Mikey

Quite possibly. We have the boat we used on the white but I don't know if he plans on using it on the little red. Since it is a weekend trip I doubt he will be taking his camper..so maybe some tents and dragging the boat is a possibility. It's my understanding that the little red fishes pretty well from a boat tho...true?

Ok, so I'm not really blind..but I've never fished the little red so I'm blind when it comes to that. We're trying to plan maybe a weekend trip down there and I was wondering where some good access points are to try. I've kinda fooled around using google earth to get an idea of the lay of the land so to speak...but I just don't know where a few guys should go that may be eventful. We're not looking to catch lunkers (though I know that possibility exists there) We're just wanting to try a different river here in the state.. Typically we fish the white at bull shoals or the lower ill. I would appreciate any info given, truly. Mikey

I guess I've kinda got to assume since there hasn't been any new topics on this forum in 2 weeks that perhaps the fishing hasn't improved at all...still lookin at getting a chance to fish it before '09..just wondering when that might be. Been meaning to check out the watt's area since I know where it is now. Mikey

Is there by any chance some kind of a name or sign given to that road? I must have driven past it a dozen times and never knew it went to the river. Would like to try some place new if given a chance... Thanks again Mikey

Quick question to you guys. Where is the access to the Watts area? My buddy and I have fished below the dam a lot and have heard about other access points downstream besides MarVal, but have yet to come across them. It's too far to drive just to poke around... Mikey

A fella I work with went to MarVal on Wednesday I think...said he and a friend caught about 30 a piece in 3 or so hours. He did say the water is still too high to wade and very muddy. It's not as high as it has been though... He let me know they used their spinning rigs and drifted some power bait with enough weight to get it down low. The big catch of the day was an 18 inch bow...I would expect some nicer fish taken when the water release lowers...as they haven't been fished/harvest6ed at all in the past few months. Not to mention lots of food coming through the dam. Mikey

SIO, Thanks for the safety reminder. I have been to the white twice before, once in Feb 07 so I definitely know how periods of heavy gen can be. We have chosen sites specifically with location and distance from water in mind. I'm sure there's no such thing as too far away when it comes to wee ones but I feel we've done the best we could. I know I will have my hands full keeping tabs on all four of my little angels (wife is included in that one). Thankful;ly, she will be able to help with the rascal wrangling. Mikey

John, Was that gorgeous trout taken from the white or norfork? Very classy photo with great color and composition. I just might have found my new desktop. Mikey

I appreciate the optimistic outlook, cotterboy. With my trip planned for next week, hopefully someone at the power station will sit on the off switch for a few days. A man can only fish from the bank at the spring for so long until his bottom gets sore from rockbooty. I hope it's good fishing..I promised my wife she'll catch her first trout on this trip. If she gets skunked it may be difficult to get another pass to make the 4 hour trip to go! Mikey

Thanks fellas. I will probably be taking the boy with his spinning gear...not sure I want to turn him loose on the fly rod. He hasn't even got it wet yet...but who knows. I might get up there and change my tune. I'll try and get pics for you guys when I return next weekend. Mikey

I will be on the white next week and plan on making a trip to the Norfork. I was wondering about Dry Run for my son. I had fished at the Norfork Feb last year (lotsa water) and saw a bridge near a sign for dry run creek. I can only assume that is the spot...but the bridge was gated and chained shut. Was just wondering if I was in the right spot. We were at the parking lot/ramp right at the bottom of the Dam. Do we go further up to get in or did we just show up at a bad time...? Thanks, Mikey

Cotterboy, My family and I are planning to camp at Bull Shoals next week. It is imy 3rd time there and my wife and kids' first. I've been watching the water and had felt it would be really high...what info did you get about the water levels coming down? Just curious... Mikey

Zach, i'm interested in the Arkansas Drifter fly you mentioned earlier in this article. If you know of a link or have a more detailed recipe for it I would love to give it a shot. Since we sometimes visit the Tenkiller area it might be beneficial for me to add another productive fly to my arsenal. Keep me posted on this fishing conditions up there. Mikey

Imagine..a Grand Slam 4 pack of trout, matted and framed...hanging on the wall over my computer. Their eyes staring at me, soulless and full of contempt. They are mocking me. They know I can't leave. They know I long to be nipple deep in the cold water, battling the fog condensing on my glasses. Curse you, oh creature of frigid streams. Harbinger of sleep lost. I will not rest until at last I have caught you, taking your tired body from water so pure... only to return you from whence you came. My having your respect...and you having mine. I need to get out more...or drink less.

