marcusearlt

Now that is a good Smallie. Nothing like the better half catching fish with you.

Man now those are some nice flies. Anytime my gf buys flies/lures I ask, "why'd you get that one?" She replies, "cause it's pretty." She would go nuts for that little pink number. I could get off my lazy b-hind and tie her some I suppose. I'd share some pics of the flies I tie but I might get thrown off the forum for obscene content. Cool flies and even cooler that you and your woman fish together.

Some real quality fish right there. The buzz bait is one of my favorites, especially with a big soft plastic trailer the same color of the skirt. The squeakier the blade the better I say.

I saw a bunch of guys doing this on the Kings River the other day. Neat little trick, just be sure it isn't damaging your leader or tippet where it wraps around your reel.

Man, a kayak park huh, that actually sounds like a lot of fun. I had never even dreamed of something like that. I have never even been in a kayak but that Jackson Coosa is looking sweeter everyday. Several times a year we go down to AR-59 Canoeing & Rafting and they take us up river and put us in at Fisher Ford bridge. I wonder how this will affect their operation, if at all. Anyhow, should be interesting to see how this develops.

Smalliebigs, what was the name of that river again?? Just kidding... Sounds like you got a good thing going, very cool. If I were hangin' smallies like that I'd keep going back for 55 years too.

Well we all, 7 of us, caught several SM @ Stoney Point. Nothing very big but but it was a lot fun, especially the free burgers and dogs grilled right there in the shade. Grandview- from everything I've heard and read I was thinking GV was a private access for outfitters only...?... check this map out... http://www.kingsriveroutfitters.com/pdf/lowerkingsmap.pdf

Alright, thanks for the info guys. Ya I'm really starting to like this whole SM in rivers/canoe deal in the Ozarks. We hit the Elk the other day and had a blast. We caught them off of 2.75'' tubes, the "Ned" rig, and a few off a powerbait minnow, but mostly off the tube. Man do those brown fish fight hard! I'll be thinking it is going to be a 20'' fish and it's like a foot, I am using a medium to medium light rod though. One of the local fly fishing clubs in NWA, Tight Lines, is meeting at Stoney Point tomorrow as the last part of their beginner fly fishing classes that my girlfriend is in, so I'm going to tag along and try to land a few on the long rod. Ya, I just actually found out where the Romp Hole is and it is one the to-do list. That long gravel bar river left that extends up from the Romp Access looks like it has enough structure for me to fish for hours. The river below Romp looks plenty boat-able to me, especially with a jet. Is it cool to put in a boat over there? Or is this kind of frowned upon? I wanna respect the river etiquette and all.

Ya, we are def going back. Nest time we will try to put in at Trigger and float down to wherever the next takeout spot is. All July and most of August I will have 4 day weekends, so you better believe I'm going to make the rounds! I gotta get these pretty Ozark streams figured out. I couple more trips and I pretty much could have bought a nice canoe. Hmmm.... T-Fish-R---- Did you float it last summer at all? I was there once way down river and it was pretty low, lots exposed point bars and warm water. In your experience, will the SM bite continue despite these conditions? Or will it slow the Sm bite and allow goggle/sunfish the first shot at your bait? I know about jack-diddily concerning SM, if you couldn't tell...

On Sunday, we did Rockhouse to Trigger Gap. Like Hojo said, fishing was decent. About 8 smallies, a few goggle eye and lots of sunfish. It was our first time so we spent too much time on certain spots early on not knowing that the last half of the float had some really fishy looking places, but by the time we got to the second half we were tuckered out. The float took about 6-7 hours. Lot's of traffic. Can't really say what conditions were best, some on the fly, some on a crank bait, some in fast water and others in the slow stuff. If it gets much lower it could make for some serious dragging in some places.

Man, now that looks like the place to be, fishing or just sight seeing. Fishing will just take you to the prettiest places, and it doesn't hurt to have a jet motor either. Thanks for the pic.

So which stretch yall doin? Im def going to get back over there too the CC and try to float the other sections around Yellville. A couple canoe trips later after paying to rent and I will wonder why I dont own a canoe, that's on my list too. I've never been much of a SM guy, but I could see myself targeting creek/river SM from now on, we had a blast.

Those shiners sometimes get really ambitious. This one on the White tried to eat a Rogue, poor guy.... Notice the pink spinning rod, be jealous...

