Gavin

Nice fish..We may head be down there next weekend, is there enough water to put in at Cane Bluff or Thomasville?

I'd take a look at a Blazer Sport or a Legend Craft X-terminator. I think Troutt & Son's down off 44 near St. James sells Blazer & Alweld, & Xpress and Ernies Sales down in Ellington carries Legend Craft & Blazer. I know a fellow from STL who runs a 1448 Blazer and 20hp jet on the NFOW, and he hasnt had any problems yet, even though its only got a .080 hull. Might go with thicker .100 hull if your going to be running a 60/40 because weight wont be as much of a concern as it would be with a 40/28 or something smaller. Cheers. http://www.trouttandsons.com/index.html http://www.jetdoctor.net/index.php

Floated Prong's to Rhymers this weekend and the fishing was pretty good. We caught a lot of 8-12" smallies, and panfish on flies and small plastics, but we caught our bigger fish on Zoom Flukes. Dont know how much longer the Prong's to Buck stretch will be floatable, but we did Buck to Bay in heavilly loaded boats @ 63 cfs and falling a couple weeks ago and it wasnt bad at all. I imagine it will be very crowded next weekend though. Lots of moron's out last weekend. One fellow camped at Jam Up had a stringer full of smallmouth, saw two drunks take a spectacular wipeout and wrap their canoe around a log, and I even saw a fellow dropping a 40hp jet in down at Rhymers yesterday afternoon. Hope the pics turn out well enough to send to the NPS and Conservation. Gavin

Might see you folks down there. Plan to put in at Prong's on Saturday morning, and float down to Rhymers. Will be paddling with another fellow in a green Wenonah tandem with an anchor chain hanging off the back, and another fellow will be paddling a Orange Tarpon 120. Fishing was a little slow between 17 and Rhymers a couple weeks ago. Plastics were working, but not much else. Hoping for a little better action this weekend. Cheers.

The molded seats in the Disco suck but replacement cane seats run about $30 each...$500 for a Disco is a pretty good asking price. Think Old Town lists them for $825. Cheers.

I stayed on the Kenai with a bunch of friends last August and the fishing was fantastic. We did a lot of fishing in in the Cooper Landing area. We did really well on Quartz Creek, the Russian, and caught some huge bows on the Kenai. In August it was all egg patterns, small ones for sockeye eggs, big ones for king salmon eggs. The hike up to Russian River Falls is well worth it. Fishing was best on the upper two miles and it really slowed down near the campground. If you can, I'd try to book a couple fly outs across Cook Inlet. Last year we fished the Kustatan and the Big River Lakes for Silvers and had a fantastic time. We were hoping to hit the Chuit too, but fog kept us out of there. Think Pink for silvers. Best fly on the Kustatan was a pink string leach, best on Big River Lakes was a pink sparkleminnow #2. There is also some good fishing near Soldatna, Ninilcik & Homer, plus halibut charters arent very expensive. Cheers.

Been out a few times this year.They are definetly starting to bite. Plastics & wooly buggers have been best, no topwater action yet. Cheers.

Good advice above. If you must go on a weekend. Get in early and fish, do something else till the floatillas clear out, then fish down behind them. Give a hole 20-30 minutes rest and the fish usually come back out to play, plus most of the boats will be off the water an hour or two before dusk and thats when you want to fish anyway. Baptist to Cedar is usually the best fishing stretch in terms of numbers of fish, and trophy potential. Its brown trout water, so go with streamers, large terrestrials, or crankbaits. Cedar to Aker offers some of the best scenery (Welch Spring, Medlock Cave, etc), and can be good fishing for rainbow trout if the stocking truck has been by recently. Go with nymphs, buggers, and eggs. The Akers to Pulltite stretch has never really fished well for me but its worth it just to see Cave Spring. Pulltite to Round fishes a little better than Akers to Pulltite Stretch, but the smallmouth fishing is much better below Round Spring. I usually go with poppers, soft plastics, or buggers below Akers. Its hard to predict water levels, but youll probably have to drag a few shoals between Baptist & Welch in July, but its not too bad even at dead low water (1.1 at Akers). 3.5-4.0 is about the limit of what I'd consider fishable, and theres a good chance that the NPS will close the river when its up that high. Cheers.

