Stein

Since I bought my second home in Arkansas on Bull Shoals I wanted a Ozarks-sytle flat bottom boat for trout fishing the White River. I'm going to buy a proper boat with a 40hp jet motor when I semi-retire in four years but I wanted something I could use in the meantime without having a brand new boat languishing in the garage, used half a dozen times a year. I found plans for Jim Michalak's Ozarkian and jumped in. It's an inexpensively built boat designed to float the rivers without power. Kyle from www.longboatoutfitters.com has a couple but he uses his as designed, just drifting and steering with a paddle while fishing. It's 20' long and as designed 34" wide. I emailed Jim about a couple of changes and he approved. I added 6" to the width of the sole and increased the thickness of the transom to accommodate a 4 hp motor so I can drift down while fishing and then motor back to the boat ramp to avoid having to position another vehicle at the takeout ramp downstream which is inconvenient at best and difficult when I am solo without hiring a service. It's being built with lumber yard BCX sanded plywood and will be epoxy coated and then painted inside and out with premium latex house paint. I started it last week and hope to finish by the end of May for my next trip down the first of June. I got all of the frames fitted and it is now apart getting epoxy coated. The bottom will be glassed and sealed with graphite-filled epoxy.

Nothing noteworthy for us. Couple of small ones on the one topwater bite we had in the AM and one 17" fish one evening. One guy in the group caught a 15 lb'er and another one almost 12 lbs. That's about all I heard for big fish. Dan had a couple smaller ones.

For us we only hit it one morning because we were on Norfork half of the trip and then hit the Norfork River for a day and the White for a day. We only fished BS Sunday morning. Caught some OK smallies and a couple LM, largest sm was 17.5. All on the gravel flats or shallow back bays.

The cumulative ability experience of an angler tends to put additional pressure on them. The bar is always higher when you have a certain expectation of what you SHOULD be catching. Remember way back when you and your buddy went bombing out in a 10 ft jon boat with one Ugly Stick and two bags of worms, some hooks and bullet weights? It was awesome regardless of the outcome. I only wish that we could experience that joy every time we went out.

Can't wait, going to be on Norfork this weekend after stripers but will chase bass during the day.

This is either the same or basically the same. I put one in my boat last year. https://www.batteriesplus.com/battery/marine-and-boat/deep-cycle/bci-group-31m/sli31agmdpm

Too early here. Normally "when the lilacs bloom" which is a solid month off yet but might be earlier this year.

Friday was tough sledding. Wife was in no rush to get to the lake so after a leisurely breakfast we got on the water around 9:30. Got about an hour in before the winds really picked up. Got a couple of short LM and a keeper smallie. Fished until noon but the wind wasn't worth battling. With the pending storm we worked around the house and I went and bought a trout boat trailer for the new boat that I'm building (new thread coming soon). Didn't fish in the afternoon. Saturday morning went much better. Hit the water at 7:15 and started hitting smallies on swimbaits in 5-10 feet. Picked up three 15-16" fish and a couple of shorts. All smallies. The swimbait bite died about 10:30 so moved out on the points to 20-30 ft.with jig/craw. Picked up another 16" fish and then a 19"er. Went in around noon. Back out at 4 and caught a couple shorts and another 15" smallie. Thus far my wife hadn't boated a fish todyay so we dove into a couple of shallow cuts and she finally connected on a short smallie. All Friday's fish were on main lake points from mile 6-8. My only non-smallie was a short LM in the cut. Otherwise all were small mouth, which surprised me. Not a spot in the bunch. Probably 10 fish today. Looking forward to getting back down for striper fishing in two weeks.

I just had an L5-S1 fusion in October. Best thing I ever did. All pain, numbness, tingling in legs and feet is gone completely. Don't discount the surgery out of hand.

His still has all claws. Said walking through the house in a bathrobe is now on the "do not attempt" list due to being treated as a large cat toy.

Actually Arkansas allows an individual to keep up to 6 bobcats without a permit. Surprised me as well.

