Feathers and Fins

4.10 here at my house in downtown Rogers. Let me know how far it goes out Jeb, Im looking to get out Saturday and see if i can find some stripers after I scout the ducks. I took advantage of a rain day and got the boat 90% ready for Duck Opener. Between that and stringing 14 dozen decoys im a tired boy lol.

I learned from a few guides but just called them friends and learned from sport boat operators. Most of the Sport Boat guys who taught me so much did it because they loved it "certainly not the money lol" One of the old timers said something to me that will always stick in my mind. " When you pass on the knowledge I have taught you then even when im gone I will still be living" That has always stuck in my mind and something I actually like to think will carry on good men who taught a very big pest of a kid alot about fishing. I learned seeing the smiles of people when they catch a fish because of the old men who taught me and my knowledge is worth more than all the money in the world. Its funny, it does not matter if its a kid or old man the smile is alwys the same and always worth millions of dollars. I will be happy to always help people and show people what I can and will always do it for one price and thats a smile! Now as to Powersite. Though I have not fished it myself, It would not suprise me especially if Trout are present! Lets face it a trout is a stripers favorite food. If Powersite is a overflow spillway and not a bottom out run then I would be all over that place when its spilling. Stripers Love turbid water, They will hang out not in the turbid area but in the eddies near it and even under the turbid area just waiting for stunned prey to come over. This would be a place i would be throwing Flies and Bucktails with live bait down near the bottom. Give me some info on how powersite flows and I should be able to pattern it pretty easy for you. As I said stripers are the Same at least landlocked are and very patternable.

LMAO its the Lab she can only hold the thing in her mouth and use her tongue to push the shutter button..

Nope tire marks were not mine...I take my boat up in there to catch shad.if you stay in the creek channel its actually 3' deep till you hit the cave. At the cave throw your net in front of you an to the right, right at shore you will have plenty of shad

the name is the problem A White River Border Lakes License Beaver to me is part of the white river! and where people make the mistake... I would hate to see others make it as well and wish it was included in the license

Um no Beaver itself is NOT covered I know a couple guys who made and paid for that mistake. A White River Border Lakes License (WRL) is available for a $10 annual fee. This license allows holders of a valid resident license from either state to fish all waters of Bull Shoals, Norfork and Table Rock lakes without a fishing license from the other state. The permit is valid for impounded waters (the waters between Beaver Lake Dam and Houseman Access in Arkansas are excluded). Trout may not be taken with this license. Anglers younger than 16 do not need to buy this license to fish in Missouri waters. Anglers are required to abide by the fishing regulations of the state where they are fishing. The only differences in regulations are: On Table Rock Lake, spotted bass must be at least 12 inches long to keep (Arkansas) or at least 15 inches long to keep (Missouri). On Lake Norfork, anglers may take up to three stripers and hybrids and 25 white bass of any size per day in Arkansas, except for striped bass, which must be over 20 inches. In Missouri, anglers may take up to 15 stripers, hybrids, white and yellow bass, only four of which may exceed 18 inches long.

Ok so I had a wild thought. yesterday with the stripers going off so close to shore I just had to sneak out for a few minutes tonight. Managed 4, 8 to 10 pounders and then this big gal. 36 inches long and a girth of 21 inches all on bucktails in the very back of Prairie Creek. If i cast out toward the middle nothing but if i cast along the shore they would follow or bite. Not bad for a hour shore fishing, They blew up on the shad several times hard and even managed a couple nice 4 pound LMB. Bad News is we are expecting possibly 4'' of rain between now and Wend with a big cold snap after that. I hope the fish stay around but thats going to muddy the water bad which will push the fish back to deep water im afraid. Hope the weatherman is wrong but how many times in a year can he be?

Most welcome and hope you get a ton or atleast a few hundred pounds. I'll try and keep updates comming this week.

