taxidermist

We hit the water earlier than normal, there was already 3 generators online we were told. So up river we headed, once to our turn around place. We drifted the first hole and caught some smaller bows, and a few smaller browns. This set the pace for the return trip thru this hole of water. We used our favorite crhome rooster tails and started catching a few smaller browns. Near the middle of the drift I had a noce 17 inch borwn slam the rt and head down under a log. It took some hard work to start the motor and keep enough but not to much pressure on the brown and finally she came out from under the log. A bit of a fight!!!!! we weighed her in at 3lbs 4oz. On down in the catch and release area I landed 3 nice 16 inch bows and one 14 inch cutthroat!! This is my second cutthroat over maybe 6-12 inchs. Near the mouth of Crooked Creek I caught another nice 16 inch brown, 3lbs 8oz. I caught several more small browns and a couple more small cuttys, bit the bows were off the bite way off. My Down below Buffalo Shoals, my son had a nice 18 inch Brown slam his crankbait, he uses his ultralight for crankbait fishing for browns. in the swift water he had a great fight. The three of us ended the day with 27 browns, 5 cutthroats and 17 rainbows, I had 14 of the browns. most were the small ones but still they count as browns. My wife was drifting a white crappie jig in the Rim Shoals C&R area and lost a large brown at the boat. We think the fish would have been close to 10lbs. Right below the first shoal. John Berry looks like his cartoon here, he had a load of fisherman drifting the north shore. There was not a lot of people on the river yesterday, the river did comeup another 2 feet or so while we were on it. John

My son and I hit the river about noon, sky was overcast temps were perfect for us. We made our run upriver and started fishing. we were catching some nice bows in the 12-14 inch range on Chrome Rooster tails. I decided to swithc to a crankbait, and was catching less but larger bows. I made a cast up near the bank and bam a large Male Brown trout knocked the crap out of the lure. After a brief and thrilling fight my son netted the brown 21 inches. We made the drift on thru the hole and did well on bows, then I made another cast up into the wad of tree trunks and limbs and bam another nice brown had sucked my spinner down. This old gal put up a great fight, but she was to die from loss of blood the hook ruptured her heart. she measured 18 inches. My son normally catches more browns than I do but today I smacked him into his place with 23 total count on the brown trout, sure most were in the 8-10 inch range and tthree close to the magic 16 inch. He came away with five for his count on browns. I caught three cutthroats. he caught two. We lost count on the rainbows, but did very well on nice bows. seems they like larger lures. When we were drifting the first hole a man who had watched us catch some nice bows ran just infront of us and dropped anchor, guess noone is more important than him and his two guys in the boat. I caught the two big browns within and very easy eyesite distance, I amde sure to show them that their being rude did not help them catch big fish. Matter of fact they were having troubles catching fish. I am guessing there was three generators on as we had good water flow Yea dispite their rude tude we caught fish. You don't have to be rude on the river or on the lake or be a ramp hog. Noplace no time for being rude!!!! Yep, when I caught the fish infornt of them and they were trying to see what I was using I made sure to hide my lures. But hten most people would not use so called bass lures for trout!!! John P.S. I am taking pics to make some postings!!!

22nd I took my brother, wife and son down to the river. We did very well mostly on silver spinners and crank baits, we caught several undersized browns and one almost keeper Cutthroat. Water was up a bit but did not slow downt he bite. Brother who lives in Las Vegas had a great time, he is not use to fishing plus as a kid all dad could do was yell at him when they fished so his interest in fishing is not strong. While catching fish he made the comment, "Man I can see why you like to fish, you never know how big or even if you will hook the fish." Yesterday wife, son and I hit the river again, wow we were caught out in the torrential downpours and wind. Had to pull the boat out and empty the water! Fishing was a bit slower than Friday, but darn good for size. Ife was at the top of her game she was out fishing us by a third. She was fishing from the middle of the boat. The rain triggered serious fog, fog so heavy that even in areas we fish weekly I managed to hit a log thats been there for years. Funny things is I know that section of the river pretty well but man the fog was heavy and that may have also triggered the larger fish to be less cautious about biting. Late in the day after the fog was lifting, my son had a nice brown on his ultralight, he was not gaining anything on the fish as he was fighting the fish one of the asshole guides ran over my sons line, severing the line of course. (((You bet I have filed a complaint about the asshole.))) Funnier ont the trip later is ahole guide and his clients were watching as my son landed a brown that scaled almost 3 lbs, then caught a huge sucker on the next cast. We could hear the client asking "What are they using?" Well the sucker was far enough away his client thought it was a brown trout and my son said guess we should turn this brown loose. Later at the ramp the client wanted to know what we were using, my son looked at him and said "Ask you deadhead guide!" John

Thanks, for the info. What was the big eye? Become a guide and ruin my fun? Noway! But yes I have condisered becoming a guide, but I dont think most people want to spend the day fishing as hard as I do. Tomorrow my brother who is in from Las Vegas and I are heading out to spearfish. For those who think its like shooting fish in a barrel, it certainly is not, it may be even harder to find fish large enough to be legal.

