bwcballer10

I guess I should have said hopefully the fish make it up to 215 soon. This year the water situation is great for only being the 21st of March. I think with the future forecast they will continue making their way up river.

Went with a buddy after work yesterday, saw fish being caught by everyone at Taylor. We caught them in the eddy above the bridge as well as the eddy below the bridge. I'm hoping there is enough water this year to catch them on the float from 215 to Taylor soon. Good luck to everyone!

Thanks for the update. I am just sitting at work watching the time pass by way too slowly.... I need to get out of here and get some fish caught!

I've got to work all day today but as soon I get off tomorrow afternoon I'm headed over there with a buddy to give it a shot. I am hoping we can get back over there and catch some more whites. It's been over 2 weeks now since I was over there and got into some.

I just have a little 12 footer with my trolling motor on it. That set up is absolutely perfect for chasing whites in the river. It is easy for me to load/unload by myself and has enough room for 2 people and their gear. I can't get anywhere fast but usually I never need to. I don't mind going over there and fishing from the bank but the boat is definitely nice to have to cover alot of ground easily.

I decided I couldn't wait any longer to try for some whites in the Little Sac. I got to Orleans about 10:30 Thursday morning and got my boat unloaded and started trying it underneath the bridge. No luck, so I head to mouth of Walnut Creek and give that a try. Still no luck so I continue heading downstream towards the lake. As I turn the bend below Orleans I talked to a guy fishing from the bank, he had 2 whites on his stringer. This gets me a little excited because it means at least a few fish have made it into the river. I try the mouth of the little creek there on the left as you turn the corner headed towards the lake. Still no bites, so I continue down that long eddy. This is about 2 and a half hours into my trip so I decide I'm gonna head back to the truck and go to Taylor to give it a try. I toss my jig out to troll back to the truck and BAM I get my first bite and fish... nice sized male white. I cast out and immediately catch another. The wind is blowing crazy hard and has pushed me into the bank by this point so I troll back out past where I caught the fish and catch another on my way out. I'm upset at myself for leaving my anchor in the truck at this point because I am going to have to fight the wind to stay close to the spot where I'm catching them. I proceed to catch my limit in the next hour. All the fish came from the same spot, they were laying on the backside of a mud point out of the main river channel. I caught them all on a purple swimmin minnow on an 1/8 ounce leadhead. My buddy called me that night and said that he would like to go back over Friday. I told him if I could talk my wife into letting me go 2 days in a row then I would love to try again. We put the boat in around 1 Friday afternoon at Orleans. We headed downriver towards the lake. Did not even get a nibble until we turned the corner at the top of the long eddy. Then we put 27 whites on the stringer (threw back 4 or 5 of the tiny males) on the mud flat between the old bridge pillars below Aldrich and the corner to turn into the long eddy below Orleans. All the fish were in the main river channel and caught on a purple swimmin minnow. We even caught a couple of nice sows. He had one that went 17 inches and I had two between 15 and 16 inches. I am super excited to start off with this much water in the river, hopefully they will start up the river anytime. This post has been promoted to an article

My wife and I actually caught probably 50-60 of the little male whites at the mouth of one of Stockton's tributaries Sunday. (2-18-18) Now that they have gotten some rain and more is forecasted today and tomorrow they should start staging any time. I can't wait to get after them!

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain! My wife and I fished Sunday 2-18-18 in the Aldrich area and surprisingly we caught probably 50-60 of the little male whites (only 1 what I would consider filletable size fish). It was still a ton of fun though! I think this rain should get them staging at the mouth of the river. I can't wait to get after them this spring!

Thanks!

A buddy and I are planning a 2 or 3 night camping trip for our spring break (March 10-17.) We are wanting to try some crappie in Flat Creek and whites on the James. Nothing fancy just staying in a tent for a couple of nights (hopefully the weather will cooperate.) Are there any primitive camping sites around the Bridgeport Area? Thanks!

