Sam

I just added up the populations of Greene, Christian, Stone, and Taney counties and it comes to well over half a million people. That's not counting folks in the White River basin west of Stone County, or those in the areas of Arkansas that drain into our lakes. Every one of those people are using the indoor plumbing daily and most of them are taking care of lawns. Then at Long Creek the other day I noticed a herd of cows wading - you know what cows do a lot of. Rain washes across all those cow pastures and into the water, and the cattle are there because of human activity too. The DNR says it's SNOW putting nutrients into the water, huh? Well, maybe it does some. How do you get one of those government jobs?

I caught a couple of 14" bass while trying to crappie fish in the Long Creek arm the other day. They both had multiple hook-holes in their lips, and I counted EIGHT holes in one fish. Wow, you bass guys are working those young'uns over good, huh? You could attach tags and leave notes for each other. That's one thing about crappie - the first time a 10"+ one gets caught is the last time he gets caught, 'cause his next stop is next to the fried 'taters.

I saw only one post by Phil, in a thread here somewhere, where he announced that the orange Ozarks Anglers stickers came in and have been added to his tackle store inventory. They're $3 a pair or $5 for two pairs, postage included. I've got a sticker on each side of my outboard motor now, and one on the back window of my pickup - I hope to start meeting some of you guys at the lakes. Then motoman said he'd been looking and didn't know the stickers were available. I haven't talked with Phil, but I suspect he's not posting about it much because he doesn't want it to seem like Shameless Commerce on this Forum. I've got no such problem myself, and the truth is that Phil ordered these because we asked for them and now he's offering them at a low price to cover his costs. Good job, Phil! Here's the link: http://www.lilleystacklestore.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16939&cat=280&page=1

Well yeah, ya gotta know people and have some influence in this outfit to get stickers. No, Phil announced somewhere around here that's he's added the orange stickers to his store inventory, and I had him send some of his Original Swimming Minnows while we were at it. I just gave Lilley's Tackle Store a call and the post office got the order to Ozark in one day. Here's the link to the stickers: http://www.lilleystacklestore.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16939&cat=280&page=1

The slime is a type of algae, and like any other plant it grows real good when it gets fertilizer. With the huge population growth in this area and all the septic tanks, sewage treatment plants, lawns, golf courses, etc. that drain into these lakes, it's a wonder they've been able to keep them as clean as they are. It's no surprise that they're getting more nutrients than they used to, though.

I put in at Gage's and fished toward Long Creek today. The crappie aren't biting yet. Water temp was 53 in the main lake and 59 up past the highway bridge in Long Creek. The cold wind made it pretty miserable and hard to fish - there were a lot of places I'd like to have tried but didn't because of the wind and waves. We worked hard with a swimming minnow and got a total of two 14" bass, four crappie (only one keeper), and four good-size perch. We didn't try very hard for white bass and didn't find any. With the water temp still in the 50's, I've got to think it's still a little early for the crappie spawn. I got home to find that my Ozark Anglers orange stickers had arrived in the mail, and I put one on each side of my outboard motor and one on the back window of my truck. I'm recognizable now!

That's right, but I haven't been so much looking hard for crappie as I've been sidetracked by white bass. When something's biting, I hate to leave fish to try and find fish. I think it's getting about time for good crappie fishing in the Long Creek arm. If not up in the creeks and on the banks yet, then they oughta be in the staging areas - off rocky banks just outside coves and creek arms and suspended in the middle of cove entrances. I plan to put in at Gage's tomorrow and work my way toward Cricket and Long Creeks. Maybe I'll find crappie on the way, or maybe I'll end up pestering the white bass again. We'll see.

Never mind those big green sunfish - are you guys seeing anyone catching crappie on the Long Creek arm? They oughta be, it's time - and I've got a trip there planned for Thursday. OK, I'll throw a bass rod in - just in case the crappie aren't biting.