We fished yesterday until dark and caught zero fish, not even a bite!! We found lots of nice sized fish but nothing was hungry. Water level was dropping and normally we can use crank baits and do some good. Maybe it was because the bottom of the lake looked scoured. Dont know but yep it happened. Its not often we dont catch fish, but for all you naa sayers, its your time to gloat. Sad thing is my 5 year old nephew did not catch a fish either.

I am taking pics. We hit Lead Hill yesterday to tube, but before I went to where the family was I took the boat to a cove made one cast caught a nice 12 inch black crappie. I admit that was a fluke but it was a nice crappie non the less. I am looking at Hughs and Wild Blue, not being a computer geek, I really dont know what the numbers mean on upload and down load speeds.

"No brag just fact, I do catch fish. Not always but most times. I failed to score any keeper bass the 10th in a tourny. but I did catch a lot of little ones. Your dad's plaque may apply to you but I learned form my gandpa who was a well known guide back in the 60's and 70's on Table Rock and Bull Shoals. Plus somethings from other successfull fisherman. Fish-location-time spent with different lures until you find the right one with the right presentation. Plus thinking a bit out of the box. If you cant handle the truth dont read my post!!! LOL maybe you should spend more time on the water with your lures in the water than running your mouth about others who can catch a fish now and then. As I said before I will post some pics in the future, I just cant with this slow assed dialup I have now. but thats living out in the sticks in Arkansas, you have the best of a lot of things but ISP is not one of them.

My brothers and I hit the the river yesterday Am about 6. It was foggy and the water was a bit muddy. But as the day wore on the water started clearing and the bite took off. We use Rebel deep craws, in light green and were catching smallies fairly often and several goggle eye and bream. As the day went on the water cleared and the smallies turned on to the CD-5 and CD-3 Rapala in Black with gold sides. My youngest Brother was lucky enough to land an otter, a family of pups were playing just past the HWY 65 bridge and one of the pups decided the fish on brothers rod was dinner. Well he had his hands full as the pup impaled its cheek on the rear hooks. We beached the boats and hit the shore with beach towels in hand managed to get on over the pup and it calmed down, then finally we managed to remove the hook, noone was owrse for the weeeear, no bites from otter pup either. But its family was going crazy around us. This is only the second time I have seen otters in the wild and to see a family of five pups was pretty cool. I am sure that hole is sparse on fish too.

Woohooooo what brains it took to think that one up. Shutup or fish! I will fish.

Try Bearskin Marine in Flippin AR. Floyd is pretty sharp on motors, hourly rate is $65.00 per hour. plus parts.

IN the spring young bears being weaned from their mother are ran off. So they start to try to find a territory they can call their own. Arkansas stock black bear (there are several colors of black bear from brown to almost blonde) back in the late 60s-earky 70's in or around 1985 (I dont remember the year) Arkansas opened the season on black bear again. Currently there are an estimated 3000 bear in Arkansas. We have a young male that is staying pretty close to the farm here, my son has seen him as have I during the day foraging for food. When looking at the maps of Missouri and Arkansas you see that Boone County Arkansas has some fairly spare populated areas, look for thetown of Self, SE of Omaha, we have friends there and we have seen several bear on Bear Creek and Barron Fork (called BArn fork by the locals) Some of my reletives in the Omaha area have had several encoutners with bear. So yep, its a pretty sure bet many travel to Missouri. They are very able swimmers. Bear in the Delta regions of Arkansas recently opened I think it was three years ago due to high bear populations. Our encounter here on the farm amounts to my horses seeing the bear and running after him, a client saw the bear out in front of the house, and tracks around the pond. I have run the bear off a couple times as we all KNOW "A FED BEAR is a DEAD BEAR." Its hard not to feed it scraps from mounting fish and game, but it is something one must refrain from. I live southeast of Harrison 22 miles and there is few people between HWY 123 and HWy 7 South of Harrison. Yes, its sure a bear they videoed, not a big deal around here unless it gets into trouble. Just dont feed them scraps or other household garbage.