For Sale 3hp Evinrude Lighttwin Folding Motor A classic two stroke portable outboard. Weighs about 35lbs and it has a built in 3/4 gallon fuel tank. The motor shaft folds in half, and it fits in a small fiberglass carry case. I had it professionally serviced, and installed a new magneto two years ago, but have not run it since. Great for a square a stern canoe or small jon boat. Some scratches but a great motor...$350 Thomas & Thomas 8wt. 9'6" 4pc with fighting butt. Nice medium fast action, lovingly used. It would make a great Michigan Steelhead rod. $100. Hardy Bougle Mark IV 3 ¼” real. Great condition...Retailed for around $385, current models list for $585, make offer Peerless 1A Reel, Classic black reel with Serpentine Handle. Great condition, retails for around $595, make offer 4wt DT 27 meter Thebault Silk Fly Line, only fished 10-12 times so it should be good for another 20 years with proper care. Will toss in a lifetime supply of red tin Mucillin. Current retail $155, make offer If you are located in St. Louis I can make arrangements for you to inspect the item in person or I can email pictures. Local pickup only on the motor..I'll take offers till the 10th, if not sold by then its going on eBay Gavin

Sounds awful...I'd take some pictures and send them to DNR. Cheers.

Did you have any pigtails on the end of your tippet? If not it was your tippet material. As for your original question, a clinch knot will work fine for 99.999% of your fishing situations, but there are better knots. The Davy Knot is good one for small flies, but I prefer the palomar or the non-slip mono loop for larger offerings. Cheers.

Al, question on the Jack's Fork...Headed down there tomorrow morning...you think 63cfs is enough to float from Buck down to Bay (Put in mid-day Wednesday & take out Friday)? Or should go downstream, decrease the distance, or both?

Dunno, been thinking of floating that creek for a couple years but I've never made it. Bought all I know is that they put a new gauge in on Big Creek. It used to be over at the Bridge @ Des Arc but now its downstream at Sam Baker. There are a few shut ins on Big Creek, and its popular with some of the Whitewater folks. I know some folks who have floated it, and they say its not too bad, but there are a few nasty spots....Might ask around over on the Missouri Whitewater. Org forum before you head down there. Cheers.

At least the auction catalogs are cheap enough. Cheers.

Yep. We floated it that stretch last year about this time and it was definetly worth the trip. Great scenery, no people, and decent fishing for average sized bass. Cheers.

Hank that sounds great..we saw 5-6 boats yesterday, but they were all nice folks. Two couples from France, a family from Kirkwood, etc..Still surprised to see a jet coming up the Courtois. Never saw anyone do that before.

Sounds like we just missed eachother. A friend of mine floated 8 to Scotia on Saturday and we met down there yesterday AM and floated between Butts and Scotia on the Courtois. The fishing was a little slow but we got a couple nice ones. Quite a few fish on beds, but there were plenty of others willing to play. Great float till we got down towards the takeout. Some schmo decided to run his jet boat up the Courtois and his wake churned the water to muck for about a half hour and the kids partying at the Bridge were pretty obnoxious. Think the kids got theirs though.....HP had em pulled over up by Onandaga.

Brian I tend to go with cranks at low light (sunrise and sunset), but I like the fly rod better when its really dark. Pitching & realing works well on open, flat, featureless, water like Taney or the White but I find that the fly rod works better where there are a lot of snags to contend with. Crankbaits arent cheap and I get fewer hang ups when I to roll cast a fixed length of fly line. Headed down to the NFoW later this month....might try to round up a couple toon boats for a night float.

Catman, all your basic spinning tackle should work on the NFoW. Rainbows tend to be bug eaters, so small jigs, in-line spinners, and smaller crankbaits work best for them. If you want to target large browns,,,I'd go with larger minnow type crankbaits (Rapala's, Yo-Zuri's, LC Pointers, Rogues, etc) above Patrick Bridge. Anything goes below Patrick Bridge so your best bet will belive minnows or sculpins, followed by prepared baits, soft plastics, crankbaits, inlines, jigs, etc. Cheers.

Mine.... 1)Mohairs & Buggers 2)Rubber Leg Stones 3)Rubber Leg Prince 4)Rubber Leg Hairs Ear 5)Egg Patterns I usually fish a 7wt with a heavy two fly nypmh rig. Big Ball indicator, a long straight leader of 8-12lb floro, lots of split shot, and 3-4x tippet. Cheers.

I've got Cingular, I dont get signal in the park, but no problem on top of any of the nearby hills.

Yeah, I've looked at that TU boat. Its made by Classic Accessories, a company who's main line of business is making boat & BBQ grill covers. There are so many better boats out there for virtually the same money. I'd definetly take a look at the Outcast boats....A lot of my friends have the 9' Outcast boats (fishcats, disco's & PAC's) and they are all very happy with them. Cheers.

Dunno, I'd probably want one with some fatter pontoons for the Upper Buffalo and a trolling motor for flat water. Outcast Sporting Gear, and the Creek Company make some really nice boats. Think BPS has a blue heron model which is a 9' Outcast. Cheers.

The larger fish tend to hold bottom, so I'd go with jigs (brown, olive, black, ginger, white) and countdown rapalas in rainbow trout, black & yellow, and black & silver. Cheers.

There are three different types of "Goggleeye" in Missouri and Arkansas, Rock Bass, Ozark Bass, and Shadow Bass, but they resemle each other closely. Cheers.