Just a FYI on where everyone is going to be at.
Brandon Ray Ray and Daryk are at Buffalo
Blake is at Buffalo
Cody isn putting in at Buffalo at 230
Rob BrandonStl and I are going to BullShoals to fish below closed area.
Eric is at home cooking our dinner.
We're in the house next to Cedar Gables,
Lots of snacks and food so help yourself whoever is coming down if nobody is there.
Saw Ham and Eric at Wildcat and wade fished for a bit this morning. They were generating at Norfork so we took advantage.
Hope in the boat with Cody and 2nd cast hooked a nice 20in Cutt. I still had 2lb line on so it was a nervous ordeal, but Cody put the net to him first shot.
We finished the day wade fishing at buffalo and I picked up some bows but all small. All the guys caught fish today though so mission accomplished
So 4 of us are on schedule to be at wildcat at 830 to see Eric and Ham.
FMCBrandon ran into some trouble and had a flat on his trailer. So he stopped to get 2 new tires in polar bluff so he's now gonna get there around 11.
So just an update we won't be coming down tonight. Rob had a late job so we called an audible.
I believe our new plan is leave at 4AM and meet up at Eric's to figure out a game plan for fishing.
There's 5 of us coming down tomorrow.
FMCBrandon and his boat
BrandonSTL
BigHandsRob
Ray Ray
And Me
So I think we'll just need some guidance on what's going to be navigable. Leave it to the Corp to change things up on us while we were close to having a plan lol.
I'm still learning flows and what it all means down there so may be some pointers on where it's safe to wade too
My crew is bringing a smaller fryer and some oil. Can't have jig fest without a fish fry lol. We can cook them up as appetizers.
Ray Ray is also bringing a big crock pot of his zuppa tuscana soup which we can eat off of any day.
Apparently you've never lived until you go shoal hopping with Doty or Cody... gotta live a little.
Hey at least I won't be a scared little sissy like when we were crossing 70k cfs waters with questionable engines 😆
I'll take a nice relaxing walk in the water versus the white water rafting!
I think @BigHandsRobis gonna bring his fryer. I lost a bunch of fish when my garage freezer was left open, but I'll see what I got, and bring what I have.
I was going to do up some deer burgers for Thursday night, I'll just go ahead and double my batch and we can throw on the grill if we need some more. Rays making a huge pot of zuppa tuscana too which we'll have for whatever day we want to warm it up on. It's better than olive gardens lol.
I'm sure we'll get by on food... I'm more bummed about missing @LittleRedFisherman but family first always
I asked Ray about bringing his fryer too if we still want to fish fry. Seems weird to not have a fry lol
I have 2 extra pair of waders, one set is stocking foot in XL and I have an extra set of size 12 boots. The other set are neoprene and they are funky as they've had about a dozen diff dudes wear them, also in a size 12 rubber boot. I can bring them if anyone needs to borrow a pair vs buying.
That would be an incredible day of you could pull it off. I've got the brown rainbow and both Cutts in a day, but never a brook or a tiger. I'd like to just catch a brook and a tiger much less in the same day lol. Nice job, we might be looking to you for some serious guidance next week with boat fishing looking less and less promising with no flow.
https://wachternets.com/
They make a rubber bag version, but it's not as deep so I stayed with the tight mesh. Figure if it's worth putting in net, it's worth digging hooks out lol.
As John stated the Basspro nets we have are really deep too and make landing fish a breeze.
Jeff one of my guys Kevin is going to not make it. Here's my updated official list for me and my gang.
Me D.J. JestersHK
Brandon FMC Brandon
Rob BigHandsRob
Brandon BrandonSTL
Ray RayRay
Geno is a GameDay decision based on his dads health, but he'll sleep in his truck or wherever we can stick him if we have room, or may just do a turn and burn, but he didn't want to commit and then have to back out.
Eric my guide net is just deeper than almost any net I've used. I'll have it with me next week so you can check it out. They're still made, but pricey, but I won't put anything less than a 2 footer in it. It's built for the bigguns. It's light weight though so I don't mind carrying both at night. I'll never be in that situation again lol