Shad were from 3 to 6 inches on the threadfin, Gizzards were the big jobs 8 to 12 inches and plentiful. Montne is a NO GO its water is chocolate stained visability about 18'' and stripers do not do dirty water well. Prairie Creek was stained but 3' visability and not bad. The shad are in the very back of the creeks in VERY shallow water, if you dont know where the channel is I suggest a pair of mud boots and get out and walk to them then run back to the boat. There are some stumps and logs as well as concrete in the back of Prairie Creek so unless you know it well be very careful. I freelined almost all the bait, by that I mean tossing them toward the bank with only the hook in the nose so they can swim naturaly 1/0 circle hooks. The Gizzard shad I normaly drop down to within 3 feet of bottom with a 5oz weight and 5' of leader line. If the dam wind will stop I know without doubt I could easily take them on a fly as they are so close to shore and surface feeding. One mistake I do see way to many people make is trolling with the big motor in shallow water. Anything under 25' is taboo the noise spooks the fish and screws up fishing for everyone else in the area. Kinda like guys who have to blow into a boil. I never have understood how they run into it and then aske " where did the fish go" Quiet is the best approach in shallow water.

Talk about type O’s last night I was tired or wind burned lol. WC it really has more to do with paying attention to my surroundings. I learned years ago the simplest out of the norm thing might be a fish. The slurping bait I thought was Bass is something I learned from Tarpon fishing. Tarpon will come up and just open their mouth and slurp in a mullet, it is very subtle and most people won’t detect it but to me the sound is like a shotgun going off and the little ripple it makes might as well be a Neon sign. If you want to meet me out there shoot me a PM with your phone number and we can try and set something up. With the clock falling back its going to mess my after work fishing up but ill still be hitting them on weekends. 11-19-2011 starts Cast n Blast season, so I will be chasing Striper after I finish helping to reduce the Resident Goose population and killing a few ducks. My first passion is waterfowl huntingJ

I cant tell you how many Giant Bass I have caught while targeting stripers. Growing up in SoCal it was common to catch Both in the same spot. Cal FISH and Game likes to stock 'catchable size" rainbow trout 9inchers in the lakes. They did it dam near every week on the same day and time depending on the lake. I made it a Habit to be there and throw big swim baits. It wasnt uncommon to catch LMB to 12 pounds and stripers to 40 The day they did it. You could actually walk to the end of the boat ramp and look down and see monster large mouths just stacked and waiting for one of those high protein snicker bars to swim to far off shore. I catch good 3 to 6 pound LMB at beaver when im striper fishing the funny thing is most of them are not on the shad but on Bucktails or topwaters or jigging below shad balls. Im suprised more tournament anglers dont find the striper fleet and target around them. Those guys are on the big bait and big bait =big fish.

Started a little late today at 0800, Went into the back of Prairie Creek and caught bait real fast and real easy, Decided to run over to Montne and see if the fish were there. Dirty sirty water from Horseshoe bend all the way in to Montne and stripers dont like dirty water. I gave it a couple hours in there but nothing Side Scan and Upand down never marked a striper and only a few small Kentuckys. Ran down to Rocky Branch searching for Ducks. Please note COOTS will not fly our of the way of a boat and in rough chop you dont see them till you see feathers blow up in your prop.. Anyway RockIy Branch had the local resident Honkers and Mallards not much in the area. Comming back up to Prairie Creek I did kick a few flocks of Teal off the shore and seen a few Pintail around the Islands in front of 12 bridge. Back into Prairie Creek, I was able to mark stripers from the swim beach all the way to the dirt ramp on Old Prarie Creek Road but couldnt get them to bite. Said haeck with it and shot to the North side of PC to try for what looked like bass rolling up on shad by the boat rocks.. WRONG they were not bass they were BIG STRIPERS sucking shad. 37 stripers from 12 TO 35 pounds. Note one of them was deeper than 15 feet. most my cast were within feet to inches of the shore and then as they pulled away the washing machine would turn on. I had to run back into the creek 3 times to reload on shad. I swear i need a better cell phone camera. this one taped at 49 inches with a girth of 24 inches long and skinny I had one that was only 24 inches long but its girth was 26 inches looked like a football lol.

Never had a rule for it. Ive been known on a Friday night to load up the truck and drive to somplace I read about or wanted to try. Hunting Ive drove from NWA to Texas Gulf Coast to Nodak. for fishing I,ve Drove to Louisina to get in on a wide open redfish bite with a friend only to turn around the next afternoon and head home. Spur of the moment trips are some of the best.

Big ones are in Pool 2, There is a guy who will throw a white jig to one side of the outflow walk over to the other side stick his rod to the bottom and reel the jig under the sidewalk. Ive watched him nab some nice big bows doing this. other than the few teasers they put in most the fish are small but plentiful.

