kjackson

That is good info, F&F. Thanks. I appreciate the time it took to get it all down--that's a lot of writing! I do have a question, though. Are you referring to yellow perch? I know some sunfish are referred to as perch...and I want to make sure. The reason for my curiosity (besides the fact that perch are great on the table) is that they also are a favored prey for walleyes. I just pulled all the perch-pattern crankbaits out of my trolling boxes as I was told there were no yellow perch in Beaver. But I can easily throw them back in...

Another way to get the distance was shown to me by the former field services manager for Berkley, Barry Day. He said that for very early spring smallies, the guys on the lakes--particularly Clear Lake in the Spirit Lake area of Iowa-- would take a longish spinning rod, a somewhat larger-than-normal spinning reel, six-pound XT and small lures. He especially liked the Fat Rap. The idea was/is to be able to throw small baits a mile. The long distance cast, coupled with the small-diameter line, would allow the small baits to get to their maximum depth. It's a technique that I've used to catch smallies in super-cold water. Now, I'd probably use six-pound fluorocarbon or one of the small-diameter superlines to get the best depth on the cast and definitely one of the superlines for trolling. A real deep-diving small bait that doesn't take arms like Popeye to reel in is the quarter-ounce Hot Lips Express from Luhr Jensen (one of the Rapala brands). That will run 12 feet on the cast and 15+ on the troll (100 feet of 10-pound fluorocarbon). Nathan-- I know practically nothing about fishing in this area, having lived here just a short time. I thought the thermocline came later in the year, but you could be right about the 15 foot level. However, since I did see enough fish deeper than that, I'm guessing it hasn't set up yet. As for the really deep stuff on the screen-- it could be bait, or it could be something else. In Washington's Hood Canal, you'd see swarms of shrimp like that, and in Idaho's big lakes, it was possible to see clouds of mysis shrimp way below the thermocline. Without dropping a camera down there, I'm thinking it's hard to tell. Maybe one of the experts will chime in.

Thanks for the suggestions. Fished out of Rocky and should have kept to my original plans--either the dam or the 12 bridge area. We left late-- try getting a college student out of bed before daylight-- and found that the drive was longer than it would have been to the bridge. Marked a lot of fish, but none, for the most part, were biters. We caught maybe half a dozen, maybe more, small spots, no whites, no walleyes and one potato-chip bluegill. We had two solid head-shaking takedowns, but both left us to fish on. Bait and fish were in the 10 to 20-foot range with a lot of 'em around 15 feet, either suspended or on the deck. I did mark a lot of deep bait--some in the 100-foot zone. We pulled a bunch of different baits, starting with the standards and shifting to play with others. One of the best (if there was any "best" today) was a Rebel Deep Wee-R in pearl. Fun day but frustrating. I think now that I'll continue learning the dam end of the lake since it is so close.

Thanks, F&F. We're heading to Rocky Branch and fishing in that area and probably back toward 12. It's a new part of the lake for me, so it will be interesting, if nothing else. Report later...

Number 2 Son and I are heading out tomorrow for his first trip after returning from university. Since the Highway 12 (and associated islands) bite seems to have waned, I'm thinking either drive to Rocky Branch and fish the sloping banks/flats (an hour drive) or head to the dam and fish upstream somewhere, using maps and any guidance someone cares to give. The goal is to catch fish, and it would be great to get into the schools of whites that were at 12 bridge a couple of weeks ago. However, if the trolling bite doesn't really come on, we'll probably head into the back end of a creek and look for bluegills or crappies. It will be an early-morning trip, so I'm thinking of hitting it hard until noon or so and then calling it a day. Suggestions? Opinions?

As a former PNW inhabitant, welcome. It's a nice change from the Left Coast. I can't answer your questions about trout as the only ones I've seen have been in Roaring River and a few in the White below Beaver. I have fished the Norfork on a couple of occasions, and there are some honking big trout there. As for the spey rod-- if you've got a short or Skagit head, it should be fine, but I'd be thinking stripers in the rivers or maybe a trip to the Gulf Coast or the tailrace sections below dams. Single-handers should be perfect for the bass and white bass everywhere else. I don't know much--actually nothing--about the fishing around St. Louis, so take this with a grain of sea salt.

