LittleRedFisherman

As much fun as I had floating the Southfork, this had to be my favorite of the weekend!

I bet you do, I read the big smallmouth roadtrip report last year, very good stuff, especially since ya'll fish waters close to the area I love! Next time you need to holler at Me and GotMuddy!! It was a great time, wish we could of had all day, the last hole we just paddled through and had some speed, I was herding some dandy Smallies in front of me! As far as the Flow, Cody could elaborate on that more than me, it seemed kinda low maybe, but those pics were mostly in pools, there were areas were you got some speed up going down some riffles, very fun in the Coosa by the way... It was fun, I do like that little boat!! Never been on the Bourbouse, but this river has characteristics in places like a bottomland slough back here at home, then you get back to the Ozark stream, neat river! Cody actually threw some early, thing he hung a couple on a Sammy, I tried a buzzbait I had I give a doller for at Wal Mart, warning, don't ever by one of those....

Well, after some practicing here at home, got to break in the Coosa right on the Southfork River near Hardy. It was a pleasure to team up with Cody, "GotMuddy", who has experience on this river. We met at 5 in the morning and after a fellow that he knew helped us get unloaded and shuttled, we were ready to go! We had limited time as we had places to be this afternoon, so we tried to hit the productive water the best we could. We spent probably to much time on an attractive looking stretch of deep woody water, with lots of lilly pads. We managed to pull out few decent smallies, and a dandy Spot! Cody is very efficient with a baitcaster, he slings that thing like a tournament angler, very impressive! He had a great setup with his Buffalo Canoe, with a mounted seat to make it like a big solo. As far as the Coosa, I was very happy with it's performance, would highly recommend one to anyone wanting to float fish a stream. Didn't stand up in it, the thought of how much money in gear and tackle I was carrying today helped my decision to stay seated, which was fine, really had no need to stand. We floated on down stream, and Cody started heating up one of his plethora of crankbaits, after nabbing a few feisty smallies on them, I brought out ole reliable, the Rebel crawdad Crank. At this point we had sped up our pace as we were longer on the water than expected, and needed to get back, so wondered on a good looking spot with some wood, and bam, back to back smallies on the Crank! However, the big fish of the day, came on a Senko, I had good luck with them at the lake this weekend, and left one tied on one of my Baitcasters, and it caught both my biggest smallie, and Spot of the day! We didn't catch any trophies, but the fish were quality and very healthy. There seems to be a lot of food in that river, and it shows as the the fish we caught were very healthy looking! There are tons of cover in that river, for the bass and the baitfish. Didn't get the pictures of some of the fish I would of liked to, my gopro went dead as I didn't have my batteries charged up like I thought. Here's a few pics of the day, had a great time with Cody, and appreciate the company and advise on fishing the southfork!!

Try some Zig Jigs, they were designed for the tailwaters, but have worked well for me on the EP. Brian, is a big fan of marabou on the that river, and rightfully so, they perform well there for trout or bass! I had the best luck just jigging and popping the jig off the bottom back to the boat, or what they call the "pop and drop", that should also be easy for the kids to fish, and catch fish!! My buddy Chad fishes a lot with a jig and float on spinning tackle, much the same way I do with my flyrod. Other than the advantage of mending the line in a good drift with the flyrod, that works will for him with his casting rod. Good luck, can't wait to hear your report!!

After 17 straight days of working, averaging 12 plus hours a day, finally getting caught up enough to take a weekend off. Don't really have an awesome fishing report this time, just a great time with the family, and what I call some "aqua therapy for the soul". Working like that , makes you realize and appreciate what's really important, I sure was missing my family time. We went to the Hardy area to our cabin in Hidden Valley on a little lake there. Fishing was pretty good actually, caught several bass over the weekend, senko's worked the best. More importantly got to take my 4 year old son Landen fishing a few times, he had a blast, as did I. Next time down, I plan on Hitting the southfork, but didn't have it in me this weekend. I can't wait till my son is old enough to float that river with me!!

Top notch as always!! The gold standard for OA videos!!

This is a pretty good vid on how to do it!

Can't go wrong with advice from Brian or Al, but from the spinning rod side of things, I'd recommend you try some ZigJigs. They sound like a gimmick, but there's something to them in there action. Caught many trout back in the fall on a couple trips to greer on them with a spinning rod. There a staple on the white river tailwater, but they work here to! If your floating all the way down to 142, bring you some bass tackle, smallmouth get good down there!

Had some footage from a month ago on my camera, so made a little video..

Thanks!! Yeah, he is the gold standard when it comes to video's on here, awesome editing!

