netboy

And some fantastic seafood cuisine.

We had a great redfish fishery on the Laguna Madre but I did take a self guided redfish trip to Venice La it was pretty darn good. Good luck, but you probably will not need it down there. Send pics and report.

Just to clarify... this is for a bay (inshore) trip. Offshore trips are much more expensive especially in Texas since they have to travel a long way to hit deep water.

Guides are pretty expensive on the Texas coast. They average around $600 a day for a party of 4.

We lived on the Laguna Madre near Corpus Christi for 17 years. We had a house on a canal with a boat lift and yes, saltwater is hard on equipment. But with regular maintenance it is not a problem. I had a 20 foot shallow water flats boat with a Suzuki 140 fourstroke that I bought when we moved down there and it was still running great when we moved up here a couple of years ago. It had over 5k hours on it. I fished or duck hunted 4 or 5 days per week. As previously said you need to hose off your rods and reels after use and I would flush the motor once a week. .

I saw them filming that episode last year. He was with Donald Cranor and they had another boat with the film crew. They were fishing the side channel just above the railroad bridge near Cotter. It was a HIGH water day.

Here is a report on the AGFC meeting about the Spring River trout management plan that was held Monday (courtesy of Mark Crawford's blog). May be some good things in the future. https://www.springriverfliesandguides.com/blog

I use warm water with a few drops of Dawn detergent and then treat it with Mucilin green once it is dry.

Cold day on the Spring river.

May be a better plan to rent a canoe from one of the many outfitters and do an overnight camping trip. The North Fork of the White and the Eleven Point river have good outfitters that will set you up on a great trip.

For my fly leaders I use a nail knot for the leader to fly line knot and then a small tippet ring for the leader to tippet connection with a simple clinch knot on each end.

I haven't heard of any HP restrictions being discussed by AGFC. AGFC updated their Trout Management Plan for the Bull Shoals tailwater in 2017 and there was nothing in that plan about horsepower restrictions.

They reduced the flows a bit today on the White and I was able to get out for some backyard wade fishing. There are still trout on redds and lots of fish holding below the redds waiting on eggs. Always fun fishing when you can sight cast to waiting fish. The Y2K was best today and also caught some using an olive mop fly. Lots of stockers and a few better ones. Here's a pic of a long skinny brown (he was about 20" and probably didn't weigh 2 lbs) and the second one is a nice male rainbow guarding a redd.

Great to see you getting the kids out there. They will remember that day.

First off, don't keep fresh stockers. Keep the bigger ones that have good colors from eating natural foods. Fillet them, leave skin on, and then soak in a brine solution of canning and pickling salt, brown sugar, soy sauce and a bit of hot sauce overnight. Start the smoker and smoke over low heat for about an hour. Tastes just like smoked salmon (which BTW is about $20/lb).

I fished a small side channel this morning that is normally dry land under normal flows. There were quite a few trout holding in this run and I caught a bunch of rainbows, 2 cutties and 1 brown. I was using a Y2K under an indicator. Here are a couple of the better rainbows. Also made a trip to the Norfork Friday afternoon and had good fishing. Norfork lake is finally out of flood pool and they are back to minimum flow in the afternoons. The water at Ackerman Access is still backed up from the White and a bit high up to the first island upstream but good above that.

You can still wade across most of the way from the access downstream to the island. It does get a bit too deep at the lower end of the island though.

Yes I have crossed it at the access point that is about 50 yards upstream of the end of the island. It gets a little too deep right at the end on the island.

Here's a couple more pics from today. They will use the walkway span to cross the creek once they build up the edges with rock.

Our local White River Trout Unlimited chapter is currently working with AGFC to develop a walking trail that will extend about a mile downstream from the Rim Shoals walk in access parking lot. Big thanks to Gary Flippin of Rim Shoals Resort for moving this forward. Here is the history of the project and a few pics of the progress... https://www.whiterivertu.com/rim-shoals-walking-trail.html

Oh my, I spent 2 years down there working on a project. Enjoy a few Caribs, along with the local roti and a double for lunch. Not to mention the Angostura Old Oak rum. Also some of Richard's bake and shark at Maracas bay. Great tarpon fishing on the Atlantic side.

