LittleRedFisherman

Looking for a good place on the Current River to catch some Wintertime smallies. I've traded in alot of my Duck hunting for fishing this winter and have loved it. Have only been on the Current a few time around Reyno, mostly for Walleye and Catfish, I know the northern part of it in Missouri is a great trout stream, i'm figuring the southern part would be better for smallies? Thanks for any insight, Bret.

I'm pretty familar with the White river near Calico Rock, but that's about it. Going with a friend this coming weekend to try some trout, and we are thinking about trying the White around Cotter. I believe we should have a better chance to hook into some browns up there. Just curious if anybody had any advice on fishing this area. Probably gonna do some spin fishing, as well as flyfishing. Thanks for any input, Bret.

I've cooked many a fish fry, one of my favorite things to do. Love cooking flathead and having a big fish fry out in the shop in the late winter. Seems the word travels when you have a fry, had 60 show up last time I had one. I've tried different things, but the best thing is don't burn your oil , and peanut oil if you can stand the price, and if nobody's allergic. Over the years, I just simply use white cornmeal, but I put the salt in the cornmeal, just keep adding until it tastes right. Sometimes, I add some Creole seasoning to the meal to give some extra flavor. I don't dry my fish, but I don't want it dripping wet either, so that the batter goes on properly. Another thing I went to, is instead of buying fries, I wedge up some potatoes, and roll in my cornmeal, but I use a liberal amount of Tony's Creole seasoning, much better than fries IMO.

I used to think Bass didn't taste good, but I've since had some that was skinned, at it didn't have that strong smell. For me, I just like catching and releasing bass just because.. I fish the St. Francis "on the bottomland end" here at home, and Flatheads taste much better, and the river it full of them here. The last bass I kept i was probably 14. I caught it on Lake Mirandy at Highland Arkansas where we have a cabin on the small lake. It was probably 5 pounds, after showing it off to the neighbors, it had been out of the water to long, so I cleaned it. It absolutely killed me to clean it for some reason, and I said that day I'll never keep another bass. I've since got into smallmouth fishing, but have never had the urge to try to eat one. For me, there just to much fun to catch, I'm sure my Flathead are much better tablefare anyways. As to your initial question, don't really know the answer, I'd say it really does have alot to do with all the catch and release we see on the TV fishing shows. Bill Dance has been letting them go for 40 years on TV, and I guess it's just sticking with the rest of us.

GotMuddy, where do you get the Zigjigs at, I've been hearing about them? Nice fish

Congrats Cody, we will have to meet again at the Narrows and go fishing again sometime. That boat should fly with that jet. I was impressed that day with that jackplate with the lever, I couldn't believe you got where you did with that prop. Congrats!!

Sweet boat taxidermist, your gonna love it.

Been visiting the inlaws the past few days since christmas, so took a couple days to hit the Little Red river since they live close to it, and breaking in the new boat somemore. My father inlaw caught a dandy rainbow yesterday just before the rain hit, and we got drenched loading the boat. The action was hot right before the rain hit, guess it was the approaching low pressure. Did everything from drifting spinners, to flyfishing with san juan worms and maribou jigs. Today the action was slower, but caught some nice fish. The water was down some, they was only running one unit today.

It has definetly became one of my favorite rivers, the scenery is awesome, and I've only scratched the surface. Some rivers just look fishy, and this is one of them.

Here's some pictures I took while fishing on the 11 point river. The first two are from a guide trip, which was my first time on the that part of the river, the last two are when I went back with my boat a couple weeks later. This has became on of new favorite rivers.

I've became a lover of the 11pt, that is a great river, good fishing, and awesome scenery. If your wanting to chase trout, you can join me on the Little Red River after christmas, that's where I"m gonna be. As far as trout fishing goes, for me, that one is hard to beat. For scenery and smallmouth, 11pt gets my vote.

Awesome video, I've seen some of your other vids, they are all awesome. Great editing, and awesome fishing!! Get a kick out of the kid with all the skills, that's awesome.

I definetly understand where your coming from on both topics, your preaching to the choir here...

