Fox Statler

If large rainbows and browns have plenty of "dinks" to eat, why should they waits their time eating sowbugs and scuds? I think I would be fishing "dinks" for the bigger fish.

I think ya'll are missing something here. Phil said they go from dock to dock eating guts. This is what they are keying on and looking for. My suggestion would be to use a white rubber worm with little or no weight. They are looking for trout guts, so imitate them. I already know that this works because the first fisherman I ever saw with a big stringer of browns was using a white rubber worm and fishing below the Bull Shoals State Park Trout Dock (it was called the Never Sail Trout Dock then). The old guy was the breakfast cook at Gaston's Resort and fish there about three times a week.

All three will work. We have no water in the lakes. Generation has been very little, only one or two units at a time on either river. I would suggest driving from place to place and use the canoes to get the the areas that aren't fished as often. You can always rent a boat if needed for a day or two.

How bad is Mary Decker Shoals. I don't mind pulling the canoe up it.

Around here we mostly catch Longeared sunfish. They rarely get over 6 inches. The rivers and lakes are full of them. I think I'm moving to Missouri when I retire. I may move sooner.

QUOTE<I am lucky that I can do this because I don’t ever want to see my self do anything else, but keep progressing and sharing what I learned about the sport. I truly love this sport and want to share it with the world.>QUOTE I think this is the part that makes you special. It takes someone special to care enough to share. Don't ever stop sharing the many special things we learn when fly fishing.

The Sowbug RoundUp in Mountain Home, Arkansas in March, the 16th-18th. The North Arkansas Fly Fishers put it on. I think it only about $5 or $10 dollars to get in.

Brian, I wrote the book,"Fishin' What They See" Its about all the different species of fish in the White and Black rivers above their confluence and the species in the Little Red River. You can buy the two books I mentioned, "What Fish See" and "How Fish Work" from Amazon for about $30. Both of these books take a very scientific approach to everything from the fish's anatomy (eyes, shape, ability to smell and hear), preferred water temperature, to the best colors of patterns to catch them with. "What Fish See" is mainly about how the particles in the water changes the colors of your flies and lures. "How Fish Work" is about the anatomy and preferences of fish and why they do what they do. Together, these two books are a learned adventure of "fishdom". Where my book fits in is when fishing for the members of the sunfish family, this includes the basses, and other species that see well like trout, and pike. Both authors suggest fishing an imitation as close as possible to what the fish are actually eating. Like in the Black River system (this would be the Spring River, Eleven Points, Current River, Jack's Fork and so on) the most dominant minnow species is the Bleeding Shiner. Today at the Whitten Access on the Eleven Points, I pointed out to my wife a group of about 200 Bleeding Shiner minnows at the boat ramp. Every so often I would see a smallmouth run at them and get one. I recognized the shiners because they are in my river and in my aquarium at home. Bleeding shiners have a brown olive back, then a brilliant gold stripe beneath that and then a promenient black stripe below the gold and then a pearl white belly. I'm like you, I don't have a Y2K bug, but I would carry a yellow scud. Oh incidently, when the scuds molt in the White and North Fork they are a Greenish Yellow to a Yellow Copper in color.

Brian, That's why I couldn't find you today, you were out fishing. The sign said you were at the house. Sorry about your map. Were you driving a white SUV down to Cane Bluff Access?? I was the guy stopped in the middle of the road showing his wife that huge buck out in the pasture to the west. We went to every MIssouri access on the Eleven Points today except for Thomasville. How bad is the jet boat traffic in your area in the spring and summer?? That is some beautiful blue water. I plan to bring my bow-mount trolling motor canoe up there and fish the shoals going up and the deep holes floating back. I liked the water at 19, Turner's, and Whitten. I might try motoring up from Turner's first. Do you have a suggestion on that??.

That may be true but, before all of the dead Algae was in the river, the sowbugs were a very dark olive back and a brown fleshy belly.

How deep are they?? Do you ever try to catch them on a fly rod??

You are going to love the Ultra Weaves Brian, I have helped out on tweeking them alittle. I suggested that the stiffen from 6wt. on up. Ray Bauer brought over a 9wt. that you would not throw a sine wave in it. They are the straightest casting rods I have ever used, no axial twist. We were casting 100 plus feet of line like it was 60.

WOW hey guys these are all great redears. When is the best time to fish Lamar Lake for them and what are you using?

Two or more at least.

We are seeing a color change in the few sowbugs that are in the North Fork. The dead algae is so thick on the bottom that the sowbugs stay under it. You see them when you walk and when the water is rising and falling. Their bellies are a cream color and their back white-ish brown-olive and about size 12. I haven't been to Tanney in along time, the sowbugs used to a blue-ish gray and a fleshy tan colored belly. Is that still their colors? I looked at the sowbug pics off of the home page but can't tell too much. Jeremy, you may have discovered something very important. I don't know of anyone else that is using large sowbugs at Bull in highwater. But what if there is a large population of sowbugs in the lake and they are beginning to come through the generators? This could be very important to the welfare of the river. (The growth rate in this part of the river is now less than an inch a year). The sowbugs could be feeding on the dead algae that is accumulated in the bottom of the lake. This is how sowbugs were started in the Big Horn. They were above the river in weir dam pool (a dam that catches the generated water and then lets it flow out a uniform rate) then they begin to wash out into the river.