We stayed at a campground and marina in Oregon once where there was a narrow channel with a 5 mph speed limit posted. The owner had a big slingshot rigged up between two trees, and he'd lob water balloons at boats tearing through there at full speed. I fired a few water balloons with it (not at boats) and that was fun - they'd go about 100 yards. Like you say, though, in this day and age you'd probably get return fire for doing that.

It may not be pollution or anything too bad. I was up Beaver Creek the other day, and with the rising water there were so many leaves and sticks floating you could hardly fish in places. Some of that junk is bound to be from walnut trees. When I was a kid, my grandpa showed me how to put green walnuts in a gunny sack, pound them up, weigh the sack down with a couple of rocks, and sink it in the current flowing into a pool in a creek. Pretty soon, the fish in that pool come floating up, stunned. That'd be an illegal fishing method and I never saw it work except on little fish, but I guess that's the way the Indians did it. I don't remember the name of the chemical in walnut, but it's in the leaves, husks and all parts of the tree. I think fish recover if they can get away from it, and the small stunned crappie you saw may have just been in a spot with some walnut trash floating in it. You probably saved them from a hungry heron by chasing them out of there.

Phil, I just looked at it on Google Earth and if you keep going east on MM it makes a turn to the right and becomes Deer Lane. Go south on that, then turn left on Mission Lane to the ramp. It's interesting to look at that part of Bull Shoals on Google Earth because their pictures were taken when the water was very low. You can see a lot of features that are normally underwater, including all the sandbar whoop-de-dos around K Dock. I'm pretty sure the new ramp is public, and I'm real sure it's meant for high water. Last fall when they were building it the water was at normal 653' level, I scoped the area around the ramp, and there really wasn't enough water to launch. The new ramp goes straight up the hill, though, and it'll be usable no matter how high the water gets.

Phil, at 660-663 K Dock is still OK to launch. The water will be up to the top of the ramp, the parking lot shrinks a bit and the low road will be underwater, but use the high road and there's still room to park. K Dock becomes just about impossible from about 666-671. The parking lot goes underwater and the low road is too flat to launch off of. But when the lake gets up to 673 or so there's an easy place to launch in that dip where the little creek crosses the low road - where the low road and the high road split. I've had some great trips out of there when the water was at about 673, and there's parking for several rigs on that corner. I haven't used the new ramp at the end of MM yet, and since the long-term plan is supposed to raise the permanent water level on Bull Shoals, I think they built the new one as a replacement for the K Dock ramp. From the water, it's just across from and a little below Snapp Holler, and the way it's built you could launch there no matter how high the water gets. Someone here said loose rocks were used to build the approach and 4WD is needed, but I haven't tried it. To get there, turn east on MM a couple miles north of the Hwy. K turn-off and follow it to the end. MM is the intersection where that big convenience store is on the SE corner.

We limited out near Slough Hollow yesterday on white swimming minnows on a 1/8 oz. jig head. I only caught one white bass down on lower Beaver, so headed up. Trolling and slow-trolling were real hard because of all the floating sticks and leaves, and the bite is far from general anyway - you can't catch them just anywhere in Beaver. We finally found one little pocket in 10 feet of water, about the size of a one-car garage, beside a small point with flooded bushes on it. We caught two limits out of there, working the jig slow as the fish were right on the bottom. Throw in any other direction but that one spot and you wouldn't get a bite. Water temp was 53.

I'll be looking out for you. I'll be in the Tracker with a Suzuki motor - probably the only one containing a blonde teenage girl since it's a school day (this week is Easter vacation in CA).

Yep, that's what I've always heard called Maiden Hole. I'm going tomorrow too. I've got an 18 y.o. granddaughter visiting from CA and she's never caught a white bass - we'll see if we can fix that. I may end up at Slough Hollow or above, but I'm going to try not to. I've got a different idea - I'll just put in at Beaver marina and work my way upstream, trolling, slow-trolling, and casting Roostertails and swimming minnows. White bass come up rivers in different bunches, and if there's a bunch up above there's probably other bunches still coming up from the lake. I like to find my own fish if possible and besides, I know some crappie holes extraordinaires on the way up Beaver that just might be working.