Some of the best threads on BBC is the guy from Lamar AR that has a pet bobcat that lives in his house.

I spend a lot of time on BBC. Been on since 06, took a couple year layoff but been back for a while. It's like many forums, if you participate a lot it also becomes like family, albeit a large one. OA is the same feeling, but a smaller, more tight-knit family. Most large forums are ruled more strictly because they pretty much have to be. Too many posts/posters makes running herd on the group difficult. Mods have a truly thankless job no matter what forum and I respect them for that. Ketchup's ban seems unwarranted but I suspect with 100K members they ban more in a day than small forums do in a month or a year. They just don't have as much time to deliberate on each and every one like I assume happens here so more knee-jerk reactions happen. Not saying it's right but at least I understand how it can happen.

I went to Hodges Friday. They had one of the new 60" Topwaters. Dang, it's big. Too big actually. I can order one and it will be in my color in 3-4 weeks but in a 50". Working on the wife now... Donny said he rigs virtually all with 40hp Mercs. The 30 Yamaha will be more expensive. He also doesn't sell Yamaha any longer. Said he sells a 40 Merc a week on either a new boat or repower. I drove by BSBD, they had a Topwater and a couple of 207XP's but I'm going to go Topwater for sure. All things are pretty equal but the finish appears better on the Topwater. A new 50" with a 40 Merc is right around $15,500. The 60" is $1000 more. Basically $500 more for the boat and $500 more for the bigger (wider) trailer with blingy 18" wheels which I could easily live without.

We are a good four to five weeks away on the cool season stuff. We do plant two large gardens. Everything from the common stuff to broccoli and brussels sprouts. They are the easiest things to grow ever. Plant them and ignore. Throw some water on them in summer if really dry. They do well here. Generally 20-24 tomato plants. My wife cans a lot of tomatoes and beets, freezes corn, peas, and carrots. Beans, lettuce, cabbage, spinach and radishes are fresh only . The peas she freezes in the pod. They keep great and hull especially easy when thawed.

Still frozen up here in NE but I did get 100 garlic planted last fall. Plant Halloween, harvest 4th of July is the rule of thumb.

Good price but one thing you should be aware of is once gel coat is "dead" even if it is buffed it generally goes back to cloudy fairly quickly - like less than a season. My old Gambler was dead and would buff up very pretty but go back to cloudy in a few months. Just an FYI, that's all.

I know Charlie, he's a customer of mine. Nice fish!

As indicated in my email we are in for the 8th - 10th. Looking forward to it. I have house down there so won't need lodging. If another boat's worth of guys wants to stay at my place instead of lodging for that time period they are welcome - no charge of course. There are two of us in two rooms but have another room with twin beds. Plenty of place to park your rig without unhooking and a safe place to peave gear in the boat. I am just south of town of Bull Shoals so a little bit of a drive to Norfolk - maybe 30-40 minutes.

Sent you a PM.

You have a pic of yours and when is it going in for trade? 207XP?

Thanks for the insight fellas. I have a bit of time until spring so I'm still learning.

Buddy confirmed his schedule and we would like to join for the 8th - 10th.

OK, That's why I figured I'd reply here instead of email so it stays in front of people.

Decided I'm not going used and going to order a new trout boat this winter/spring. Stopped at BSBD Friday and looked at the units they had outside. Sad to see them with 4" of water frozen in the bottom of brand new boats. Do they discount the holdover units or would it be the same price to just order new? Saw the Top Water boats. I was not familiar with them but they looked to be a better fit and finish than the Shawnee and Supreme on the interior. Exterior glass finish looked very comparable. I'm completely open to brands. Would like opinions on which you would order if you had a blank piece of paper. Are they all pretty much the same and same price - just pick which you like best? Also leaning towards a jet unless someone can convince me the leaf sucking issue doesn't offset the skinny water capability. Saw they had some mercs and yamahas, both 30 and 40hp. Again, what would you choose? I think the 30 would be plenty adequate but don't know. On jets - Yamaha or Merc?