Looks like a great trip guys. Those are some nice ones Hopefully we will see some minimum flow on Norfork this week as the lake is almost back to power pool.

It is my understanding that the opening for spillway releases is well below the surface of the lake so the water doesn't go over the top of the spillway. Here is a diagram of a typical spillway.

I think there is probably more than 4k coming thru the spill gates. I pay more attention to the river level at the dam than the spillway estimates. That said the river level is roughly 1 foot lower this morning than yesterday morning. That is about 8.5 feet higher than minimum flow which is 450.4.

I received this email from Christy Graham (AGFC Trout management Supervisor) about developing a management plan for the Spring river trout fishery. If you are not familiar with the Spring, it is a freestone river fed by Mammoth Spring and is a great alternative when they are running big water on the White river tailwaters. If you are unable to attend the meeting you can email Christy your suggestions. Her email info is at the bottom of the note. I suggested the creation of a catch and release area and additional public access. Hello All, Although the primary purpose of this distribution list is to share information about Bull Shoals and Norfork Tailwaters, I know many of you frequent other trout fisheries in the state, as well. Therefore, I thought I would pass along this information about our upcoming public input meeting in Mammoth Spring, which will aid us in development of the first ever trout management plan for the Spring River. If you are interested, the article below provides details on what time and where the meeting will take place on December 16th. If you are interested in the Spring River Trout fishery and unable to attend the meeting, please feel free to email me your input about the fishery so that it can be incorporated into the management plan process. Additionally, I know a lot of you are aware, but the Corps of Engineers is currently conducting spillway releases at both Bull Shoals and Norfork Dams. Norfork's combined spillway and hydropower release is approximately 9,600 cfs, while Bull Shoals combined release is approximately 15,100 cfs. It is my understanding that they plan to maintain those releases until flood storage is evacuated from the upper White River lakes. If you have any questions about either of these topics, please let me know. Thanks, Christy Public invited to speak up about Spring River trout fishery MAMMOTH SPRING — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will host a special public meeting at the Mammoth Spring School Complex from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Dec. 16 to gather public input on a trout management plan specific to Spring River. The Complex is at 410 Goldsmith Ave. in Mammoth Spring. Although the Spring River is a popular trout-fishing destination and is home to the AGFC’s Jim Hinkle Spring River Hatchery, this is the first formal trout management plan ever developed for the fishery including public input. “We are asking anglers and the general public to come out and join us in this effort,” said Christy Graham, trout management supervisor for the AGFC. “We want to hear from stakeholders about things they like and don’t like about trout management on the river. Whether it’s habitat management activities, stocking schedules, access or increased education on the fishery they want to speak about, we want to hear from them.” Graham says the location and makeup of the Spring River make it a real treasure to many Arkansas anglers. The White and Little Red rivers may receive much of the accolades in Arkansas’s trout fishing world, but the Spring is an extremely important and popular fishery as well. “The combination of trout fishing and floating in the cool water make it a destination for many anglers in northeast Arkansas, and it attracts many out-of-state anglers as well,” Graham said. “We want to make sure this gem remains at the top of the list when it comes to angling destinations in Arkansas, and the public can help make that happen.” Graham says the planning process will call for another public meeting in January, but anyone with an interest in the river’s management regarding trout should make plans to attend both meetings and be a part of the entire process. Unlike most of Arkansas’s other trout fisheries, which were created by cold-water discharges from large manmade reservoirs, the Spring River’s trout water along the Missouri/Arkansas state line is created naturally from Mammoth Spring. The spring releases roughly 9 million gallons of water per hour, all of which is between 58 and 62 degrees. The output forms a 10-acre lake, then feeds the river and supports a trout fishery for roughly 12 miles downstream. The river receives monthly stockings of rainbow trout as well as an annual stocking of brown trout for anglers to pursue. Progress of the management plan will be posted on www.agfc.com throughout the process. For more information, contact Graham at 877-425-7577. -- Christy Graham Trout Management Program | Supervisor E-mail: Christy.Graham@agfc.ar.gov | P: (870) 424-5924 | M: (870) 404-0477 Arkansas Game and Fish Commission 201 East 5th Street | Mountain Home, AR | 72653 O: (877) 425-7577 | F: (870) 425-6596