I've also got flysim. As far as the Wii...the Wife really wants one. Something about a ftiness game...I just want it for everything else. We were saving those coke points from the soda lids and cases to get one from Coke. Only needed 6,250 points and you have your very own Wii. Well, we're sittin at 2900 points and they took the wii off last week. Also sold out of the little pleuger fly rod combo and little ugly stick ultralight. At least I can always put in for the wireless stereo headphones to hook into the XBOX and rock my guitar hero. Mikey p.s. Fishing the white this week at bull shoals...tues-fri rain or shine.

I ownder the original XBOX and when the XBOX 360 I saved up for it too. Wouldn't have a Sony PS in my house. Kind of a Ford or Chevy thing I guess. They all play movies, download games, demos, more movies, so on so forth. I have lots of friends and co-workers that play XBOX so it is a sense of community and allows us another way to socialize after work by playing games with each other. I don't own an HDTV but I have seen both the PS3 and XBOX on HD and it *is* amazing. It's all come so far since Atari/Colecovision. BTW, no system (pc, ps3, xbox) has yet to produce a fun hunting or fishing game. And for my $$ the Halo franchise is where it's at. Keep's me busy for hours on end....until my taxidermy supplies come in and I start learning that.

Found a link to this story at abc news...talks about the Sturgeons leaping from the Suwanee river system in northern FL. Some serious injuries from these crazy fish. Something to consider when it involves spoonies... http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=3375111&page=1 Mikey

Any info on the luck spin fishermen have been having on the white? Specifically below Bull Shoals? Have a family trip there next week and was wondering. Hope the water is better there this time of year than it was this past Feb. Non stop gen made it tough to find 'em. Mikey

Went camping with the in-laws over the weekend. They took us to Blue Mountain. I've never been before...seems like just another generic River Valley type lake. Fishing looked awful, no cover and whatnot...not that big. Swimming area was worse....anyways, we stayed at the Outlet area on the back side of the dam and I fished the small pools under the campsite. Over the weekend we caught a lot of perch and a few catfish. The highlight was this 8 pound drum I caught my first night there right at dark. He hit on a large rebel crickhoper and nearly swallowed it. Had to dig it out with the pliers. Took 10 minutes on my ultra-light rigged with 4#. -Mikey

We caught the striped bass using the nightcrawlers like we caught everything on. Nothing fancy for the kids, just a nightcrawler....single med splitter about 28" up...just letting it sit a few minutes. The we started a slow retrieve. Sometimes they hit on the way down..sometimes just sitting, and a lot of the perch hit on the retrieve. I don't know when I'll be up there again but I'll try to get with ya to fish together! Mikey

