alek

Thanks, Daryk! I'll check 'em out.

Thanks for the advice WET fly! I hadn't heard of those in particular, but I've read about marabou jigs. There are several videos about D2 brand marabou jigs that I've seen on YouTube, and those types of lures seem to do really well!

No worries. Thanks again for your advice!

Yeah, my son enjoys going after the crawfish as much as he enjoys the fishing. Last time out, he caught one, and we used the meat as bait; didn't even get one bite on it, but he had a good time.

Yeah, I think you're right about fishing it from a boat. This sounds an awful lot like what I'm seeing called a Carolina rig, which looks like another good way to fish from the bank. This is actually the way we've been doing it most of the time, which is how my uncle showed us. We bait the hook as you say and then cast about 45 degrees or more upstream to let it drift downstream. When the line is essentially as far downstream as it can go, reel it in and recast. I got ahold of the AFGC guidebook, and it says that only single point hooks can be used with bait on the Bull Shoals Tailwater. Since then, we've been using single hooks with the Powerbait. Do you, or anyone else, know if Powerbait counts as bait, and as such, we should be using single point hooks, or can we use treble hooks? Thanks again, Quillback!

Thanks @dpitt, @Terrierman, @Flysmallie, and @Quillback for the advice! I also had checked out a book from the Mountain Home Library, Ozark Trout Tales, that I thought it was really helpful. It was published in 1995, but I imagine the fishing techniques haven't changed that much. I plan to try the White River Drift Rig for bait like Powerbait, worms, and such. I guess one that has changed--in the book, they mentioned using a No. 9 or No. 10 bell sinker with the set up, depending on the flow, but I'm not able to find bell sinkers using numbers for sizes. I'm seeing only weights. Anyone know how much a No. 9 or No. 10 bell sinker from 1995 would weigh? Thanks again!

Hi all, New here. Here's the tl;dr: Do you have any advice for bank fishing with a spinning rod & reel along the Bull Shoals Tailwater, preferably at public accesses? Now for the too long part: I'm essentially new to fishing; I did fish a few times growing up, but it was probably only a handful of times. And I certainly don't remember anything that I would have learned. I'm in my early forties now, and my six year old son wants to fish. Last Labor Day, an uncle took us along to trout fish at Wildcat Shoals public access, showing us how he does it. We've been out there a few times now--we visit the area about four times a year--repeating his process, which is using a ultralight/light spinning rod/reel, baited with Powerbait dough and a few small split shot weights about two feet up the line. That has worked out pretty well for my son on his Thomas the Tank Engine kiddo rod--he's caught 17 trout, including a small brown with it. Now I'd like to set him up with a spinning rod and reel of his own. We actually have quite a bit of equipment that we got after my father-in-law died 10 years ago--lots of spinning and casting rods with various reels and about four tackle bags/boxes full of stuff, including spinners, crankbaits, jigheads, hooks, etc--and that's after we gave about half of it away. I've been using his old stuff when we go. I'm sure that there's something that my son can use. From what I've seen on YouTube and most internet articles on how to fish the White is via boat, either with or without a guide. While I would love to take my son out guide fishing someday, I just don't think it's appropriate at the moment. I don't think he'd have the patience for even a half-day with a guide. When we're out there now, he likes to split his time with the rod in his hand and his hands chasing crawfish. I would also like him to be proficient with regular gear and handling his own tackle and such before taking him out on a boat. So for now, we're on the bank. I've been watching a lot of Fishing with Nat and FishHawk on YouTube, and I think they're great channels; I've learned quite a bit about fishing in general and trout fishing in particular. I also like watching as many videos on fishing the white, but again they're almost always from a boat. We both have chest waders, and I'm willing to take him into the water about his waist high when the flow is low, but we stick to the bank when the water is high and/or fast moving. Given that we're stuck on the bank for a while, do you have any advice for a newbie fisherman and his young son that use spinning reels/rods? Thanks!