PowerLizard

Yes. The Guide on the White River used a large Aberdeen hook through the sculpin’s body, then did a loop of line around the tail. He would anchor the boat when the water levels were rising and toss the bait downstream. The rigged sculpin would be facing downstream. Sorry for posting about bait and Berkley soft plastics on the Taneycomo forum. I am new to fishing the Ozarks and did not know about all of the different rules for each body of water.

I will be in Fayetteville the weekend of 8/20/22 to move my daughter back into the University of Arkansas and would like to go kayak fishing the White River below Beaver Lake on Saturday 8/20/22. I just need another kayaker or two to help set up a shuttle. I have a Ram 1500 pickup and a 12' Perception Pescador kayak. I would like to run from the dam down to Bertrand Access a couple of times. Please post a response if you are interested.

I forgot to mention that Berkley has come out with a swim shad style bait designed to sit on the bottom and looks like a sculpin. It’s called the Agent E. I bought a package but have not had a chance to try it out yet. https://www.berkley-fishing.com/products/powerbait-agent-e-1546113?variant=39422078058635

I did a few guided trips last year on the White River below Bull Shoals Dam. One of the guides would catch live sculpins, kill them, skin them and use them for bait when fishing for Brown Trout while the dam was releasing. It was always in high water and he would be anchored in place. It was very effective. He said the Brown Trout will gorge on the sculpins. The sculpin skins would dissolve in the Brown Trout’s stomach and then be barfed up as a white skinless dead sculpin. Other Brown Trout would then eat them. He said the sculpins have to be dead or they will swim under a rock and hide. Here is a picture of a dead sculpin rigged up.

We rented a canoe from Spider Creek Resort and fished from the Dam back to their resort on Thursday 7/21/22, Friday and Saturday. Thursday turned into more of learning trip as we only caught 2 trout on the Worden's Roostertails. We had a lot of trout following the lure back to the canoe and lost several near the canoe. My son also had a lot of line twist from the inline spinners. That night I tied on 4 lb Seaguar fluorocarbon leaders and added swivels to cut down on the line twist. We also decided to store the landing net on the canoe thwarts instead of the floor. On Friday we caught 3 trout on the Roostertails in the special zone and then 8 trout drifting a Berkley Trout Worm from Parkers to Spider Creek. On Saturday the river was packed with fisherman lining the campground shoreline, fly fisherman wading and lots of canoes and kayaks. We caught 1 trout above the special zone on a Roostertail and 4 trout below Parkers drifting trout worms. I think the additional river activity cut down our fish numbers. We had a good time and appreciate all info we received from this forum.

Your wife may not appreciate you asking your daughter to draw a Beaver for some dude on a fishing forum. Can I change my request to a Bigfoot? Like a cross between Goofy the dog and Bigfoot.

Can you do a Beaver with the same look?

If I still had my Mad River kevlar canoe, I would put that bunny on it in a heartbeat.

The skull and crossbones is a common pirate theme. Swap out the cross bones for crossing paddles and add a booney hat and you have a River Pirate theme. It's just a fad which is why I have it as a vinyl sticker on a kayak and not a permanent tattoo on myself. What do you think about the Zombie Hunting Permit? Another fad that has faded fast.

Whenever I want to summon Bigfoot, I just activate the BatSignal:

The avatar is a sticker I bought off eBay and put on most of my kayaks. A skull with a booney hat and crossed kayak paddles. ScreenName: PowerLizard - The Berkley PowerLizard was my go to bait fishing local ponds when I joined another forum in Texas decades ago. I still use the bait so I am justified in still using the ScreenName.

Thanks for the heads up. I am used to kayak fishing lakes and there are not a lot of dangers since there is no current.

Thanks, that really helps. I found the special regulation and we will pinch down some barbs for that zone.

I did a little more research but could still use some help. We will be fishing medium light spinning rods with Wordens Roostertails, D2 Jigs and Short Rapala style stickbaits for trout. Our planned Smallmouth baits are the ZMan TRD Ned rig, TRD finesse Crawz and Storm Swim Shads. Will Smallmouth Bass be in the first 4 miles of the river in July or should I plan a morning canoe trip on the river for trout and an afternoon trip to the lake for Smallmouth?

I have a trip planned for next week - the heat of July. We are staying at the Spider Creek Resort and will be doing morning canoe trips from the Beaver Dam to their resort 4 miles down river. They said the dam has been generating from 10:am to 10 pm. What can we expect to catch? Smallmouth Bass? Trout? Any tips?