Showed up and LOTS of people fishing. Most of the pond is 2ft. deep and clear water. I never saw a fish. There is 1 "deeper" section with a fountain....no fishing signs prevent you from getting close enough to cast to the fountain. Did see trout jump around it so assume they were holding close. Trout fishing and stocking is apparently a popular deal in LA. Although almost everyone I saw had 8ft surf style rods and big 20lb white mono. Just not setup for trout like we are around here. I could cast 10-15 yards farther than most with 1/8 jigs. Rolled on a bit east to Grambling city park pond. You have to have a special permit $2 to fish here from the city police which is basically on site. Just a paper that says "fishing permit" with your name and date and police officer signature. I assume it helps to keep this place a little cleaner and I'm okay with that. Water was deeper and fish far more active. Saw several nicer trout jump. Quick and easy. I had a net malfunction and the trout took a slight trip through the grass. Onto Broken Bow and Lower Mountain Fork. I have drove by this place probably 20 times over the last 10 years. I have 1-2 work trips that takes me right through here, if I drive, I've never gotten off 259. Really nice state park and it appears to have a lot of access for fishing. I drove through and hit a few spots right by the road but time was limited. I was able to catch one and move on. I think I will add this as a 1/2 day stop on work trips when travelling in the future. I'm half way done at this point and in theory, they should get easier as the states get smaller. Honestly getting the southern stocked spots out of the way should open up my timing a bit. I think this year I'll get the driftless area out and maybe Michigan on personal trips with a chance at IN and OH through a work trip.

This is so cool. I'd really like to do a jungle golden dorado on the fly. One of these days.....

I'm going to simplify: 5 new trout states 1 Arkansas Master Angler 1 state trout slam 2 new species

You guys are right. I think it was just one of those trips I was a bit too aggressive on mentally. I did have fun and saw some cool spots, some waterfalls, put some miles on my feet and caught some fish. What's next happened today @Johnsfolly. Mississippi stocked lake Lamar Bruce Tuesday. Would have worked perfectly if I hadn't bailed early to swing back through on my way home. We conned Mimi into babysitting overnight and the wife and I drove over last night and fished this morning and drove back home today. She got BBQ x2 and I got to fish and we got about 14 hours in the car together without kids. Mississippi Facebook post announcing they stocked had some negativity about stocking trout vs. other species and lakes. However Lake Lamar Bruce sets up really nicely for this. Its a nice little park, nice docks, and great bank access like you can see behind me. They actually heavily stock a very small pond just off the main lake about 2 acres with 1,075 fish. Its littered up pretty good now, you can see the line all over the dock in the picture, hooks, and power bait containers left behind. Really a shame for no longer than its been stocked it sure shows some use but it has potential for something that isn't readily prevalent in this area Sipsey Fork is a couple hours further East and you saw my access issues plus the fish size. We got there early. Fish were actively jumping and splashing. I threw a white zig jig and caught 7 or 8 in about 20 minutes and we headed back west. It looks like Louisiana doesn't stock the ponds in the northern part of the state along I-20 until late in January. Pending the weather, cows, and family that will be my next trip outside of the 4 state area and will likely swing through Broken Bow to check off Oklahoma in the same trip.

Moccasin Creek State Park is bordered on one side by a hatchery. Search "Trout and Moccasin Creek State Park" and you get tons of hits. The section along the park is reserved for kids and handicap and it gets all the fan fair; stocked heavy with all 3 species. There is mention of trout farther up and brookies above the falls. A place where one could conceivable get a Georgia Slam. As I paid for my camping, I asked the park attendant how far up I need to go. He said its steep and dangerous and he would be surprised if I could get above the second falls. He also said fishing is slow right now. I was the only person there. Plan was to hike to Hemlock falls and fish the big pool below the falls. I did and never had a bite, never saw a fish either. Then I packed up and followed a faint trail around and over. There is another set of falls about 1 more mile in. I assume past that is Brookie heaven. At this point, I will never know. The trail disappears after about 100 yards, down trees all over, wet trails, steep inclines, lots of leaves on the ground making things slick. I bailed. It wasn't worth getting hurt. A slip would have likely had me going down 30-60 feet. Not worth a major injury. Most of the trail before Hemlock falls is 30 feet above the river. I hopped around a bit but never saw a fish and never re-strung my rod. I was deflated. When I left, I stopped back by the ranger and asked about an adjacent road that may access the headwaters. It has been closed and FS doesn't have plans to open it. The only real options were 6 miles coming in from the AT....not worth it so I bailed and headed to my backups for Georgia. Warwoman WMA has multiple creeks said to have all 3 species in it. Generally decent road system to get you close to fishable spots. I saw 1 fish and caught that 1 fish. Again a still from the video of the kind of stuff I was trying to get through. My assumption is that much of this debris is leftover from Helene. Or maybe its just always like this? This is the last of the fish pictures....if that's what your here for you can skip the rest. I also managed to break my fly line here. Frustration with being tangled in everything on a line that was probably 8 years old and not been taken care of. I drove a lot of miles through forest service roads and stopped at 4-5 creeks. Bushwacked down.....looked around hit 2 or 4 holes and then head back to the car. I bailed from here and headed to Walhalla SC. I found the cheapest motel in town, I was sore and wet, mentally beat. Next morning I headed to the Chattooga Fly shop. Interesting place. I highly recommend. I reloaded and headed to the upper Chattooga looking for anything. The section between Burrells Ford and Ellicot Rock has a decent trail, at least up until it crosses the East Fork of the Chattooga. Then it gets smaller but not terrible and started to get higher above the river. I hiked beyond Ellicot Rock up into NC. Generally the stream is more open down by the river with more room to cast and far less bush wacking. However my fortunes did not change. On about the 5th or 6th run I fished, on my first cast I had a fish come up and slam my pink indicator. I did everything but bust out a seine to catch that fish but never saw it again. That would be the only fish I saw this day. Frustrated and with the weather looking good at home, I packed it in and drove home.

