netboy

Yes, been retired 21 years and still not enough time to do everything we want.

Been a while since I have fished as we just returned from a 3 week cruise starting in Venice, then ports in Itlay, Slovenia, Croatia and finally flying out of Zagreb. The trip was great with some awesome scenery and interesting destinations. As for the fishing, it has been great the last couple of days. I waded Roundhouse Shoals Sunday and again this morning on minimum flow. Lots of rainbows along with a couple browns and 1 cuttie. Best fly combo was an orange egg pattern with a ruby midge dropper under an indicator. Here is a fattie that was spewing eggs as I released her. Also a pic of the customary gondola ride in Venice.

I took the boat to Rim Shoals and ran upstream a bit and then got out and waded. Lots of stocker size rainbows and a few nicer ones on orange slush eggs. I had some unexpected company when this nice buck decided to join me. A pic of the buck and one of the better rainbows...

Looks like a Gag to me. Used to catch them offshore in Texas, but never close in.

I went to the Baxter County boat ramp access this morning as they were scheduled to run 1 unit. Fishing was good until they unexpectedly blew the horn at 9 and turned on another unit. Caught 7 or 8 on the orange slush egg including this nice male. Water got too high for that area, so I left and went to the Marion County access below the dam. Caught a few more there, but the water was still a bit too high. I did see more redds in the river and the fish in the picture was spewing milt when I netted him. Just a heads up.... The entire C&R area closes next Tuesday for the brown trout spawn and reopens February 1,

Did you recently join PETA?

Looks like a rainbow to me. Cutthroats don't have the red stripe on their sides. I catch quite a few rainbows on the Bull Shoals and Norfork tailwaters with orange or red slash markings on their bottom jaw as well as orange on their bellies. Seems to always be fish that have been in the river for a while. May be due to the natural foods they eat instead of the pellets in the hatchery. Also, they have darker colors like the one in your picture. Here is a picture of a cutthroat for comparison...

So many good things to be said for the Catch and Release areas in Arkansas. Only wish they had more.

SWPA has been running 1 unit of water at Bull Shoals Dam the last few mornings. Water is still wadeable, but mostly along the shorelines. I have had the best luck with orange slush eggs, yellow cracklebacks and grizzly tiger tails. This morning I was the only wader there so that was great. The entire area will close to fishing November 1 through January 31 for the brown trout spawn so now is the time to take advantage of it. I have been seeing a few redds with browns on them and hungry rainbows holding below them, hence the orange slush egg. Here's a couple of the better ones...

Looks like a heck of a day. Congrats

With rain in the afternoon forecast, I made an early trip to the Roundhouse Shoals access. The current generation schedule has seen minimum flow at Cotter until late afternoon. I started out swinging and stripping a tan crackleback and caught lots of stocker size rainbows. Also missed quite a few by setting the hook too early. It is hard to pause when you see the fish boil on the fly, but they need to turn to get a good hook set. After my arm got tired from casting and stripping the crackleback, I switched to an egg pattern under an indicator and caught some nicer rainbows and a 16" brown. I am starting to see a few redds in both the White and Norfork so please be careful not to disturb them. Here's a couple of pics...

Rolled the dice again this morning and made a trip to Ackerman access. The COE ran water Monday through Wednesday afternoon so I felt confident it would stay down for a few days. Fishing was good with the low water. I had the best luck on an orange slush egg under an indicator, but also caught some on a sulphur crackleback and a few on a size 18 tan mayfly. There were lots of fish rising as I was walking out around noon. Ended the morning with around 30ish. Here's a few of the better ones...

Yesterday I mowed over about a dozen of what looked like your Meadow Mushroom pictures. Guess I need to learn more about mushrooms and pay attention.

Very nice workmanship. Congrats.

Sounds like some trout stocking from MDC wouldn't hurt. Also need to get some folks fishing (and keeping) those stripers since they are apparently concentrated in certain areas.

Happy Birthday Phil. I am 10 years ahead of you and have enjoyed every one of them.

Never even opened the box. Regifted them to a white elephant Xmas party with some fishing friends. They were a real hit.😀

Jeff Mancini, the Big Bite hawker, reminds me of Dan Akroyd doing the Bassomatic skit. I actually had an in-law relative give me a Big Bite kit for Xmass one year many years ago. All you can say is.... Gee thanks.

What, nobody mentioned the Mighty Bite. According to "experts" that big bite chunk out of lure and the red blood accents really get the fish excited.😀😀

I went to the Dam C&R area this morning after the rain let up. Got there around 7:30 and some TU friends pulled up and we got ready to fish. Fishing was a bit slow at first and then it got better as the morning progressed. Friends were catching on cracklebacks and I did best on an orange slush egg under an indicator. Caught around a dozen including a couple of nice ones. Early on I saw a guy pushing what appeared to be a kayak with lots of equipment on it. He went all the way up to the dam in the restricted area and I thought what the heck is he doing. Then another guy waded up and after talking with him, I found out they are doing a survey of the bottom substrate below the dam and the kayak was actually a robot with wheels under it. They ran the robot back and forth across the river to collect the data, Talked to them again when they left and asked how it looked. He said looks good so far. They are doing Norfork Dam next. Here is a link to one of their earlier projects at Dale hollow Dam and resulting picture of the bottom. Dale Hollow Dam – Seaside Engineering & Surveying LLC (seasllc.net) Then when I left the Marion County Game Warden was in the parking area and my TU friends and I had a nice visit with him. Always glad to see them checking things out. Here is one of the better ones....

The ones that have been in the river for some time have much better colors. The brookies are my favorite. With that said, I did see a poacher this morning on the gravel bar just below the first island. As I got closer he got very nervous and grabbed his stringer of fish and hightailed it. When I walked up to where he was fishing I saw his ziplock bag of shrimp that he forgot as well as a container of nightcrawlers. As far as I am concerned, a poacher is as bad as a common thief.

Rolled the dice and made a trip to the Norfork this morning. It has been a crap shoot on water levels over there the last couple of months. They run water through the flood gates and sluice gates for 4 or 5 days and then shut down to minimum flow for a day or two with no set schedule. Fortunately, it was a minimum flow day today and fishing was good. I had some decent dry fly fishing for an hour or so when some small tan mayflies started coming up. When that stopped, I had good luck on eggs and scuds. Ended the morning with around 30ish including a few nice ones. I lost the biggest fish of the morning to a leader to tippet knot failure after a 10-minute fight. Here is one of the better rainbows....

That catfish would have been good in the fryer. Good on you for releasing it, but I would have been tempted to keep it.

Those are some nice browns. Congrats.

Here is one that will get your attention... This is a big one. With that said, when I was working in the Niger River Delta in Nigeria some local guys came to our camp and tried to sell us a 24 foot python snake skin. No way to get it back through US customs. They would bring all kinds of stuff, but the best were some huge prawns they got out of the local marsh. They were 12 inches long and tasted just like lobsters. We paid about 1$ USD per pound and they were fantastic when the local camp chef prepared them on the wood grill.