netboy

AGFC finally got the signs printed and posted at the boat ramps earlier this week.

Today was the last day for the BS Dam C&R area until Feb 1. SWPA ran water until 10am and then shut it down to 1 unit. I got up there at 10 and had to wait a bit for the water to come down. When the water came down, the fishing was pretty good. Ended the morning with lots of rainbows, 3 browns, 1 cuttie, 4 brookies and 1 tiger. Best flies today were a size 16 grey scud in shallow riffle water and an egg rig. Thankfully the C&R area has continued to be good fishing with all the problems in the hatcheries. Guess it's time to explore downstream areas, so that may be a challenge. Here's some pics...

I waded at the dam C&R area today after the water went down and had a good afternoon. Caught lots of rainbows, a nice cuttie, a few brookies and one tiger, so I guess that would be considered a slam as the tiger is part brown. Best flies were eggs and scuds. I hooked this nice rainbow in some fast water and had to chase him about 50 yards downstream to find some calm water to get him in the net. Tomorrow is the last day to fish up there as it will be closed until Feb 1 for the brown trout spawn. Here's some pics...

Waded at the C&R area this morning and had a good morning. Lots of guide boats up there the last few days as they are getting their licks in before the area closes for 3 months for the brown trout spawn starting Nov 1. I have been seeing some redds with rainbows active on them, but no browns yet. Best flies today were a tandem egg rig and then a single grey scud in size 16. Here are the 2 best ones from this morning.

Back in south Texas we would slice the breast up and marinate them in tomatoes and some Mexican spices and then slice them up and deep fry them. Then add lots of cilantro, caramelized onions and homemade tortillas. Next add some Mexican Queso Chihuahua cheese, fresh lettuce and end up with wonderful tacos.

Every October a bunch of personal aircraft buffs meet up here for a weekend of playing with their cool toys and a good party. We see lots of them flying the river in front of our house. It's open to the public and we always make it over there to check out all the flying contraptions they have as well as some demonstrations. Here is link to some pics and videos. Gotta love Ruger. the dog co-pilot. roller fly in - Search Results | Facebook Ruger...

No problem. I know AGFC does an annual shocking survey of the trout fishery. You may want to dig through their website and see if they have stats of C&R vs catch and keep. I suspect MDC does something similar on Taneycomo, but not sure.

Sorry, no "scientific" study... just hard knocks experience from fishing 6 days a week. I guess we all will have to wait for that real "scientist" to chime in so we can all believe it. Although I have never ran to a real "scientist" out on the river. 🤪 You wanna pay for the "real scientific" study?? Go for it and then we will all know the "scientific" truth. I can't wait for your results.

I have found that the average size of the fish in the C&R areas is considerably larger than those in the catch and keep areas. That would indicate that many of them stay in the area.

AGFC needs to get busy and put signs up or modify the existing ones at all the accesses notifying people of the changes. I drove by Cotter and Roundhouse accesses, and the old signs are there stating the limit is 5 per day.

Here is a video tour of Bull Shoals Dam. They used to give public tours inside the dam but stopped after 9/11. Pretty interesting if you never made the tour.

Here is a study about catch and release statistics of C&R. natural bait vs lures – using bait resulted in fish being hooked more deeply and less likely to survive What Percent of Catch and Release Fish Die? Full Stats

Wow, you are on them. Good job.

Caught this little guy on a size 16 scud. I think a male brookie is by far the prettiest fish in our local rivers, just wish they were a bit bigger.

I am sure I have probably killed a few trout that were hooked in the gills with a barbless fly and bleeding. However, I would suspect the overall mortality rate of released fish in the C&R areas is far less than those released in the bait areas.

If you think bait fishing for browns is a good thing, here are a couple of dead browns I have picked up off the bottom of the river that would probably still be alive. Both had 3-4" of mono cut off hanging out of their mouth and were gut hooked. I was fishing above one of the sculpin bait guides and heard him say "we have a take, let him swallow it and then set the hook". You gut hook a big brown or any trout and think they will live after fighting them, probably not. Here are the results, both found dead on the bottom of the river.

If it's going to be catch and release only on the upper river then just implement the current regulations in the catch and release areas. No natural bait, no chumming, barbless hooks only.

^^^^^^ I imagine Taneycomo will also see an increase in traffic.

They could use non-scented soft plastics and fish the same way as they do with shrimp, corn, worms, etc.

I would like to see them also put a temporary ban on the use of all natural baits. Lots of fish die from being gut hooked.

Probably Crystal Lake fisheries in Ava. AGFC purchased quite a few trout from them back when the Jim Hinkle Hatchery was severely damaged from the big flood in 2017.

I rarely keep a trout so no problem for me. Practically all of the fly-fishing guides on the White and Norfork are catch and release. It will be interesting to see how they enforce it. I haven't seen any signs at the accesses yet. Hopefully we will see some bigger trout in the catch and keep sections of the river.

SWPA has been running 1 full unit every morning for the last few weeks. This makes for some great wading opportunities for the entire of day around the Cotter/Rim Shoals areas. I am starting to see a few fish active on redds and the fish holding below them are waiting on the eggs. I had a good morning today with lots of rainbows including these 3 nice ones. A size 16 chartreuse egg pattern worked best but also caught a few on cracklebacks and scuds.

Had a good morning with lots of rainbows, 4 brookies and 1 average size brown. I hooked this nice male rainbow in 1 foot of water and had quite a time getting him into the net on 6x tippet. At one point he ran under a downed tree and I could see him on the other side. I kept steady pressure on him and finally worked the line from under the tree and got him out. He hit a size 14 scud. Also caught a few on a crackleback and some on egg patterns. Here is the rainbow and a pretty male brookie...