netboy

Another one...

Here's a squirrel story that happened to me last week. A few weeks ago I started hearing something rattling around inside my tailgate on the truck when I opened it. It got worse so I thought maybe some part of the opening/locking mechanism had come loose. I removed the tailgate and when we shook it, out comes an acorn. We continued shaking it and finally got a couple dozen acorns out. Somehow a squirrel figured out how to reach up in the small space between the bed and the tailgate and stuff the acorns in a 2 inch opening on the bottom of the tailgate. I put some duct tape over the opening and that solved the problem

As hard as I have tried, I doubt that I have ever actually killed one. They always swim away. Their body is like a big rubberband and so slimey you can't grab them.😁

Those scars don't look like they came from a lamprey. The lampreys I have seen always attach to the meaty area just behind the gill plates or on the lateral line where the fish's blood supply is greatest. A lamprey wouldn't be able to suck much, if any blood from where those scars are located. Also the lamprey scars are perfectly round. BTW, that is a toad.... Congrats.

I am surprised you see those nasty things in Taneycomo. I would have thought they couldn't get upstream of the Bull Shoals dam.

Those Lampreys are pretty nasty, but from what I hear from the ACFC biologists they will not kill the trout they are attached to. They suck some blood and then move on. I have caught lots of trout with Lamprey scars and also quite a few with those wrenched things attached. BTW... it makes sight fishing pretty easy as you see the Lamprey attached and can watch the trout's movements. The Lampreys are hard to kill. I usually take the fish back to the bank, pull the lamprey off and pound it between a few stones, step on it and try to squish it then throw it as far from the water as possible. Seems like there are lots more of them on the Norfork and lower White river. I don't see many from Cotter to the dam. Just my 2 cents worth...

Sounds like a great day. Glad you guys had fun.

Met my friend (old redfishing buddy from South Texas) at 7am and once again the SWPA schedule was way off. It was supposed to be 35mw, but when we got there it was 60mw. Oh well... we waded out and made a couple of adjustments and found some trout holding in an area that is normally too shallow. Ended up with some really nice rainbows and my friend stuck his personal best trout. After quite a bit of drag pulling, chasing and a couple of misses by yours truly with the net we finally got it in for a quick picture and then the release. Congrats to him.. I think he may now be converted to the fly fishing trout thing. Best flies today were tiger tails, midges and Y2k.

Maybe we will see some minimum flow this week since the lake is below power pool level. We can only hope... Good luck.

The SWPA schedule showed 35 mw (1 unit) all morning. When we arrived at 7:30 the water was dropping and I thought they might actually drop it to minimum flow which is 7 mw. No such luck, but they did drop it to 20 mw which is wadeable in most areas. Fishing was good with a variety of flies; midges, pheasant tails, Y2K and a tiger tail. I didn't see any risers this morning but did try a crackleback for a while with no results. Ended the morning with around 20 including a 22" rainbow and a couple more in the 19" -20" range. Also caught a tiger trout and it appears they are growing up some. Here's a few pics...

Thanks. She put up a good fight. I don't catch many that size in the catch and keep areas.

Good news is we got 1 1/2 inches of much needed rain this morning. After the rain stopped I walked in at the Cotter access. There were quite a few fish rising so I tied on a crackleback. Had a take on the first cast and steady action until it started misting and the wind started blowing. That shut the surface bite off so I switched to an egg/midge combo and caught quite a few on that. Then the mist stopped and the wind calmed down so I went back to the crackleback, Ended up with around 30 including this really fat 21" rainbow on the crackleback. She probably weighed close to 4 pounds and I thought that was a good fish to end the day with.