"Fish are clear above Hootn Town now back in white bass mode... went this evening at TeaTables and caught 13 studs and a 24" walleye." -------------------------- Yeah, that's got me confused. I know your spoonbills are coming out of James, but the Tea Tables are on Beaver Creek. At which place are you saying you caught those white bass?

Here in Ozark, I noticed the Finley was high but clear this morning. This afternoon it was higher and real muddy. That takes a while to get down to the lakes, but it's coming. More rain predicted for tomorrow night, too.

On Wednesday, before this last rain, the water was pretty muddy and surface temp was 51 at Bridgeport on James. Up at Ashercane it was 53 and the water was stained but not muddy. We caught a few white bass, mostly females, and some real short crappie - it was slow. I'd say yesterday's rain didn't help anything, but a few warm dry days now will really get things going.

When I'm onto something good, fishing, I spend a lot of time keeping my rod tip down, bringing in fish on the other side of the boat, waiting to cast until a boat passes, looking at the sky - nope, nothing going on here. I think I'll be inclined to share what I know with other O.A.F. fishermen once I can recognize who they are, and I hope that'll work both ways.

That's great, Phil. I'll put a set of Ozark Anglers stickers on my motor as soon as they're available. I'll get an extra set so I can put a sticker on the back window of my pickup - when you arrive at the ramp, you'll know I'm lurking out there somewhere!

Nah, you forgot about the discussion of secret recognition signs last time. You stand on one foot, I'll stand on the other, then we both whistle "Yankee Doodle" and throw our ball caps in the air. Seriously, I'd like to see an O.A.F. marker for our boats so we can recognize each other. I think vinyl (so they'll peel off) stickers on our outboard motor cowlings would be best. We've all got outboards, they stick up above the water, and they're visible even when a trolling motor is laying on the deck or a fishing seat isn't up. Color? I'm always amazed at how well flourescent hunter orange shows up. Maybe Phil would want to get some weatherproof orange vinyl stickers printed up with "Ozark Anglers" and make them available for a couple bucks each - enough to pay him back for his trouble. I'd sure put one on my rig. edited to add: I'm thinking about something small, it wouldn't need to be big and gaudy. If stickers are hunter orange, a round dot about 1 1/2" in diameter on each side of the motor could be seen a LONG way off.

Never mind the slicks - has anyone found suckers in Roark or Bull Creek yet?

Upstream - a lot. From Cape Fair going up there's Virgin Bluff, then the highway bridge at Bridgeport where I put in. Going on upstream, there's where Flat Creek comes in (Point 15, I think), Ashercane is maybe 3 miles above that, then Long Camp, McCord Bend, Galena Park, then Blunk Hole at the sharp turn in the river. I'm not good at estimating distance by water, but I guess Blunk is maybe 12 miles up James from Cape Fair.

I put in at Bridgeport mid-morning and fished my way up to the top of Asher Cane Bottom. Down near Bridgeport, water temp was 50 and I scoped lots of crappie in some usual places but couldn't get them to bite. Up at Asher Cane I started out by catching 3 crappie and C/R a 14" bass. One of the crappie was short, but the other two were 11" and 14". Water temp at Asher was 53 and I spent the afternoon casting and slow-trolling a white swimming minnow on a 1/8 oz. jig head. I caught 11 white bass and could have finished a limit if I'd stayed later - I quit about 5 p.m. Fishing, in the middle of the day, was slow - but they're in there. Lots and lots of boats, both white bass fishermen and spoonbillers. Spoonbill snagging seemed slow too, I saw several boats with one spoonbill but most with none, and none with more than one. There were so many boats it was hard to get between them, and like always some guys go full speed right between boats that are fishing. I took wakes over the front deck three times, and the rest of the day I just got bounced around a lot.

I don't know if they're the best or not, but I've been running Delco Voyager batteries for many years and I've been real happy with them. Originally I got them at K Mart, but Bumper to Bumper Auto Parts carries them now. They last me 4 or 5 years, and that's a lot of fishing trips.