Seth Clarkson

I use a left handed reel so that limits my options. Most of the left ones were sold out when I looked. Reel was gonna have to be a 8:3:1 and I'm not sure if I want to jump to that from my 6:4:1 for walking baits or not.

Bass Pro has their pro qualifier 2 combo on sale for $100 right now. What do you guys think of those?

I'm looking to invest in a better setup, mainly for my spooks, sexy Dawgs and other walk the dog baits, somewhere between $150 to $225 or so. I have had my mind on a Daiwa Tatula Ct being my next reel purchase but it may be fals ebuild up in my mind. I've read on them some and know they are a well liked reel and I am wanting to try out the TWing system. Can someone tell me their opinion of if the TWing makes much of a difference or I may be better off getting a smaller profile reel for this type of application? Another reel option I was looking at may be a Shimano SLX based on some reviews and the brand quality. As far as the rod goes I am 6ft so I'm trying to decide if I should go with 6ft 6 to allow me to work the WTD baits down without smacking the water or if I should just go longer and get a 7ft or better and just lift up to work it. I'm thinking something along the lines of M or MH with a fast action . With my plan to use it for mainly reaction baits the sensitivity will not be as big of factor, but looking for something light, something other than a cork handle if possible (personal preference) and a short butt. A few options I've looked at on tackle warehouse mainly just due to price range and reviews are a Daiwa Aird X, a St Croix Bass X, Dobyns Colt or Fury, Lee's TP1 Speed Stick (I like the Winn grips on my spinning version). Any information or preference is great if you could let me know why you like one thing better than another or think I'm off in terms of the rod style. The reel I am using currently is a Abu Garcia Black max 6:4:1 so Im not sure if I should stick with that same speed since I've gotten used to WTD with that reel or if I should step up to a 7:1:1 or something like that. I also use a LH setup if that would for some reason make a difference on a reel choice. Thanks Seth

I always use the alberto knot. It hasn't caused me any problems and is easier and faster than the FG knot in my opinion (mainly because you have to keep good tension on both lines) . So @DavidB if you were like me and give up on the FG knot, you should look into the alberto knot. I'm sure there are better videos for demonstration out there, but I always refer back to this one that Jason Christie did on it if I mess something up or get confused on a step.

So far I like it, but it's been hit or miss. I think mainly my lack of being around fish is the miss. It has great action no matter the speed. You can run it like a regular swimbaits but pulling it along the bottom and hopping it like a jig works best. After my first good day with it I went out and bought some more but have only caught them on the smallest size in a white with yellowish stripe down the side. The eyes come off pretty quickly and mine is need of some glue soon otherwise the hook and weight will pull out of the plastic body. I'm not sure about imitating a sculpin since I haven't fly fished but I can definitely say the 2 3/4 inch size or whatever it is works. This was mine after the first day with it. A lot of the scraping on the top was attempting to get it out with pliers on a deeper hook up. It's a real small bait and has an even smaller area to get the hook.

I've seen enough of these videos to think about this when it happens, but I have not gotten to the point where I could execute it. My pliers may also not be long enough because I feel like it's digging into the gills when I start from that side before I can ever get the hook located. I'm sure the tube blocking the line of sight to the hook doesn't help either.

I fished around the dam area on Saturday from around 1 to just before dark. Saw low 60 water temps even after the cold snap and rain. Air temp was still cold and sun just never stayed out. Water was much clearer than I anticipated but I had also been fishing Bull Shoals the last few times out. Didn't do all that great until switching from fishing around various cover to the chunk rock by the dam in 15 to 25 ft. Caught around 10 on a small dark sleeper and the best bait being a puke tube. Caught 3 or 4 in 5 or 6 casts about an hour before dark but the smallmouth were swallowing it so just had to cut a couple baits. I hate letting them swallow it, but I think they were getting it on the fall and I didn't notice. Any suggestions on how to do better about that? Also caught a couple Google eye on the area just off the chunk rock. Also had on what would have been my pb smallmouth on the dark sleeper that came off at the boat while trying to net it. Replaying it over and over all I can think is it had hooked itself and I was focused on not letting it snap my line as it dove down rather than making sure I hooked it better. It was a dull gold color compared to most of the other more vibrant brown and striped ones I'd caught. Estimate it would've went 18 inches and 3 lbs or so. The smallmouth in the pic was 16.5 inches and the one I lost was visibly bigger. I didn't measure the goggle eye but it was bigger than most that I typically catch.

What are the dates and cuts? I can't see the cuts on their website. I am probably just not getting to the right place. I'm attempting to go tomorrow but was going to avoid Table Rock if there was a ton of Costa Guys. I would think 10 Costa would be doable around the other events/watchers/normal anglers though..

Might go check the one down at elbow and maybe fine addition in cedarcreek. I know fine is long enough, but don't know how launching is when it is high.

Definitely possible. I did see a couple in that same cove, but not as far back as I was marking the fish. Carp are rolling around everywhere on the sides too.

The suspended ones were in the muddy water and they weren't by the bluff. We got the schooling fish by the bluff. I'm sure it is possible it was whites and crappie, but they looked to be bigger marks. Could have just been the way the graph picked them up and how they were lined up.

We saw a lot of 57 to 59 but in some areas that were muddy that we didn't catch fish saw up to 62. I marked a lot of what I thought were fish (not great equipment and lack experience) in that muddy water and tried a jerkbait, crank bait and a rig with no bites. Thought they may have been walleye since they were large but I guess they may have been carp. They were suspended around 10 to 15 ft in 25 fow.