In an update of the testing, I found a couple of interesting (to me anyway) things: First, I could take a stock Redfin, remove the front hook and get it wake on the surface perfectly. Don't know if a hookless Fin is going to help me catch fish, though...Second, I have a few Poe's cedar minnows that, once the bill is bent down a bit, also wake quite well. They throw a mile, too, and that is a benefit. A large, jointed Rapala also wakes well with the bill bent down. Finally, the Redfin that sort of waked but would often pop and roll got the reverse treatment. Instead of heating the bill and bending it down even more, I bent it back toward the eye--it is now positioned about halfway from the standard bill position and the eye. I thought that it might be too much resistance to work well. In doing that, I discovered that the bill was off center a bit, so I tuned it while it was soft by centering it on the line tie. With a Suspendot near the tail of the beast, and with the rod held at the right elevation and turning the reel handle at the right speed, it waked without the popping, rolling business of before. It needs more work to run in what I think is the correct way, but since I'm new to this waking business, I'll let the fish tell me what I need to do next, if anything. Also, I did remove all split rings on the eyes of the lures and used a snap instead. I also changed hooks and rings where I thought it would be appropriate.

Berkley Havoc line has a large, paddle-tail grub and also the TriggerX brand by Rapala has some, I believe. I've used a prototype Powerbait grub that was being tested for the Japanese market and have been a fan of that style of bait since. I rigged it with a brass-and-glass combo and let it sit on the bottom while I shook it. Smallies liked it...

Fished last Friday from Holiday Island down, looking for walleyes and dragging crawler harnesses as well. All I could catch were spots--largest maybe 14 inches. All fish were somewhere deeper than 15 feet to maybe 25 feet.

If the boat is black as it looks in the photo, you might try mixing some graphite powder in the epoxy. It produces a very black finish that is a bit on the shiny side. And you're right about the bunks, obviously. I've got the opposite problem right now. Apparently, I hit the bunk at too weird an angle, and the blasted thing rotated and won't move back. I know that I need to fix it, but the bolts and nuts are rusted badly and should be replaced as well on all the boards. What I should do is rent a slip for a couple of days and simply redo everything on the trailer. I hate maintenance, but I really hate the results of not doing it even more.

Thanks, F&F. The boy will be glad to hear that we're going fishing right away. The little bit we did last fall after we moved and before he headed back to school wasn't that productive--kind of like my walleye fishing. I've fished in Arkansas a lot over the years, and so far I've not touched a walleye. I've caught flatheads, and I've caught crappies, and I've caught a lot of bass (black and white) while trying for walleyes. They're not a mystery fish for me as I've caught a bunch in Washington and some of my travels up north. But in this state... In the meantime, I'm happy chasing white bass. They're a hoot, and asJ-Doc says, they are good eating.

Just keep them there for another two weeks. Number 2 Son comes home from university in Wales then, and he will thin 'em down quite a bit. We need some boat time together, and that would be perfect.

I think that it's experiment time. I'll load up the split rings, snaps, hooks, feather trailers, Suspendots, pliers, lighter and maybe three rods and trundle down to the dam on the pond to do some playing. I have a few Fins, a couple of jointed Rapalas, a couple of the big floating Rogues, two Luhr Jensen Sea Bees, and a Buckeye for comparison. I could also add the old Storm Thundersticks. My guess is that I should lighten the nose on the baits, free up the tail, unless it moves too much (that would mean adding trailers) and then maybe bend or re-bend lips a bit more. But I"m also wondering if squaring a bill would help. I know that the gurus say the squarebill crankbaits that are hot right now have more kick--so would the same thing work on a wake bait?

So I modified a Redfin or two by heating and bending lips down and changing both the split rings and hooks to lighter ones. When I fished the Fin in Beaver the other day in the wind, it worked well--at least the fish liked it. Yesterday out of Holiday Island with no wind, I noticed that the thing kept rolling if moved too fast but didn't wake very well if reeled slowly--it did catch bass, but it wasn't as productive as at Beaver. I'm guessing that it isn't tuned quite right. Is it a matter of experimenting until I get the right weight on the hooks? I could add a feathered trailer, but I'm guessing that will inhibit the action when I fish it slow. What do the experts do to get the Redfin to run the way it should?