Try Crooked Creek, Pyatt to Snow. We did it for the first time the other weekend and had a blast. There is a wide variety of water and structure to choose from. The CC also has really pleasant flows I think, not to fast or slow, and the chance to see some bonus Bald Eagles like we did. On a Friday I saw only 4 other canoes so that to me is considered very low traffic. The last half of this particular float offered much deeper and longer pools (and snakes), while the first half was more creek-ish with holes and shoals. Call Jimmy Walker @ 870-404-6054 for shuttle service. The float lasted about 8 hours with a long lunch, lots of stops to stretch and more than enough time to pick apart spots. Then again, there's a lot a of good choices out there and this is about the only one I know of personally. I'm sure any will be awesome. Have fun, tight lines.

We floated Pyatt to Snow on Friday. It was our first time ever on any parts of the CC. Started at 8am and it was a little chilly so me and the old lady both wore light jackets. Water temps were in the 50's I would guess with a nice amount of current to get get your canoe along. We threw a bunch of different stuff at 'em. We caught all kinds of fish, like goggle eye, bream and sunfish of all sorts, and some of those Ozark smallmouth. There are some really good holes is this particular stretch. One hard left about halfway through the float is very dangerous and should be treated with extreme caution, you'll know it when you see it. It's a sunny spot that is very deep and fast with a fallen tree both in and out of the water that is basically unavoidable. Also be advised of the snakes, they were abundant. As we floated by an overhanging tree limb the smell of garlic was thick; sure enough, a hula grub on an 1/8 jig head was swinging in the wind. Assuming it had belonged to someone who knew what they were doing more than I did, I grabbed and tied it on. A few holes later I met the guys who left it behind. They were going from hole to hole catching lots of fish. After watching them catch several good size fish from down river, we moved up river into there spot after they had left. I tried everything I could with no luck. Soon another canoe moved through with no luck. I stayed anyways, determined to find a pattern. I cast way up river, let the grub hit bottom and popped it very softly and let it land and drag against the gravel. I repeated this cast over and over until I got bit. What a good fight on medium light rod! All with a bait I found in a tree. I don't know this fish's length or weight, maybe 18-19" and 3lb?, but it made my day. I saw some other fish of comparable size, long and lean fish. The whole experience was a ton of fun, such pretty scenery, good fishing, and a good story. I definitely will be going back to this section and hope to get to the other ones as well.

I have fished above the dam in Batesville on the White and landed lots of bass. I guess it was a few years ago around maybe April and we put in and went up river to a little creek arm and did well with Rogues and Texas rigged worms. It seems I catch the occasional bass, usually largemouth, in every single river I fish, some more than others, but not a single one I remember anywhere near Bull Shoals Dam, but there undoubtedly is a population of bass in there I guarantee. Lower White, the whole Little Red, and and all Taneycomo, see the pic, give up bass on a regular basis. I have fished the the LR as far down as Judsonia but never the confluence of the LR and White. The confluence is in the Henry Gray Hurricane Lake WMA and it is on my to do list.

I have a bass boat and a flat bottom jet boat and I use both on rivers and lakes. Like the guys before said, someone in the water can help and you can point your trailer downstream, I find that the stronger the current is then the more I will angle my trailer. Light current may get 15-30 degrees, heavy flows might get a 45 degrees or so. Too much of an angle and your outside wheel will be much lower than inside depending on the steepness of the boat ramp, so more angle is always the whole answer. I make sure to install bunks on my trailers if they don't already have them. When backing down I go until the bunk top just hits the water and stop there. As soon as I get a couple feet of boat on the trailer I hit the throttle and usually the boat will seat itself, at least well enough to get up the ramp and out of the way of the next in line. I can do any adjustments up on flat ground. You'll get the hang of it and when you do it'll be second nature.

My brother and I went on a "fact finding" mission not too long ago to see for ourselves about SC. We started as far west as we could under the 43 bridge and worked our way east. We stopped at and tried to access many different locations which I had scouted out on Google maps the night before. Let just say right now, I don't know what the laws are or any technical rules and reg's of the AGFC and stream access but we definitely were uncomfortable being under the 43 bridge. No trespassing and private property signs EVERYWHERE. It was really unbelievable. What a beautiful little piece of river though. The west side of the river at the 43 bridge is the outside turn of the river and has really carved out one marvelous facade, along with other geological events I'm sure. We just didn't feel right so we got out of there. After stopping several places, eyeing the water, and then factoring in our surroundings, we concluded that each spot we were somehow not supposed to be there and kept going. However, on some dirt that turned pretty far from the river, we actually lost the wet part and began to find nothing but empty stream bed. If you look on Google maps you will find a spot that has a house near the river where there is a broken dam and it's not hard to find that same place by car either, we went there too. We suspect this is close to the cold spring that puts out all the water because we quickly found dry stream bed not too far from there upstream. All this was several months ago so details are definitely 100% reliable. Our final decision: we were not wanted there, drive to Beaver or RR. All the mystery about this place makes it hard to ignore though.

