Johnsfolly

Last week I got to break away from work and head down to Mountain Home Arkansas to fish with Ham and my daughter. You would think that heading down that way we were sure to be fishing for big trout on either the Norfork or White Rivers or stripers in Lake Norfork. Nope! We were going to go for multispecies and to get some new micros on the list. If we are to hook into a big trout that's just gravy! Livie and I got down and met with Ham and got all of our gear transferred to his truck and down to the White. We were going to fish sloughs or tributaries and used the White as our access to those waters. We started fishing one slough right away. Ham was fishing his Zig jigs and Olivia had on a trout magnet microjig. Ham had the first bite, a rainbow that did not get landed. Then both he and Livie hooked up on small largemouth bass a little further up the slough. It was at that point that the trash talking began! With most of it directed at me since I hadn't even finished rigging my rod. It continued when I decided to just go with a 1/64 oz jig with a piece of worm to just catch a few bluegill while they were both at three species a piece, largemouth, longear sunfish, and bluegill. Due to shallow water and no new species being caught Ham moved us back towards the mouth of the slough. I finally caught a small Largemouth on a green/black trout magnet jig. Livie switched to a 1/16 oz olive/black marabou jig and was having trouble feeling the bait. She did get a trout to bite, but it came unbuttoned soon after the strike. Just caught a glimpse of it. Could have been either a brown or a vividly colored rainbow. So I am still behind on the species total with just two. I couldn't even get a longear to sniff my baits . I had just switched to a 1.8 oz tri-olive zig jig, when Ham mentioned that he had a hit right at the lower edge of the confluence. I cast into that seam just below the point and got bit soon after I started my cadence. I knew from the fight that it was likely a trout and couldn't tell if the pull was from the size of the fish or the current. Once we got a good look at the fish it was pretty obvious that the pull was more due to the size of the fish. My third species was this 19" brown trout ! I would love to say that I caught more trout, but this would be the only one that I would catch on the whole trip. If you are going to only catch one, it was a pretty nice "one" to catch! We left that spot and ended going upstream in another tributary. We went from a cold water to a warm water fishery real quick. We were seeing some carp cruising. Ham sight casted and caught the first carp using an unweighted circle hook with a worm. He also caught several smallmouth bass with that same set-up. The surprise came after we were just discussing whether you could and how unlikely it would be to catch a catfish in this stream, which was almost immediately followed by Ham catching a channel catfish. We fished a couple more spots without catching any more carp. One spot we had seen a larger carp and another smaller one. I was able to sight cast to the smaller carp with the circle hook/worm combo. As I set the hook, Livie got bit by the bigger carp. We had a double. Here is my carp and you can see that Livie was still fighting hers behind me. Unfortunately, that fish had one last surge and popped the line at the hook just as I was moving the line to get the fish netted. Since I had “leader” I was considering that fish (ca. 24” and 5 lbs) to be a caught fish and it went onto to Livie’s species total as her first carp. After that double we moved up into cleaner and shallower water to wade fish for micros. As soon as I looked over the side of the boat, I immediately recognized whitetail shiners swimming around us. I mentioned these shiners to Ham. OK maybe I might have squealed like a teenage girl a little bit. When I fished with Ham last summer I was looking for this species and we never found any. Livie got out of the boat and was the first to land a whitetail shiner! Then I caught a larger male shiner, my first for this species! Ham wanted to catch one too but ended up with this small smallmouth bass! He did catch a whitetail shiner soon after landing this bass. When we were all wading there was lot of “have you got the bag” or “what is this one” or “look at these guys” as we were fishing different parts of the creek. Lots of whitetail shiners, duskystripe shiners, carmine shiners, and a few darters (with at least one or two greenside darters) were seen and many were caught before we had to head out. There were many cries of dismay as one of us landed yet another longear sunfish while trying for a different fish (this would be a recurring situation). On the way back downstream we spotted a couple more cruising carp, no takes but stopped next to a fallen treetop that was swarming with fry. Ham saw a few larger fish in the branches and he tried for those while Livie and I looked for more carp (still trying to get her a photo of a landed carp). We never got onto any more carp, but Ham did land a couple of redear sunfish. Ham ended up with ten different species and I believe three new life list species, whitetail shiner, duskystripe shiner, and carmine shiner. Livie ended up with six different species and three new lifers, common carp, whitetail shiner, and duskystripe shiner. I ended up with seven species, including the whitetail shiner which was my new life list fish on this trip. Had a great time and was already looking forward to the next day.