Had Monday and Tuesday off work so I decided to head to the river and give the crappie one last shot before I pick up the deer rifle. I got to the river right at daybreak Monday morning and launched the boat. I was putting my 15th crappie on the stringer by 7:30. I prolly caught 35 or 40 total to get the 15 keepers. The wind was blowing stiff enough out of the north I figured I would see if I could find any whites on the lake in the 245 bridge cove. I fished for a couple of hours and caught and released 17 or 18 good sized whites, it was a blast! I had a buddy go back to the river with me Tuesday and we got a later start but still found lots and lots of crappie. We ended up with 25 keepers (probably between 90-100 total crappie.) I caught all of my fish on minnows both days but my buddy tossed a shad colored swimmin minnow on an 1/8 ounce head and did pretty well too. We didn't find any real big slabs but had a couple of 11 and half inchers, most keepers were between 10 and 10 and half. We loaded up the boat and went back to the 245 bridge to see if the whites were still there. Suprisingly, we didn't catch a single white bass (the wind was still hitting the cove hard but no whites to be found.) Right before dark we tied to one of the bridge pillars and he caught 4 or 5 more crappie and I managed a 24 in walleye (nice surprise!) It was a great couple of days off work and a great way to wrap up my fishing season (won't be after them again until the spring white bass run) Time to go chase whitetails now!

54 on Tuesday afternoon (We were fishing the 245 bridge outside Bona)

Part 1 Saturday May 6th Decided I needed to see all the water with my own eyes last weekend. Pulled up to Taylor with a buddy and my father in law right at sun up last weekend (5-6) The parking lot was completely under water. Water color was BROWN. We brought the john boat with us but caught the majority of our fish wading in the parking lot. When the bites would stop we would jump in the boat and go fish the creek for 30 minutes or so. Then we would go back to the parking lot and start catching fish again. We had 3 limits of whites by 11 o'clock. We were all using a purple swimmin minnow on an eighth ounce head. My father in law caught all but 2 of his fish out of the creek. My buddy and I caught 90 percent of our fish out of the parking lot. Weird how that happened since we were using the same set ups. Part 2 Saturday May 13th Had a buddy come down from St. Louis this weekend and said he was ready to catch some white bass. I told him I didn't know if there would be any whites still left in the river but I was definitely willing to give it a try. We put in at 215 bridge and floated to Orleans. Caught our first white right there under the bridge. We would find a fish or 2 every place that we stopped but only found 1 spot right below the frisco line trail bridge where we caught more than 3 fish. We ended up catching between 40 and 50 whites (several of the dink males), 4 crappie and one 4 pound large mouth. The river turns into lake right around the s-curves above Taylor (CRAZY!!!) This is where the current stopped and there were no whites below that point. After not catching anything around Taylor we just trolled the rest of the way to the truck at Orleans.

Put in at Taylor with my dad about 1 yesterday afternoon. We took the boat to the eddy above and started fishing, just a couple of bites and one little bitty male so we didn't fish it for very long. Headed downstream and once we caught the first fish we had our limit in about an hour and a half. I guess with no water in the river the fish are not going to make it above Taylor this year. First time I've seen that in the 10 years I've fished the little sac. As always caught all of our fish on a purple swimmin minnow on an eighth ounce head. Are the females hanging out below Orleans? Almost all the fish I've cleaned have been males.

Yeah the older bridge that is like 3 eddies below Taylor (it is also the last bridge before you reach Aldrich.) We didn't travel very far in either direction from the bridge to catch our 4 limits.

Orleans

Headed over there with a few buddies and we tore them up! They were just waiting until we finally got some water in the river apparently.

I'm headed over tomorrow to give it another shot.

I gave it a go this afternoon and caught 1 smallmouth and had something else hooked for a second... I think its going to be great as soon as the water clarity gets a little better

I'm going to head over there after work tomorrow... Good luck, hopefully the fish are ready to feed after the water surge!

Back above 2000 cfs this morning... Good news is there's finally water in the river, bad news is it doesn't look like its going to be clear enough to fish anytime soon. Talking about LOTS more rain Wednesday night.

I've seen the airboat over there twice this year. I don't think he does any fishing just sight seeing up and down the river. Did they get enough rain over there overnight to make the water unfishable?

As long as they don't get enough rain overnight to bring the river back up I'm going to give it a try after work tomorrow. I'll let you know how I do if I end up going.

I was pretty shocked that it got that high as well considering it hasn't gotten above 80 cfs up to this point. I think I will hold off until Monday afternoon or possibly Tuesday... But I'm pumped to head that direction now that we have some water and current in the river!