I tried to flag you over. That cut i was fishing had the hybrids pushing shad into it.. small hybrids mind you... Im not suprised noone was doing good. the lake is turning over thanks to the wind and cold. This front tonight will screw things up tomorrow and friday for sure. Thinking its time to go kill some ducks saturday and try for the stripers Sunday.

I think of it as I do the “stages of a hunter” everyone must progress through each stage to the final end. I posted yesterday about a Carp I caught, that fish meant more to me then the big stripers I’m catching. Why was simple, anyone who has fished carp knows how skittish they are and how hard they are to fool into biting a fly. Granted it was only a 5 pounder but the perfection of everything leading up to him taking it was more special to me then a 30lbs striper. I understand Dads teaching the shuffle to the kids, they want them to catch a fish. I hope that as the child progresses through the stages they start wanting to get to the stage where everything leading up to the bent rod means more than the bent rod. To me helping someone catch fish is more important than me catching one. Smiles mean more then my rod bent. When I was over there a few weeks ago there were dead shad on the bottom. I couldn’t get a bite on a scud or midge but noticed trout feeding on the shad. I switched to a white woolly and started catching them hand over fist. I learned this trick in Alaska. Salmon Die and Trout feed on the flesh. I didn’t have my flesh flies but the white woolly worked just fine. I showed an older gent and probably his grandson I would imagine what I had been doing as I left and watched them hook up. The kids smile was worth a million hook ups. But some would say that wasn’t fair. I matched the hatch simple as that, and now the youngster might look more at figuring out what they are eating and not shuffling. Who knows but the smile was great.

Mont Ne sure looked busy this afternoon I think I caught someone in the right place wrong shore lol... Red truck that was on the point found a few hybrids in the cut...

Ok please inform me of, why the shuffle should be illegal if it is not already? I do not get over there all that often, but do know what it is but let me double check it. The shuffle is when an angler stands in the creek and moves his/her feet around to disturb aquatic wildlife from under the stones. If that is true then by simply walking or a heavy discharge does the same thing. Now last I heard Taney is a put and take fishery. MDOC stocks the lake for the purpose of anglers to take from the lake, hence put n take. Anyone who fishes over there must have a license and must abide by the size and species limit restriction and the license fee’s help pay for the resource which is a put n take resource. Now I seldom keep trout and understand the purist wish to catch a fish legitimately by fooling the fish I love to work my butt off to figure a pattern and then catch fish off what I learned and shuffling to me is really a tough one to say I am for or against. I know how I prefer to catch fish, but I also know most people are not blessed to get out as often as I am so when they go they want to catch fish. I’m going to ask the next couple questions as a newbie to fishing would ask. So those facts being out I do not understand why it should be illegal. The object is to Take fish is it not? We pay with our license fees for the operation of the hatcheries and the stocking of the fish? So the fish belong to all of us to take as we see fit with legal gear and legal size limits? Is this complaining about the shuffle really more a purist attitude? People want to catch and eat trout so what is the problem with shuffling?