Trelissing a volunteer redbud is not gardening! Calling foul on this one!

We haven't really been fall gardeners. Besides lettuce, spinach, radishes and maybe turnips, what other vegetables would be good candidates? What about broccoli? Has anyone tried broccoli rabe (Rapini?)?

Blazerman - there are just some things that are the right thing to do no matter if it is legal or not. Your story was just one of those "right" things to do. Glad to hear that this was also a legal thing to do as well. Thanks for taking the time to clear the waterway and for posting.

You guys do a great job on these baits! I would almost hate to ever use some of these guys. Someday I might get sophisticated in my hand painting. Really crude compared to what you guys have been doing.

I know that this must be unexpected from a guy like myself that likes to catch a variety of species, but Al has covered my concerns. I would not be an advocate of adding additional species of trout to Taneycomo. I also am not a big advocate of introduction of the triploid browns. I know that they are already in the lake and probably would enjoy catching a double digit brown that would likely be a triploid. I would prefer to not keep messing with these ecosystems.

Mitch that's a beautiful veil and shawl that you are wearing☺!

BH don't tell us that the Mrs needs to get you one of those special helmets to keep you safe☺!

Very nice bumch of bass! Congrats on figuring them out!

That's a great looking crappie! Love the pattern.

I was/am really proud of her on this trip. She ended up catching 6 more brook trout than I have in my lifetime☺! She beat herself up a bit for missing fish and not catching a bigger brown trout. She did great in my opinion. Well worth getting down to Norfork.

We planted cukes late and are still getting some small ones. Peppers still producing a couple at a time. Most everything else is dying back or done producing.

laker67 glad you got out and were successful on trout prior to and during the eclipse. Great job! You should remember where You were when there was the last total eclipse in the US☺!

Still sounds like you had a great trip. Much better than having to work! Always good to catch some 3+lb fish. Thanks for posting.

The cicadas went nuts here as well. Our chickens did not know what to do. The hummingbirds even stopped chasing each other around and stopped chittering for at least the two minutes of Totality. I have seen partial eclipses before, but this one was spectacular seeing a total eclipse! I agree about the weird light.

With bass I prefer beer battered onion rings! Put some cajun spice in the flour or bread crumbs on the fish and you got a fine meal!

Sounds like you had a great time! Panfishing farm ponds is a close second on my favorite places to fish. Just behind small creeks with loads of smallmouth, largemouth, and rock bass or hungry trout! Also a great fish fry! Small ponds need selective harvest or else you get stunted fish. Though I do prefer to keep the 10 to 11.75" if there is a slot or up to 14" if no slot for eating purposes.

Should it be Barefoot CantNessa! Well you know that he won't be prancing barefoot around on that deck☺!

Feel free to pass these along Daryk☺! Livie keeps firing more at me every day. I have to show some restraint, but I feel that the dam may break.... Soon.

Sounds like a great time of fishing! not overly complicated. Just react to what the fish want and how they want the bait. Then just reel them in!

First off that type of research would have to be done by paying biologists and we wouldn't want that☺! Hatchery fish particularly salmon in many states get the adipose fin clipped so that fisherman can tell the hatchery fish from wild caught fish. There may be anecdotal observations of these hatchery fish not being able to find their "home" waters. That may have more to do with them living in confinement part of their lives in poor or nondescript water sources and that they would not be able to imprint on that water source to allow them to travel back to that sources location. Besides the Sampson effect that BH experiences☺ I doubt that losing that little fatty fin affects the fish ar all.

Tonight was what to make with chicken breasts and zucchini. Decided to go asian. Thinly sliced chicken across the grain. Added chicken to a bowl then added cornstarch, black bean paste, granulated garlic, five spice, soy sauce, chinese vinegar, and ginger. Mixed and let sit. Thinly sliced the zucchini and green peppers. Cooked the chicken on med high heat until brown and put aside. Added little oil to pan and stir fried the vegetables. Then added back the chicken. Seasoned with S&P, little more soy sauce and sesame oil. Served with basmati rice. I added red pepper flakes to kick up the heat a little.

I would definitely be interested. Just never know for sure when I will be back out East for another extended stay for work.

No laughing here BH! Thanks for sharing these photos as well. It is a shame that sites like that cannot get adequate protection. Like many other guys I've enjoyed your trip report. I hope that you two continue to have many more of these trips together. Thanks for taking us along.