Ditto...

Randy-- that sounds like you're using the same pattern as the old Lindy Fuzz-E-Spin. That had a flocked (to hold scent better) float and used a Tru-Turn worm hook. It worked great..thanks for the info. If it ever stops raining, I'll give it a shot.

Quick question-- When you're building your spinners, are you making them floaters or are you running just beads for the body?

I launched at Dam Site Park this morning and was surprised to see how high the lake is. There was at least one campsite in the lake and one spot in the campground where the road runs into the lake. There was a decent topwater bite early on Redfins and even later it wasn't too bad. However, work and the wind pulled me off the lake before I wanted to leave. Another surprise for me was the number of smallies I caught--probably a third if not a half were smallmouth. Did not catch a striper nor see one caught. I had one large something come up by the boat, but it didn't want to play.

There are no walleyes there that you can prove by me. I've yet to catch one in Arkansas, but then I've not tried very hard in the eight months I've lived here. That fish and decent stripers are both on my list. The fish that I saw and suspect might be 'eyes were upriver in the clear water hanging down on the bottom of the break somewhere between 22 to 28 feet. There weren't a lot of them, and it's possible they could be something else--like trout. Dunno, y'know.

F&F-- Hope you had better luck than I did. I made several mistakes starting with arriving too late--got on the water about 8. That was followed by running upriver to see if there were any whites hanging out in their usual and accustomed places. Then I spent too long upriver looking for fish. I did find some, but they weren't biters. I'm thinking some of the deeper fish I saw off the first break might have been walleyes, but I couldn't testify to that. I ended up catching one trout about 15 inches before I headed back down and tucked into a creek to play with bass. The bass--spots and a largemouth--liked the wacky-rigged Dinger but so did the bluegills that infested the creek. Decided to head home when the wind made boat control more challenging than I'm used to. If the wind is down tomorrow, I'll probably head to Beaver and see if I can get on the topwater bite in the morning.

And I was just there--or at least nearby. That makes my decision on where to fish tomorrow a bit easier. I cannot imagine a white bass topwater bite. It has to be vicious!

B-- When I was working on tackle last week, I ran across a bunch of the Erie Dearie-type spinners and thought about how they might be used behind leadcore as well as casting/trolling on some of the flats. The leadcore/spinnerbait technique, though, is using standard, bass-type spinnerbaits and not the Erie-type. I asked if the fishermen modified the spinnerbaits in any way--such as adding crawlers for scent, but the PR person didn't know. He just knew that he sold a bunch of the baits to the winners and runners-up.

When I was at Ouachita last week, I talked to the PRADCO marketing guy about the spinnerbait-leadcore tactic for trolling for 'eyes in timber. You still lose a few baits, but it's fairly effective. The guys who were doing it used one-ounce spinnerbaits behind leadcore. Don't know any of the details, but it was obviously fairly deep fishing. I may try this tomorrow if the weather doesn't do a number on fishing.

This will be an interesting thread to follow. I'm trying to do the same thing--simplify. I have too much gear for what I need, and trying to take the gear for a day's fishing is laughable. Part of my problem is that I just moved to the area last fall, and I don't really know what I need for any given day. So I load the boat with the kitchen sink, barbecue and anything else I think might be appropriate. Also, I brought a lot of things that should have stayed in Washington: two big boxes of kokanee tackle, my saltwater jigging stuff, salmon gear (some of which I think will work for stripers or walleye or both), steelhead gear and so on. Some of the extras--like pre-Rapala Wiggle Warts--are going on eBay. Some I will give away, and some, I'm sure will find new use here. For example, the other day I started sorting hooks, and after I separated the premium trebles from the non-premium trebles, I ended up with maybe 3,000 good hooks that I really have no use for. I could give them to the local thrift store, but I'm thinking now that maybe I'll try to pass them on to the UofA bass fishing team. I'm open for other ideas...

He's right about tracking with inline boards. It's fairly easy, and I'm far from an expert with them. I used 12 or 15 pound mono for the abrasion resistance. I would think Fireline might be a good choice as well. They'd be a pain to use with panfish in the area, I'm thinking. But for whites, stripers or walleyes...