I wrote this afte a day on Taney awhile back it was a great inspiration that day watching a elderly man that to me had learned the lessons of simple pleasures The Stream He was just below the towering dam a massive structure of concrete and steal, it was at the head a canyon whose peaks actually stood high above this man made structure. But where this man stood was along the banks of a cold crisp clean river. A light breeze was flowing through the canyon gently rustling leaves as it whispered through the cedar and dogwood trees. Trout could be seen cruising the shallow banks of the river; Butterflies were as numerous as the golden brown and orange leaves falling from the trees. It was a fall morning and a brisk chill was in the air letting all know that winter would soon be upon this canyon covering the hills in a soft white blanket of purity. Today the man stood by the creek with a fly rod in hand, an an old wicker basket slung over his shoulder, a clean white cowboy hat sat firmly on his head as firmly as his waders were pressed against his legs as he entered the cool waters. He reached to his left shoulder, where the cotton tuff on his fly vest held many hand tied flies. That tuff looked like a Christmas tree with many little lights on it but these were the colors of the many flies and not lights. The water gently flowed over stones with a tranquil soft sound that was pleasing and relaxing. He could hear stones come together as he gently walked toward a quiet pool up stream of him being careful not to cast his shadow or trod to heavily as to spook any weary trout that may live there. As he approached the pool he gently stripped line from his reel and began to make the long fluid cast that only many years could truly teach. His cast was perfect and with intent, he landed the little fly at the head of the pool and watched it drift slowly back the line riding the waves like a small branch gently rolling down the stream. Though his cast was perfect it met with no takers, he gently looped his rod and made a nice role cast that landed but a couple of feet to the side from the first, as it started back just as the first a trout rose on the fly but then turned to settle back down. The man had seen this and smiled knowing that this pool had trout living in it. He gently pulled the line back through his rod and untied the fly. Looking around he saw no live flies dipping to the water, this in his mind could only mean the trout should be feeding on midges. He found in his old cedar fly box a beautifully tied red and black zebra midge he had tied some time back. Carefully tying the midge on and placing a tufted strike indicator about 3 feet above it he again started the magical ballet of casting the fly pole. His cast landed a few feet above where the trout rose; as the indicator passed over the spot he believes his first pass may have spooked the fish. When like a rabbit vanishing in to its hole the indicator shot below the surface. He raised his rod tightening the lining and setting the hook. The fight was on! A jump from this trout told him it was a nice rainbow its silver red and green showed brilliantly as the sun lit them up as the fish jumped clear of the water. Its white belly gave its position away under water darting from side to side trying to free itself from this fight. As the man pulled it ever so gently ever so much closer he reached behind his back and pulled a beautiful black and red landing net he had made himself years ago. He gently ushered the trout in to the net and walked to shore with it. He was careful not to place the fish on dry ground or to harm it more than was needed as he gently reached under it and lifted it up to remove the hook. He admired this rainbow that lived in the water just as he admired the rainbow of mist just above that the dam was causing as water rushed over it. He gently placed the trout back in the water and then sat next to the creek on a boulder with a smile on his face. He lit a fine pipe and crossed his legs and took in all the scenery that abound him. Listening to the squirrels running through the leaves behind him seeing other trout rise in front and a large bald eagle perched on a old dead oak tree just up the river. Peace was upon him and all the creatures this day not a soul to be seen, he had this creek to himself and to himself he would share it and all that was about it. The sights sounds and smells he would make a mental picture of as he surveyed for the next pool to replay this in.

Actually got more of a kick out of the Carp then the striper, Sight casting to a single fish, presenting the cast so as not to spook it and then having it come on. The beauty of fall on the hills a couple eagles flying around brisk wind and a little chill in the air. Good way to end a day.

Snuck out before work for a bit and got bit Then I got out after work Yes a carp grabbing the San Juan Obviously didnt like what he just ate But I was nice and let him go after he smiled the freshwater bonefish are fun to sight cast at.

This is how I look at it, I want the top quality I can on certain items and the best price on other items. Boat = I could have bought used but no warranty and no history of maintenance, So I bought new. 22,000 vs 8,000 but the warranty and lack of headaches was worth it.. Fishing Poles and reels = Walmart gear may work just fine for a combo of 59.00 or I could go with the best possible rod and real… Walmart stuff will break fast as much as I fish and I would easily spend 200.00 a year rough guess on going back to keep buying it each year or I can spend the 250 for the reel and 380 for the rod and have them last a lifetime… Again quality wins A worm is a worm im buying them where they are cheap same with terminal tackle. Then comes the {POINT IN LIFE VIEW} When I was younger and still had the kids at home frugal was the name of the game. Bills had to be paid and food on the table and to be there. Now the kids are gone, bills are a lot less and I look at myself and think “ I have earned the right to have nice things within reason} The best example is I have friends who still have bills and kids who want top go hunting and rough it to save money! I look at them and say I paid my dues im getting a motel! Creature comfort “ I don’t like skeeters and guys blowing duck calling in the parking lot all night! I like a soft bed a shower and tv and59 bucks aint breaking my bank! As to the 99% Well I aint rich and I sure worked my butt off to get where I am and don’t behold a grudge to rich people. Maybe the 99 need to get off their GIMME GIMME butts and work hard to earn the right to have things. I was always taught when you earn something it means more than to have it given to you! Thanks Gramps it was a good lesson

Seems a C.C.W. and a fly vest opened juuuuuuuuuuust enough might eliminate that problem. Just guessing mind you.

I hope that is the most they are doing. be a shame to loose the ramp