First off let me say what a blessing it is to take a kid fishing. Catching fish or not, it sure feels good to not have to worry about the yard, dishes or bills. Ok, no more sappy stuff, on to the fishing. My buddy and I took out oldest boys (ages 6 & 7) fishing up to the Lower Ill. He and I fish it pretty regularly and typically alternate between catching one fish on our fly rod in a span of 2 hours, to then catching 4 or 5 on soft plastics or nightcrawlers the other 2 hours. This time, with kids involved, we decided to forgo the fly tackle and stick with nightcrawlers. Here is how the gear broke down: Adults - spinning tackle, waders, net Kids - casting tackle, waders, lack of balance (A side note on the nightcrawlers, I bought them the night before and instructed my son to run inside the house and put them in the fridge for me as I had to tend to something outside. Waking up at 5 am on the day of fishing I discovered he had gone the extra mile and cryogenically preserved said nightcrawlers. Even after I boiled them they didn't come back.) We arrive on the east bank of the river and proceed down to fish the seam opposite the sand bar point where all the lawnchairs migrate to at about 8 am. My buddy and his son got out to their spot first. My kid and I arrived some minutes later. I got my son set in a nice spot and begin baiting his rod. He has the pole, I have the hook between IN my fingers because he has now began to do some strange mating dance of blanace lost. We discuss the merits of being still as I remove the hook from my fingers. He's baited up now, I cast him into the water and begin baiting my line. The dance begins again. I carefully, and with no frustrated tone in my voice, explain the concept of being still to which he replies "I'm trying". Perhaps I'm over analytical here, but I can't see how one has to 'try' to remain still. It takes more effort to actualy move than to just, simply ....not. Unless you're being attacked by the Taney squid at which point moving is allowed. After watching my buddy and his son bring in a few fish (none trout) I decide to reloacte slightly upstream of him where my son could get some drift with his crawler. This proved to be the turning poiint in the trip. Much to my delight I found a 2 foot square flat moss carpeted (not the slick kind) rock to perch my son on. Alas, the dance was through. Truly now we could fish. Over the span of the next 3 hours we fished that hole, the 4 of us. Watching the guys across the way bring in trout after trout on fly gear and power baits and small spinners. We went through our tub of nightcrawlers (admittedly I did slightly chum with them earlier when the hook went into my fingers. Only 6 actually swam out when the bucket became submerged.) and even sent my buddy's son back to retrieve the boiled goods. He wanted to make the trip solo so we let him. He came back a little wet having stumbled on the slick rocks, but he came back with not one but 2 tubs of worms. One had cooked worms in it, the other had some little guys my son had dug up the night before...apparently sensing the frozen crawlers may not work. Well, we finished those 2 buckets off (didn't take long, it was like trying to cast snot) and retired to the truck to consume root beers and count the fish we caught. Truth be told we had a great day fishing. Not necessarily trout fishing, but fishing none-the-less. Jason, my buddy's son, caught nothing but stripers for his first 5 fish. All of them between 7 to 10 inches. He caught a mess of perch, all kinds, and even managed a rainbow trout there towards the end. My buddy, Charlie, ended up catching 6 or so trout, several more stripers, one going between 2 and 3 pounds (played heck on his ultralight), and some perch. My son, Ricky, caught himself 3 rainbow trout, one is by far the largest Charlie and myself have seen come out of that river since we've been fishing, and he caught more perch than I could count. I caught more perch than anyone (4 different kinds), one rainbow trout, one tiny striper....and two drum. Seriously...drum. Back to back. Drum. $52 for an out of state license to catch trout....I get drum. The highlight of the trip, aside from my son's pig of a rainbow, was watching a trio of 30" gar go gliding downstream no more than 15 inches in front of us. Thank God my son wasn't dancing...wouldn't have been nearly as neat to watch. So all in all, we caught upwards of 50 fish between the 4 of us....and the adults spent most of our time baiting somene else's hook. Which in all honesty, is what you want to do when you take a kid fishing. Well, that and make fun of the poor kid who trips backwards in 2 feet of water and tries to backstroke to shore. Filling his waders with a gallon of river. What can I say...like father like son. As a reward for actually reading this drivel, here are some pics of my son's big trout...and well....Jason's.

I took my kids down to the local creek with some powerbait maggots to try and catch some perch. Well, as soon as the maggot hit the surface my rod started bouncing I reeled it up a little ways (bear in mind we are 12 feet from the water's surface on a bridge) and look down to see a huge 'dad on it. He flopped off but from then on all I was fishin for was craws. We caught about 15 there in a span of 20 minutes. I'd reel them in and toss them on the ground and let him pick them up and put them in the bucket. Still almost the most fun he and I have had. I guess it just reminds me of those games at wal-mart with the crane and stuffed toys... Mikey

I took my 6 yr old trout fishing last year. I also took his bobber off so he could fish nightcrawlers with just a splitter. He only caught one fish in 4 hours but all he's talked about since is going back to go trout fishing. I think what got him hooked was that he got to spend time with his dad. ALso it didn't hurt that he had his waders on and got to stand in the middle of the river while he was fishing, watching the trout swim all around him. Pretty exciting stuff. Mikey

Thanks guys. Rain, I think that was the way I was planning on going. I used google earth and found that way in, since I live in Arkansas that's how I would be gettin' there. Unfortunately my other 2 guys going with me cancelled so I'll ust wait until later. Might pack up my gear and try the local lake. See if I can persuade some bream to hit on my fly rod. Mikey

Might be heading up there tomorrow with a pal from work and we are trying to figure out how to reach the east bank by driving in. Anyone have good directions or a map of how to get up onto the east bank? I'd appreciate it. Mikey