netboy

Bingo. I just put it in your kayak in the back of your truck.

Nice to see the holiday crowds gone. I fished the dam C&R area this morning and had a good morning. Caught fish on tiger tails, cracklebacks, ruby midges and a size 16 white egg pattern. Ended the morning with a couple dozen including these two bigger guys...

Hey Ham, did you happen to lose a tackle bag this morning? I found one on the side of our road when I left to go to the dam. Looks like lots of micro fishing stuff and a fish counter attached. I tried to PM you but that didn't work. Let me know and I'll get it back to you.

Oh my... match the hatch???😀

Wow, that is a shame. Security issues???

Also be sure to use a wire leader as they have sharp teeth.

Well, I can't say much for the fishing over there, but you should plan a day trip to the Pensacola Naval Air Station Aviation Museum which is close by. It is one of the best museums we have been to and if you are lucky, the Blue Angels may be doing a practice show. Plan an entire day to see it (free admission) and they do have a good restaurant inside.

I fished a different area below the dam this morning and had a decent morning. They were running 1 unit when I got there at 7. Fishing was good using cracklebacks with both yellow and tan bodies. I caught around 20 rainbows and this nice cutthroat. He took a tan crackleback as it was free floating as a dry fly. At first I thought it might have been the same one I caught a couple days ago as they were both males. I compared the pictures when I got home and this one had a bigger mouth and was not quite as fat. Around 9ish SWPA shut the water down to about a half unit and the fishing slowed down a bit. I changed to a ruby midge and caught a few more.

SWPA was running 1 unit this morning, so I made a trip to the dam C&R area. A yellow crackleback stripped in the surface film was the best fly today. I ended the morning with around 15 decent rainbows along with this nicely colored cutthroat. It was fun to see him bulge the water as he came up and followed the fly for a couple of feet. I stopped stripping and as soon as that happened, he took it. He gave a good fight and swam away strong after a couple of pics. Glad to see some lower water again.

I don't think we have ever had that O2 problem down here on the White that I know of since they started minimum flows. The water gets pretty well oxygenated with many miles of shoals. Norfork solved that problem with the siphon. Norfork Dam Siphon - Stabilizing the trout habitat - Garver (garverusa.com)

She put up quite a fight. Took me well into my backing twice and made some nice jumps.

The lake has finally got back to power pool and we have had minimum flows all morning at the dam the last couple of days. That also means minimum flow around Cotter and Rim Shoals until late afternoon. I went to the dam C&R area this morning and had a good day. It was great to catch up with all the regulars and everyone was catching fish. I had good luck on cracklebacks, tiger tails, midges and eggs. Also caught the biggest rainbow of the morning on a tan hopper. Here's a couple of the better ones...

I have a friend that has a 30hp Tohatsu 2 stroke jet. I think it is a 50/30 and it has plenty of power on his 17/52 Legend aluminum hull. I would suggest mounting it on your boat and giving it a try.

A walk in at McClelland's would be great. I have hiked up there from Ackerman, but it is quite a workout. It was all rainbows yesterday, but I usually manage to get a cutthroat or two along with the occasional brown.

Fishing has been good over on the Norfork. Weather has been very nice with highs in the 80's and some rain. I fished Norfork this morning under light rain and caught a couple dozen. Finally, it got too cold with the rain, and I quit an hour before the water was scheduled to come up. My fingers weren't working very well. Cracklebacks were working great, but after a break off, I had trouble re-rigging. Here is one of the better ones...

I saw lots of those homemade long tails when I was working in Warri, Nigeria which was at the delta of the Niger river. Those guys were hell bent to not let any of the others beat them. As Henry Ford once said... auto racing started 5 minutes after the second car was built. Same goes for jet boats, long tails, hydroplanes, airplanes, etc, etc, etc.

We saw lots of people using them in the bays and offshore when we lived on North Padre Island. Check out this article about a guy that goes by the name of Jet Ski Brian. He has taken his from Miami to the Bahamas, which is around a 100-mile trip one way. Fishing From a Jet Ski | Boating Mag

They have been running minimum flow up to late morning on the Norfork this past week. I have fished there the last few days and took Tina over there today. Fishing has been good, we caught 40ish this morning between us with a few nice ones. They are still running lots of water on the White, but it is only 3 feet above power pool, so I think that will come down soon. The best flies have been soft hackles and then the usual egg/midge combo under an indicator. Here's a fatty from this morning.

Nice job....

Thanks. It was really fun watching them react to the flies. I could see the silver bead on the midges and every time it disappeared, I would set the hook and most times it was a trout. They would circle it a few times and then either take it or move on. Nice to have some low water.

The water was scheduled to be at minimum flow until 11 Friday morning, so I made a trip to Ackerman access. I hiked upstream quite a distance to get away from the crowd. There was very little surface activity early so I tried a tiger tail. Caught 4 or 5 on that and then I started seeing more rises. I tried a few different dry fly patterns but didn't get any interest on top. After that I switched to a tandem midge combo under a small indicator and that is what they wanted. In one shallow stretch of water there were lots of rainbows cruising around and it was fun sight casting to them. Ended the morning with a couple dozen rainbows and some nice ones in the mix. I did have a shot at a really nice cutthroat that was holding with a group of suckers directly below me. I saw him take the midge, but I missed on the hook set. He looked to be well over 20". Here's some pics of the better ones...

Water levels have been low in the mornings and then coming up to all 8 generators late morning at the dam. The fishing has been good but transitioning out of the sulphur hatch. I have fished the last few days and the best results have been stripping sulphur colored cracklebacks, tiger tails and then midges and egg patterns under an indicator. Lots of little brookies up below the dam, but they are fun and really pretty. The lakes are getting close to power pool so we should start seeing more minimum flow on the White and Norfork. Here's a few pics from this morning....

Bet these guys are the first ones to the good fishing spots. Talk about some pucker factor.

I had a Shakespeare auto back in the early 60's. As I remember, it was pretty heavy.

Those are some pretty goldfish.