Absolutely agree, we have had the same problem here at home in a hole where flathead catfish winter. There is a 45 day snagging season here, and you can keep two a day. Some where coming in there and keeping 50, our local game warden got envolved and nailed some of them. That being said, I don't even like the taste of bass that much, haven't kept a bass of any kind in 20 years, just love to catch um. IMHO, fishing rivers like these is a privelege, and should be treated as such.

"GotMuddy, throw me your email or contact me at mine "farmerbret2002@yahoo.com", for a number. You can meet me at the "Narrows" sometime. I"d like to try it, it's not to bad a drive from my house. I'd like to catch one of those Pickeral.

That's a cool link, I forgot to look where they are located? I'm pretty partial to ole Fred up at Current River Marine, he's got most of the business wrapped up here in my part of Clay county Arkansas. I would of liked to got my jet from him, but if you buy a boat from Supreme, you get the outboard at cost, which saved me a decent chunck of change. It's all good as far as jets and canoes, I see where "bassnerd" is coming from. I've been on the St. francis back in the day in alittle boat, and get swamped by a big one coming by, does tend to cause a rise in blood pressure. There's room for all kinds of fisherman if we just use common sense and cortesy.

Just curious, are you planning on going with a Blazer, I know they are really common to see just north of me, the Current and Black rivers up there are full of them?

I hear where your coming from, don't worry, don't plan on being a jet jerk, a little common sense goes a long way when running a boat, and some just seem to sometimes have a lack of it. I was fishing in a drift boat with a guy the other day, and a jet went by, he slowed down and and was respectful as he went by, didn't bother us in the least. What is funny after he went by the fishing picked up again, must of stirred the fish up.

Commander, I think I saw your post earlier in the week about looking for a TFO on the bottom, I did see a paddle that somebody had lost, but was a little deep to try to get. Yeah, that's the only flyrod I have at the moment, and I got it to catch trout on the LIttle Red, those smallies sure do make ur bend, but man is it fun. And like the above poster said, my buddy was using cranks, and he got addicted to that pretty fast, however, the bigger fish were coming on the jigs. Gonna try to go back in a week or two, and of course try some more smallies, but also want to hit some trout.

RiverRat, my new boat is a Supreme L48 made in Mountain Home Arkanasas. I was fishing on the Eleven Point River today. I have ran the boat before here at home last week on a bottomland river near my home, but I wanted to run her up some shoals and riffles today, and it did today what I wanted it for. I've got a 25hp Jet on it, seems to fit it about right...

Broke the new boat in right today, had another pretty good day fishing, and got to run her through some shoals. OMG, how shallow this thing runs blows me away, been wanting one for years, guess it was worth the wait. I was catching these smallmouths on a flyrod, my buddy was using spinning gear, some on jigs, but he was doing really good with a crawfish crankbait throwing it on the downsteam side of big rocks. Big one of the day was 17 and a half inches.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm planning on heading fishing tommorrow, so will try out my skills.

I've recently purchased a river jon, with a 25 jet. Saturday I broke in the motor and drove it around 2 hours, so i got the feel for the boat, and how you have to use the jet to steer the boat, that part I've kinda got down. But later in the week, my buddy and I are heading to the Eleven Point river, so I'm going to be going over some shoals. We were there last week, and I saw a boat go over 2 different shoals, he was at full throttle, and I know that's where they run the most shallow and not suppose to suck up rocks. For a first time jet owner, i was just wondering if any of you fisherman out there have any advice when running a jet for the first time in shallows, plus a river your not to familar with yet. I'm running an L48 Supreme. Thanks in advance, Bret.

10 4 on that Muddy. You need to meet me up there sometime, i've got this jetboat and I need to use it.

Sweet boat there whiteriver, I took mine out today and did the breakin on the jet. I was so impressed with how shallow they run. The 25 jet pushes it quite well. What I like is the boat doesn't rare up when going slow speeds, you can still navgate shallow water. The tunnel in the hull feeds the jet great. Taking it smallmouth fishinh next week, then spending several days on the litle red river trout fishing during the holidays!! Love your boat your gonna love it!!