I have to defend the farmers, they bought the land they pay ofr it and the water rights are theirs. Not practical to fence cattle, horses or any other animal fromt he stream. Farmers dont normally spread cattle poop, it falls where they cow craps and thats the end of what most farmer do with it. Maybe the better solution is to force nonowners not to use the stream. Livestock being watered from tanks away from the stream would not work either. Beason said it best, keep the water out of your mouth, Ecoli is just one problem there are many other types of infections you can catch. Bone up on your outdoor survival for more tips. Dilution is the solution is what they use to say.

June 7th, we had just purchased a river jon a bit longer than the 14'er. and a Yamaha 25hp 4 stroke. So needing to give it a try and not sure about the motor on this boat we headed to Buffalo City where we could open it up on a large hole of water. Man this boat flys!!!!!!!!!!!! So after the intital shake down run we headed out to fish. Well a longer boat tends to hang on the rocks in some of the shoals, HIGH CENTERED, so I had to take the swim to get us off the rocks, water was low but this was the best time to find out what the boat was capable of. We finally reached where we wanted to fish. and caught lots of good fish. My son has figured out the browns he again landed four with one nice keeper. I managed to land some super bows 3-16" bows and a 17" bow and 3 largemouth bass and 1 smallie. Yesterday we headed down to Norfork to run up river to Shipp's Ferry we caught some nice bows and again my son was able to land some 12" and 2 cuthtroats. About mid afternoon the fish shutdown, totally shutdown, others were out and they too were not catching fish. So I switched to smallmouth bass fishing and did well catching several largemouth and some goggle eyes. About 45 minutes before dark the trout took off again but chartruse rooster tails. nothing else was working, we changed lure maybe 100 times yesterday when the fish shutdown between the three of us. This was my first time on this section of the White River nice water not overly crowded. We did hit Norfork river for a bit but nowater was flowing and that limits where we could go and noone there was catching anything thats when we hit the White. No brag just fact. John

I was up on Taney this am and I have to say in Lilleys area the water was the clearest I have seen it maybe ever. gin clear!!! Not alot of baot traffic today either.

While I dont fly fish, I do use artifical and no I seldom fish in one spot, I fish from a boat. So we drift no matter what the water, Taneycomo or White river. But we dont blast thru the places either. Sunday my son and I fished 8 hours on a eight mile run, some shoals we passed over three times then moved on. We dont waste much time with our lures out of the water.

I posted for Phil how to properly fillet a northern pike a few weeks back. Yes they are very edible a friend of mine in east Arkansas gave me some fillets, chains that was grass pics just dont get to big. I was doing some research on fishing for them earlier this spring and just never had a chance. Good luck and use light line and tackle for a fun time.

Johnny started by selling his hand cast plastic lures to shops personally when he was in high school. So MDOT can put in bridge piers without draining taneycomo but the landing people cant. Seems like somewhere there should have been an enviromental impact study done on the draining. Event hough its privatly owned the public use and damage to the flora and fauna should have been studied. regardless of who is building what. Point to start investigating would be the Ark. Game and Fish as they drain Lake Conway every few years. I am sure they could steer someone in the right direction. So how has this effected the fish bite from fall creek down?

Fishing started slow Friday but ended really well. my son caught really nice Brown and I landed a nice bow. We had a lot of 12-16 inch fish. Today we went from Cotter to Ranchette, spent eight hours fishing it, yes I know its a not so long of stretch of water that most people fish in in 4-5 hours but then we did catch fish. My son lost a super brown at Rim Shoals, we did very well on the shoal into rim, well enough to warratn a second and third pass. He also lost a nice bow while drifitng a 1/16th oz olive marabou jig when the hook broke. Yep Mild minner we are taking pics to prove it to ya!!! Its sure gonna suck for you when I post them ROTFLMAO!!!! Well its late we just came in 10:40pm been a long day since we hit the river early this AM. My wife drove the truck and trailer, she did not do well from the bank, so about 6:30PM I picked her up at the ramp we headed back to the hole beloew Rim Shoals Catch and release where she landed some nice 14-16 inch bows. The COE has been running some water the last few days amking it a bit harder than normal to catch fish. Even the regular guides were slow they said. I think the trout are full as all seem to be a bit roound. Great day sure as hell great to be alive and even better to be on the water with your kid and later the wife!!! Later John

Depends on the water and time of year. Winter and low water I will take the smallest white Road Runner on 2lb test and drift it into the front end of deep pools. Spring when the water is just clearing up from a nice rain. I like a CD-3 Rapala in Gold sides, black top. Spring, summer and fall Clear water two colors of Rebel Craws the deep diving ones. There is not anything that is single best. Sometimes a clear Ozark Crappie minnow is killer, Carloina rigged with 1/16th once weight and 2 feet of 2 lb leader. If I have to pack light for a river trip those are what I would take.