They finally shut off the big faucet at both Bull Shoals and Norfork dams on Tuesday. Norfork has been at minimum flow until noon and Bull Shoals is down to one unit until noon also. I fished Ackerman access on Norfork Tuesday and Wednesday and had good fishing both days. The hot fly there was a ruby midge under an indicator. Caught about 3 dozen each morning with a couple in the 20" range. Then this morning I went to Bull Shoals C&R area and there were some fish rising so I tied on a crackleback and had fun watching them come up and hit it. Caught a couple dozen and missed about that many more. I hooked a brown that looked to be 24"ish when he jumped, but he broke the 5x tippet after a long run. A couple of pics of Bull Shoals rainbows...

I woke up Saturday morning and saw the White river was at minimum flow and scheduled to be the same thru Monday. I mistakenly thought the river had dropped since the lake was near power pool level. I got the wading gear together and headed to Roundhouse shoals. Fishing was great with lots of rainbows, a few browns and one cuttie. Same thing Sunday morning and I took my wife out and we caught a bunch on surface flies. Then this morning... they still had the low water forecasted, but that didn't happen. Found out the Corps had dropped the White and Norfork due to an accident at Batesville where a vehicle had run into the river and the authorities were trying to recover the body and the truck. They did recover the truck and the body Sunday... RIP to the family. So to update... I went to Norfork Ackerman access this morning, which was scheduled to be down until noon and then about 9ish here comes the water... Fishing was good until the water came up with the a sulphur crackleback. Oh well no problem.. I saw the water coming up and yelled at a couple of guys on my way out to warn them. I guess tomorrow will be anybody's guess....

Best (and easiest) thing MDC could do is require barbless hooks in the special regulation area like they do here in Arkansas in the C&R areas. I have been checked by the Game Wardens in C&R areas multiple times and that is the first thing they want to look at. I see lots of nice trout with big scars from folks ripping out a jerkbait with 2 or 3 treble barbed hooks.

Good looking fly. But I have better luck with lightly weighted soft hackles. I try to tie them with just a bit of lead that puts them in the surface film.

Here are a couple of pics from the White river that support Phil's comments on the use of Bogas. BTW those are 2 different trout. First one was around 20" and probably only weighed a pound and a half.

Fished the C&R area this morning and had a good morning. Caught some nice rainbows and a couple of cutthroats. Best fly was the sulphur crackleback. Had a run in with a couple of idiots that went all the way up to the dam in the Restricted area and anchored and looked to be bait fishing. Then their anchor broke loose and they didn't realize it. I had to yell at them when they were 10 feet from hitting my boat and weren't looking downstream. Oh well, lots of idiots out there, guess they come out after the weekend. Here is one of the better rainbows at 21"...

I had a group of about a dozen Blue Wings buzz me this morning while wading on the White near Cotter. Other than that, just the usual pet Canadian geese crapping in everyone's yard.

Sorry to hear about the drowning. Prayers for the family. I woke up and looked out the window to see low water at Roundhouse and then checked the flow at the dam and it showed zero.. Threw the wading gear in the truck and had a fantastic morning. Caught probably 60 rainbows and one nice cutthroat. All fish caught on dry flies and cracklebacks. I noticed the water kept getting lower and the lower it got, the better the fishing, but I had to move to the deeper runs. Never seen it this low in the 4 years we have been here. No big ones, but lots of fun. I didn't see any stranded trout, but did see some dead or dying sculpins on the bank. I guess the herons and eagles had a good breakfast this morning.

Or maybe.. "Here, hold my beer" hooksets???

Bull Shoals White River State Park has the best wading access on low water and is the nicest campground on the river. Also Denton Ferry RV park has good wading access on low water.

You will be fine with that boat with the current flows, but no so fine if we start getting lower water. I heard they are predicting lower flows starting around the end of September. But then again minimum flow is great for wading at all the accesses.

When I was pulling my boat out at the BS Dam ramp on the White river around 11 am this morning a guy drove down and dumped a very nice limit of Walleye carcasses. He said he caught them trolling on the lower lake. They all looked to be around 20". Must be some good fishing up there. The crawfish found them pretty fast... And a very nice dinner for him.