Well I got home today. I cut my trip short as I just was not having the success I expected to have. MS has not stocked. My first stop was Sipsey Fork, Alabama. I had no idea what to expect did very little research other than its a year round stocked trout fishery. It was raining off/on through Mississippi/Alabama but then it stopped. I am sure there is better access but the only one I found was about a 20 foot drop from the top of the walk way down to the water right below the power house. Unexpected....I'd have to pull them quite a ways on light line but I could see fish. Started with a jig. Bunch of short strikes, I could tell they were small....probably too small to get the jig good so switched to a smaller trout magnet. Hard to cast with all the fencing and light gear, mostly vertical jigging. My first fish came unhooked half way up. Off I go east. I had prepared to car camp at one of the streamside campgrounds along the Tellico River east of Tellico Plains. My plan was to stick to this area for day 2. I just happened to check the radar and saw a pretty good line of storms headed my way in the next 3-4 hours before I bailed off into zero service. Decided to a hotel was a better idea for the night. Glad I did. The wind was bad, tornado warnings just to the south and lost power through the night. Next morning driving into fish and there was a bunch of freshly cleared trees that had fallen in the wind and lots of limbs and litter in the road. The Tellico was a little dingy but I was going higher up into a feeder stream so didn't expect any issues. I did have 2 options to get to my point: Option 1 was a rough forest service road coming in from the top side. About a 2 mile hike. The other was coming up from the bottom, about a 4 mile hike in but paved access. Due to all the trees down and limbs I chose to hike up vs. try the more remote forest service road. Sycamore creek is a fairly well known spot for Brook trout but you have to get to the upper section. The lower couple miles are mostly rainbows but there is a fish block just before it dumps into the Tellico so I presume these rainbows are wild. A very defined trail and moderate climb. No big deal. Once I got to where I wanted I dropped down to the creek. Here I had my first run in with what I think is Rhododendrons. These bushes are thick and their big leaves catch everything. Net, lines, fly rods, backpack straps, you name it they grab it. The leaves are also heavy compared to say our brush locally or out west. It cause problems at every stream I would fish from here on. You can see how thick it is here along just above the stream. In spots it makes bank hoping impossible and right up the stream is the only option. Fighting through it completely blows any ability to be stealthy. Just tough. However every little pool here had multiple hungry fish. Just dipping. This was the biggest and prettiest. I caught a half dozen, hooked and lost or missed another dozen then headed back. Right before getting back to my car I decided to check out the lower river for some rainbows. From here I expected to go another 4-6 miles up the road and cross into North Carolina and fish the upper Tellico for a North Carolina trout. From here on, things went haywire. Access in most of these spots are real bushwhacks. The rhododendrons really choke down on the smaller streams making them impossible to fish and almost every stream required you to go down steep access of 20-30 feet to get down to the creek and then through the brush. I fished another 3 or 4 spots on the upper Tellico and never saw a fish. I assume I either spooked them fighting getting down there or they just simply were not there. I moved on and used the night time to drive to Moccasin Creek State Park in Georgia.

Chattooga is on the list but as a backup. I have a trib. of the Chattooga picked out for my SC brook. Probably going to be a bushwack hike but that's okay. TN. I may fish the Tellico but likely going to end up in a headwater tributary for a Brook vs. the main Tellico. However it does provide a bunch of fishing options and camping. I may use it for my NC trout in the upper reaches. Moccasin Creek in GA seems to be a nice single creek to get my GA slam. Again probably going to hike to the headwaters but that's okay. AL will be Sipsey Fork, MS will be lake Lamar Bruce if they stock in time. KY I have several options but really want to fish below Wolf Creek Dam on the Cumberland. Nice multiple species location with a chance at some new to me species as well.

I will be embarking on a southern Appalachia trout trip later this week. If someone has some excellent must hit/cant miss spots in KY, TN, NC, SC, or GA please let me know. Not just fishing spots but fly shops and/or points of interest are welcome. I will likely miss GSMP just purely to avoid chaos right before Christmas. I have spots already but they are done up with minimal research. Goal is of course a "trout" in each state but would also like Brookies if I can force it reasonably. GA has a trout slam so I will have to catch each there as well. Will do swing through MS/AL going/coming. MS has not stocked yet but I am hopeful.