I don't tie or use the Y2K either but there are two books that I know of that explain why this bug does catch fish, "What Fish See" and "How Fish Work". If you dropped one of these down in front of the troutcam, you would be impressed at how visible it is and how well it contrast against the background. Tie a scud using the same colors and see how well it fishes. If I am correct, the zebra midge is a silver bead with a black body with silver ribbing, so according to the "What Fish See" book, this pattern would be best used on a bright day, calm clear water. Cop colors, black-white-silver combinations are best on bright days, choppy clear water. Silver-white combinations are best on dark days, choppy or calm clear water. The concept behind these bugs is the fish see them well under certain conditions. I credit Bobby Snyder for developing jig fishing in high water condition on the White and North Fork Rivers. His method is a 1/80, 1/100, 1/124 or smaller fluorescent hot pink jig fished about 3 feet under an indicator regardless of the depth of the water. I wondered for a long time what the jig represented to the fish to have such marked success. Was it a flesh fly, an oligochaete worm, or what? I have finally come to believe that it doesn't represent anything, it is just highly visible. This is also the greatest crappie producing technique I have ever used. I also find that the more organic pollution (ditty-mo, dead partially decompost algae) we have in the White and North Fork, the better attractor patterns work in low water and are a absolute must in high water.

I don't get anything there on that link except your menu that is on the left side of you web pages and a small box out lined in white under your page heading. Guess I'll have to call you.

Global Dorber has a new rod call the Ultra Weave which is the best fly rod I have ever cast. I cast a 2 wt. into the backing using Aqua Nova line at their manufacturing plant in Flippin Arkansas. They make this rod up to a 9 wt. I made a custom 3 wt. for a fella and he loves it. Check them out, they are moderate priced, almost unbreakable, one of the lightest blanks made. The Ultra Weave material stops the rod from breaking down in the cast because the graphite is inter-directional, going up and down and right and left in the same layer.

Thanks you for inviting me to post on your BB. I thank its the greatest. You and your member are the best. I wish you all the success in the world. A Friend,

Brian, I have a friend that fishes for them in the dam area quite often. He often goes with Binks. Next time he comes in I will ask him to keep me informed. I'll keep you and the board posted if something is happening. After the striper kills we had in October, 2004, I hope there are some big ones left.

How deep are the crappie? Are you catching them on a fly rod?

Phil, Every time I past the URL into my media player I get a box that comes up and says 'class not registered'. What am I doing wrong??

Pretty good bug. I always flatten mine after dubbing it, before putting the back on. I think it makes it wobble more in the current and causes the hook to invert when the fish chew it. Just a thing of mine.

Griffin, The motor is quieter to the fish than a 4-cycle jet or prop outboard. They work on any kind of boat in more adverse conditions than regular props or jets. They are cleaner running than any prop or jet, 2-cycle or 4-cycle, especially for our water. As far as duck hunting, shotguns make a lot more noise that any kind of motor. I can troll slower than a prop or jet by raising my motor out of the water and only using part of the propeller. I can idle through weed beds, mud, leaves, limbs, sand, gravel, etc. I don't pollute the water and I doubt very seriously that you have every road in a boat equipped with a Gator-Tail motor if you live in Misssouri. Your MDC is considering buying several of them, just like the Minnesota DNR has already done. They are being sold in Alaska and Africa because they out preform all other outboards in the most adverse conditions. They are also legal for Missouri's 25hp powerhead limit.

Phil, Have you ever read the book, 'What Fish See', by Collin J. Kageyama (an eye doctor). I did and it changed my ideas of why some flies are great producers and why some are poor, why some materials are useless and others great. The book is the reason I designed my Spinner's Minners. The book is mainly about how the particles in the water filter out certain colors of light and the colors of light the fish see best under different conditions, bright day vs. dull day, clear water vs. green water vs. muddy water, hot vs. cold, and dark background vs. light background, and so on. Though the author is not a fly fishermen he is the number one Steelhead fishermen on the west coast catching over 160 Steelhead a year. Anyway, your trout cam is a perfect way to test the materials that are used in flies and different colors of the same pattern, like scuds, under varing conditions. By putting the material and/or bugs in view of the camera we could see how they appear to the fish during the different periods of the day. Let's say a tan scud tied with red thread works great in the early morning but not at mid-day. So would a tan scud tied with blue thread be better during mid-day? When would a tan scud tied with dark brown thread be at its best? You could even put live scuds, minnows, sowbugs, etc. in a jar and their colors could be noted during the day, highwater, rainy days and stuff like that. Just a thought.