Congrats on your new boat, I just bought a Coosa a month ago, and have loved it so far, mostly fishing ponds and ditches here In the delta so far. I mainly wanted a boat to fish the eleven point as you do, plus the Southfork near our place at Hardy, I think this boat will be awesome for downstream floats. My buddy is fixing to seal the deal on a Cuda as well, he thought that would fit his needs better as well. Can't wait to see the differences. As soon as he gets his, and we get some time, gonna holler a Brian and float Thomasville to Greer, can't wait!! They all say the Cuda is affected less by wind, I was In the Coosa yesterday and had to fight the breeze a little, but not bad, love the boat, Congrats on yours, same color as mine!! Oh yeah, what a pig that fish is, awesome was to break in a new boat!! Have you stood much in yours yet?

That's awesome Cody, that's something you don't see everyday right there!! I'd love to ride through a swamp like that, minus noodling for gators.....

Awesome, holler at me for the fish fry!!

It rained here all day yesterday, so had some downtime. I kinda threw this together of some fish battles of the past year, what I remembered the most! I'm ready to get back out there with my Kayak and hopefully get some summer time smallie fishing this year! Hope you enjoy! Warning, this is not Brain Wise quality, but not bad for me......

Think this says it for me, I'm probably 26 to 30 years from any kind of retirement, so finding time to fish in between is the goal. I do have my winter months off which is nice, but man when the dogwoods are blooming and the fish are biting, that's when i'm busiest. If I get a big rain, I have a day or two off at times, but the rivers are usually muddy if it rains enough to get me out of work. I have a young family, and that is what motivates me to work my tail off, I do it for them more so than myself. In the meantime, when I get a chance to go, I will, and you retirees keep giving those reports to keep me motivated to hit the river when I get a chance!! I guess if us working guys can, we need to make time for fishing and things like that from time to time while we have our health, so many people plan for years for retirement, then illness sets in. My Great Uncle was the perfect example, he was a big crappie fisherman and quailhunter, he raised champion birddogs as well, he did make time to go during his working years, but all he could talk about the last ten years he worked, was retiring. When he retired, it was a success story, nice nest egg saved up, new boat, all the time in the world to do what he loved, but within a year, an early form of Alziemers dieseae set in, within 2 years he was in a nursing home for the next 10 years after until he passed. My grandfather used to say make hay while the sun is still shining. Work hard for your family, but take time to spend with them, and for yourself in the process..

Oh yeah, that was the plan.!! Can['t wait till he's old enough we can float a stream together, but then again, don't want him to grow up yet either...

Chief, had to post on of my own this time. My son's first bass he caught last spring in a neighbors pond!

Agreed, he wasn't the same player the last two years the Cards had him. He sold out for money no matter how many times he tells us he "prayed about it". He could of had a statue next to Stan, but then again, I'm kinda glad that Stan will still be the all time Cardinal great. When you look at how Stan carried himself, helped people in need, served our country, and of course all those Stats, he deserves to be considered the all time greatest Cardinal. The Cardinals farms system was featured in sport Iliusstrated recently on the success and talent they have down there. There saying this Taveras guy could be a mix of Trout and Harper, that will be fun to watch!

Congrats Hoglaw, That's Awesome Man

Got this reel about 3 weeks ago Ebay, it was suppose to be a right hander. Decided to practice with it, and maybe even make it a catfish reel. I just decided to get a righty and try to sell this one. Only been casted in my back yard few times, just like new. It casted really nice the times I tried it. The box says it's a 200 model, but a 201 came in the box, its a 6.5 to 1 gear ratio. I'll take what I got in it, 100 dollars...I'll mail it to you free shipping.

Thanks man, it was great. Hope to do that again soon!

I"ll never forget this, talked Dad into going with me and my fishing buddy a couple years ago to the Eleven Point. He went just to get out of the house, but joked on the way there he wouldn't catch anything. Well, this was the first smallmouth he ever caught in his life, needless to say he's ruined now probably. Tickled me to death, we still talk about it a lot! He caught a couple more after this one that day, they were measely 16 inchers.....

Wish I had known that then Phil about the spaces..lol. Actually as I look back, I have a pretty lame username....

This has been a heated topic for a long time now, but i'd like to make an observation I've seen over the years on the farm growing cotton. Cotton maturity is determined by accumulated heat heat units derived from the averaging the days high and low temperature. Later planted cotton can be made to mature earlier due to more heat units. When my grandfather was raising cotton in the 40's, they'd plant so early that the was always battling potential frosts and even freezes to get the cotton in early enough to make the yield it needed, when May rolled around, you were really late for planting. Over they years that date has been pushed back, now we can plant at the end of May, and still have pretty much full yield potential, and it's been this way for the past 15 to 20 years now. Granted varieties have contributed some to that date, but there's evidence that show that we accumulate more heat units on average than we did back In the day. Not saying what's causing it, but something I believe is different. Ironically, many of our record high's for the summer months here in NE AR were set in 1901, a bunch of them! Of course 1980 has it fair share here as well, one day it hit 116.