bluebasser86

Thanks for the input. I spend quite a bit of time on the Kansas and Missouri rivers around here and I understand that they all have their own personalities that can make learning what you can and can't do on them a real chore. My boat does good on rivers and fairly shallow water but it's not a jet motor so if it gets too shallow I'd be in trouble which is my main concern with the fast rising and dropping water levels it sounds like the White has. We would probably be mostly fishing spinning gear. I really like the idea of fishing jerkbaits, which is what I keep reading is a good technique for the browns down there. I've caught some of my biggest rainbows on jerkbaits fishing for bass in the put and take lakes around here and I've seen how aggressivly they react to them. I'm fine just casting Rapalas or small cranks and spoons also and would not be ruling out small jigs. I would love to catch one on my fly rod but I'm not a very experienced fly fisherman so I would have to catch one on my regular gear before I tried flyfishing for them too much so I didn't feel like I drove down there and spent my time trying to catch fish with equipment I'm not skilled with. We would for sure not be camping. I've seen it snow in March enough times to know that it's still to cold to be camping. I've seen some of the really nice lodges online but most are pretty espensive it seems like. We'll be down there for at least 3 days, maybe more, which is why we need to keep the price of lodging fairly cheap. We all have plenty of thermal gear, bibs, snowmobile suits, and everything else to keep us warm. I fish all winter long on the powerplant lakes around here so I know what you mean about the tempature differences. Thanks for the heads up about the Sowbug event, I'd be pretty upset if I got down there and the river was packed!

Well this past year I got bit hard by the bug to catch a brown trout. Never have and after a few tries at other, closer locations I've decided that it looks like the White would probably be my best option. We are thinking we will probably shoot for mid/late March of next year, would that be a good time to be down there or is there a better time? We were planning on staying somewhere around Mountian Home so if anyone has any suggestions on a good place to stay it would be appreciated (cheap is good, it's a fishing trip so all we'll be doing is sleeping there.) I have a 16' Lowe Roughneck with a 60hp motor that would be an option for me to bring. I'm plenty confident in my boating skills but also have no desire to tear my boat/motor up or possibly get myself or anyone else hurt. So would putting my boat on the river be possible or is it too shallow/rocky. As long as I have about a foot of water I can idle along so I could go upriver and drift back down but only as long as there is enough water and it isn't going to drop suddenly because I'm not dragging it anywhere. Where would be the best section of the river to fish? We have no desire to keep any of the fish but I would like to get a decent sized fish that I could get measurements of and get a replica made, so an area with bigger fish would be a plus. Is this a river that you can figure out well enough to catch fish with a little research and planning or is an experienced guide a must to find and catch the bigger fish? Sorry to put so many questions in one post but I don't get many chances to make longer distance fishing trips so I'm really trying to get something solid planned to make this trip a success.

That really sucks, it's a helpless feeling when something is stolen from you. I've had all my gear stolen once and my boat stolen, none of it was ever recovered. Locking storage compartments are a good idea but removing anything that isn't attached is a better idea. It's a PITA to deal with everytime you want to go fishing but it's better than having to buy new stuff to replace stolen equipment.

Well I've been on the forum for awhile reading posts and doing some research but I thought it was about time I said hey. I'm from the KCK area but I make several trips a year to the Ozark area for trout and bass mainly. Pretty strictly catch and release but we do keep a few stocker rainbows when we go to Taneycomo. Seems to be lots of very knowledgeable folks on here and with gas prices so high and it being a decent drive for me to get to most places discussed on here, the inside information is very helpful! I've got a smaller aluminum bass boat but it does pretty well on even the bigger waters but is still small enough for the little lakes and rivers. Been fishing my whole life and used to fish a decent number of tournaments before work got in the way. I've got a couple trips I'm trying to plan but I'll post my questions in the appropriate topic areas. Good fishing to all! Clayton