Well Joe I dont drink, I have never smoked, never done illeagl drugs. My shooting taint to good either. I can backup most of my fishing. So maybe you are all of what you post??? But then I dont fit into many standards, always been a nonconformist too. If one species of fish dont bite I change what I fish for. This weekend I am staying away from the water, to many drunks out there and to many idiots on PWC. Wild minner, call the Dewey Short Center and ask them about diving and going up and touching the dam. Deep diver proved one thing to me, I would not follow him, there is a point of taking a risk then using some brains. Since I have done a good bit of tech diving, know my dive tables etc. But give the center a call and tell them yo are going to dive and swim up and touch the dam. But dont hang up!!!!! Here is the phone number in case you cannot find it. Phone: (417) 334-4101 Minner I am still waiting for you to standup and put your money where your Mouth is on fishing against me. You are a lot of talk but NO ACTION. John

Here is what I have heard. The COE charges the SW Power Admin. for all water storage over the power pool level. The Ark. Game and Fish does not have the money to pay for any water storage to provide min flow. To provide a healtier trout population below Bull Shoals Dam. The AG&F somehow has reached the agreement with COE and SWPA, that the power pool level will be raised the five feet. so during hot weather, low O2 levels in the water, the min. flow can be provided to help the fish. Also it is inn theory going to add more food to the river, fresh water shrimp, shad etc. The Game and Fish has studied the release of water from Table Rock and the effects on the fish in Taneycomo. Even with all this fishing pressure Taney still is producing good sized fish. These fish were placed by the COE for replacement of the warm water fish that the COE knew would die when cold water is released from the dam. There is a 1951 publication that also states this the COE published. So someone who wishes to research this should contact the COE and get the publication under the FOI act. There is no turth to the rumor about lowering Table Rock to raise Bull. It was staed at the meeting that Bull would be raised with natural increased inflow during rainy periods. Google and do some word smithing adn you will find most of what I posted on line. sans the 1951 publication. John

I have tried fishing with them, never worked for me. Clam chowder? Is that New England or New York style?