Hey man, that's just too cool that you got the wife to go out with you. Awesome pic too. Aint it crazy how bright their faces get and how they get all super happy when they catch a fish! They just go nuts! Nice pink rod too. I got my gf 2 pink spinning rods a while ago. Recently I get her some waders, hip bag, and a fly rod set up. We have been to Roaring River twice in the past three weeks. I have spent a good deal of time untying wind knots, climbing trees to retrieve flies, and handing over the best water to her, I have loved every minute of it! There's a every Tuesday night 4 week beginner's program being put on by a local fly fishing club coming up in Feb and I got her signed up, and really she's looking forward to it. We haven't caught a ton of fish yet but being out there and getting to have her participating in my world was a cool deal. Hey, in a year she'll probably be takin' me to school, just watch! It is proven that women are better welders, so why not? Tight lines fellas.

Really cool vid bro. Thanks for sharing. It's videos just like this one that help me get through the fish-less times when I'm stuck indoors being an 'adult.' I just got the GP Black so hopefully soon I'll have some footage to fix up. I got some pretty cool underwater shots at Taney, a couple weekends ago. Good luck on the White this weekend. Tight lines.

Alright, another nice video from you for us to feast our eyes on and maybe just be little jealous about! HA, some of us have been stuck inside... booo... Gotta love the GoPro to record all the action. Good stuff. I always heard you could catch smallies by just drifting flies like you do for trout, that's awesome. Tight lines.

In low water, no generation, JFK park has enough space to accommodate you and all your buddies. The water will be very cold here due to its close proximity to the dam so bundle up accordingly, you can dress lighter down river. All the standard patterns that Jason mentioned will get the job done. Don't forget your sow bugs too, especially if you intend on fishing right around pipe #2. They're are at least 3 species that can be found at JFK: bows, browns, and brookies! From the boar ramp as a point of reference, you can go down or up a good distance and cover some nice water. Tight lines.

Thanks guys. I have always liked Taney and my girlfriend is crazy about Branson so I'll def be back. I just got her own fly rod now too so the sky is the limit.

Hey yall, we had a great time at Taney today and yesterday. Pulled in to the boat ramp by the dam around 12 noon on Thursday just in time to take advantage of some generation. We went straight up river and caught several fish all over on micro-jigs, wooly buggers, midges and sow bugs. After a while we floated down to the island where we got out of the boat and hammered'em on the backside of the island on some sows and scuds. We capped the day off by floating down river and catching fish all kinds of ways. Friday we got to the boat ramp, wow is that ramp long in low water. We headed down river to fish off the backside of the lower island and get some video with my new "underwater camera." My brother was hookin' fish left and right. By the time he had 20 I was working on 5! I tried the same fly in the same spot and it still didn't help. Oh well. At this point I'm wondering if I'm just going to watch my bother catch fish all day. So I walk upstream to get the boat so we could float down river again. As I walk behind a fellow fisherman, we get to talking and he graciously gives me 4 flies that he tied himself, size 20 scuds. So were gunnin' full speed down river and my bother, who always stands up on the deck and watches for fish, rock, etc, starts waiving for me to kill the engine because he just saw swarms of fish. We stop and get out and sure enough there is rainbows everywhere, EVERYWHERE. In a basically pain area with virtually nothing major going on the fish were teaming. We caught countless bows and even a carp. We literally "scooped up" 4 fish with the net alone they would get so close to us. At one point a bobber floated by with a fish still on it. I cast out a jig and caught the line, the jig slid up the line and caught the bobber, and now I was reeling in a fish that was already caught, that was a first! After a while the sun was descending below the trees so the temp was dropping, time to go. The boat ramp was in use so we just kept going, parked the boat and walked up stream. 5 minutes later a guy not 50 ft from me catches a 5lb+ spawning female rainbow. What a pretty, fat fish. I heard one guy say, "not bad for your first time to fly fish." What a couple of days it was boys. So many fish, cheap hotel room, cool underwater footage, free flies... A little slice of paradise...

Cool maps, thanks. Tailwaters are so prone to change due to generation it is nice to have these maps as a guide. We're coming up there Thursday night so we can fish Friday. Hopefully we can get in on just a little bit of some of those big bows yall are catching right now. Taneycomo OWES me some fish! HA! Tight lines.