Couple giant white bass my Dad caught around the bait ball.

I took off Friday and fished around Kdock with my Dad. Went in the afternoon around 1 until dark, which is unusual for us since we always take off in the morning. Prior to about 630 I had only caught one fish and my dad had caught a crappie and a couple small bass. Around 630 some bass started hitting a big ball of shad midway back in a cove and we started catching them. When the wind blew up against the small bluff it seemed to help bring the shad up. Planned to be off the water before dark and avoid putting in lights but kept catching so that didn't happen. I ended up with 20 to 25 with 4 or 5 keeps on a live target walking bait that I think having the bait ball profile inside the clear housing drew a lot more bites. My Dad caught between 10 and 15 but was using different lures and caught more species. He ended up with at least 1 Crappie, spotted bass, largemouth, white bass and a walleye. Just the spots and larges for me. Would be nice to put together a pattern and get better, but finding fish busting shad happens at times and you can flat out catch them.

I was meaning more in terms of while keeping the kayak where I want it and effectively retrieving the crank bait without having to just reel it in before having to adjust with my paddle. I didn't feel comfortable if I did hook a decent fish fighting it while being turned around in a lot of areas with the water how it was. I won't know until it happens how it will go, but for now I haven't got that experience to know.

I need to get more confident with a crankbait for sure, but with how fast the water was there didn't seem to be many places it could be thrown especially in deeper water. Did you throw out into the channel and reel back to the bank?

Awesome fish Yaknar! What was the water clarity like? My Friday trip wasn't great and I'm sure a lot of that had to do with the weather and speed of the river, but the water clarity was less than a foot for sure, maybe closer to 6 inches at that time from all the rain.

Ended up doing more floating than fishing yesterday. Water was up, running fast and dirty and the wind was crazy. Only caught a handful of fish between 3 of us. One guy had a nice smallmouth come off at the boat otherwise it was all very small bass or some average rock bass and only 1 perch. Yellow or Chartreuse rooster tails caught most the fish, got one on a black and blue ned craw.

Don't think I have the right gear for that lol also don't think I am brave enough either.

Alright thanks, just wanted to make sure I allowed time for fishing and wasn't making us have to rush through at the end of the float too much. Its the longest distance Ive floated so didn't want to have miscalculated something.

I'm guessing that is the boaz gauge? I've been comparing to previous trips I've been on using the Galena gauge. I may be off base on our planning then. Delaware to Hootentown is like 12 miles. I figured due to the speed of the water and lack of fish ability in sections we would flow through much quicker than normal. In that stretch at the current cfs is that going to be a longer than 8 hour trip by a lot? I did marble ground to horse creek last year with the water low and it took like 8 hours. Didn't want to do a short trip this time because I figured we would blow through it.

I'm just going in expecting the water to be much faster than I would like. If it's slower then it's a bonus haha. The wind may pose a bigger problem though looking at the forecast. Ned rig, may not be much of an option with fast water and high winds. Will probably resort to cranks, spinnerbaits, sliders, and rooster tails if they can be fished. The other guys may run a float with bait under it as we go as well.

A couple of guys from work and I are going to put in at Delaware and float down to Hootentown on Friday. I have floated Shelvin to Hootentown, but haven't done the section from Delaware to Shelvin. Is there anything we need to know about that stretch especially with the water moving quickly? I have read a couple posts that say to keep left at the splits in the river, but any other potential safety concerns or obstacles to look out for would be appreciated. Also any lure suggestions to use through that stretch while the water is moving fast, or certain areas we should try to pull up to the bank and fish from would be awesome. I know its a long float, but we figure with the water moving fast it will not take anywhere near as long and we may not be able to fish certain sections anyway. Thanks

Planning a trip on Friday and wanting to do a section that might have more slack water or Eddies. I floated Kerr to Galena last year on a day where the cfs read 1,200 at the Galena marker and it was what I would consider fairly tough to fish and sped through long stretches without really fishing. Today I see it's reading just over 1,000 but with all the rain coming in I expect it to go up a lot and maybe slow down to around the 1,200 mark again by Friday. I made a long trip from marble ground to Kerr and the last stretch of that seemed to be moving slower since we were tired and had to do a lot of paddling. Wondering if doing that would be a better idea since it's a much longer trip and also might have that long stretch at the end that might not be as affected by fast water. Any info or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you

Dad and I fished fine addition on Friday. Caught 8 bass total but sadly this just shy of 15 inches smallmouth was far and away the biggest. Caught it on an a-rig. Not much valuable info to report. We didn't catch a single fish on the main lake including points. Only fish we caught were inside the cuts/coves. Saw a lot of boats fishing inside as well but also saw a lot of boats on the move. More boats than I expected for a Friday, assuming the BBT event on table rock had people move over to Bull. Other than an a-rig we caught 1 on a spinnerbait, a few on a tube and a ned rig. No bites on a jerk or chatterbait, dark sleeper and had one follow a jig to the boat before swimming off. Did see a few fish busting the top but was never more than one and they wouldn't stay up long. Water temp most of the day was about 53 and saw 56 before 5pm. Still enjoyed the nice day off and the sun was out almost all day compared to the reports of cloud cover. Of anyone else was in that area on the 5th I'd love to know how you all did.