I sure aint the best fisherman, but I think I can hold my own in most cases. Sure there are times when I come up empty handed. BUT WHY POST THOSE??? My son and I fished last night we did OK, I landed as 24 inch 6lb walleye and a couple smaller not big enough to keep. My son managed one keeper walleye. He caught two nice bluegills, biggest I had seen in a few years. Hum, what do I have to loose to wildminner? a meal no big deal now is it? But what do I get if I beat him? nothing but bragging rights! I do have some pics and a few from some years back that will knock most fishermans socks off. I would love to post pics. the problem is I live in Newton County Arkansas, thats dial-up internet. Lucky if I connect at 36,000 bps. I am working on a way to upload some pics. but thats in the future when I get a site for my taxidermy business setup again. Had one years ago but was a bit ahead of my time and it never paid for the site. I am working on getting a new computer, this old Gateway is slow and will not work with my Epson Scanner. But as with anything you do it takes time to get new equipment. I guess if I did not spend so much money on fishing I could afford a new computer and Wildblue ISP. last We hit the lake at 3:30pm, ran 12 miles by GPS,had two nice eyes before the wind and rain caught us, so we headed to the back of a cove, grabbed wet weather gear and rode the storm out. While waiting we hit the brush for bream, most were small pumpkin seed and long eared sunfish. After the weather settled we went back to walleye fishing, the weather had changed the bite to almost none. We fished for seven hours, not counting running time. I did use a stopwatch to see how much time I was not fishing. less than one hour!!! The time in the coves I did not catch a bass of anykind. just "perch" as we locals call sunfish. When I fish I fish hard, I dont play, I dont chase cheeseburgers while fishing. Theres a lot of things in this world to do but fishing and taxidermy along with working on a certain old car is what I do best. Many years ago when I was learning to paint fish I took a body shop course to learn the basics of handling paints and how to apply them. It was the best I could think of!!! those things still work. When I do something I try to do it the best I can, I dont half step, I may learn slow but when I have the knowledge its mine and I know it inside and out. I dont hookup on stripers on a regular basis, I am learning that species and what it takes to catch big stripers and accident is just that an accident. So I have been working to find the best guide who will teach me how to catch stripers on Norfork. The that will be used on other lakes. As for the Walleyes, I have been waiting for the water to just right and the timing to be just right and its just that right now. MY eye kknowledge came from two old fisherman, George Petree and Rufus Allen, mostly Rufus and he was 100% right and he gave me his notebook a couple years before he passed away. Where do I keep it? Right there beside tow other very important books to me. Noone touches these!! My family knows not too. Just for the record in the near future I am fishing the first bass tourny since 1978. Dont know if I will catch anything but it will not be for lack of trying!!! Can't catch fish if your lure ain't in the water!!! Fish are going to eat everyday. Its up to you to find them and find out what they are eating of find out what will make them bite what you have. Location, presentation and reaction. Thats what its going to take to catch fish. Location, I have caught three fish nice fish within about 50 feet of each other on different days. GPS landmarked so it could be more. I can identify the same underwater features using a Humminbird 565 very close to the GPS coord. Presentation triggers reaction, fish feed when they can get a very easy meal most times. Next is your reaction, if indoubt set the hook. Since adopting this I do catch more and bigger fish. My 24 inch wlleye last night felt like a bump in the mud, then maybe a smallish water logged wetstick, by the time I had him close to the boat I knew he was a nice eye. I was wondering if I would be able to even see it let alone land it. my 8lb flouracarbon was seeming like it was not near enough. Yep I troll with light line, I loose several lures everytime. Is it worth the cost? Darn right to me it is. To my family they understand and know the difference too. $33.00 today to replace what we lost yesterday then it was $35.00 to replace what we lost Sunday. Plus fuel cost. I really hate fuel going up but it is relative. I just have to mount another fish or deerhead. Yesterday I sold an old car 65 Pontiac 389 tri-power, hated to see it go but I have another project car and its time. This week I will finish three or four fish. Hopefully four its only Tuesday and I have two mounted and drying for next week have two more I want to get skinned, body carved and mounted tomorrow. Then is back to finish and painting. I do have someone working for me, last week he polished out a 24ft Gooseneck, 4horse slant trailer. He will finish it this week if the weather holds. We will make pretty good when it sells. Its a lot of trailer for the money a lot of trailer!!! I have had a couple people look at it, the finance people failed ones credit, the trailer apped for $11,475. I paid $5,000 for it a few years ago. Yep thats my play money, my fishing money. So I may head out again Thursday evening or may hit White River. I busted my butt during the Army years, now I am going to fish hard!! To darned old to die young!!! Fishing is far morer important than computers and ISPs. BUt give me a month or so. and I will post some pics of fish we catch and have caught. Some are small and some are not so small. Gotta be one the water to fish and have to have your lure in the water to catch fish. John

Minner you want me to take you fishing? I did not mention all the small fish! I dont waste time when I am on the water I fish and fish hard. If your lure or bait is not in the water you cannot catch fish. My Grandpa was a guide on TableRock I learned much from him. I dont do well with largemouth bass some reason I only catch about half of what everyone else does, same places same lures. But I have caught a few nice bass. So lets figure the odds. I fish 3 days per week. 8 hours per day. Thats 24 hours per week I spend fishing, I have fish hard, not running up and down the lake!!! I fish I go to places that have produced fish for several years for my family from Grandpa "Toad" on down to my Uncles and Dad. Even when I go to White River I have a smaller protion of the river I fish I dont run 20 miles up river, I run maybe 5. That 5 takes me about 8 hours to fish. I will put this challenge to YOU! Taneycomo, White River or Bull Shoals, you pick one of the three, you and I agree on a date. My family ( Me, Wife and my son) fishing against you, your wife and one of your children. If we dont catch more fish, than you I will buy you dinner at Olive Garden!!! Put up or shut up. John

We went to Branson Saturday evening. There was not the crowd on the strip or even the tour buses. Yes its effecting many people I think. THey will staycloser to home for a time. It has to be eating to expendable income and young families are going to suffer. I do know one thing I saw fewer boats on the lake yesterday. It took $59.00 to fill the boat yesterday in Harrison at Murphy Oil. The boat does pretty good on fuel economy 90HP 2 storke, but I dont run it wide open I back off the trottle some and it cost me maybe 3 mph. The local auto dealers are trying to move the full sized pickups. Is it gas scare? or they just need to move inventory? I will still fish I have that budgeted!! But may turn it into camping trips this summer. John