rps

zhoyt: Thanks. I had assumed the Corps had, once again, decided it knew more than the rest of us. In the mean time, one more weekend of tourists were happy.

I just posted a new topic in the Beaver tailwater section that reports on my first paddle with the new kayaks. We wound up with a Rush for the wife and I bought the Ultimate 12. The pictures are in the other thread. The Ultimate 12 is very stable. I think it will fish easy, but then I am very experienced at belly boat fishing. The low to the water angle will only be a problem for my spook fishing. The adjustable seat is a blessing. Any time I noticed I was tightening up, I simply changed the seat or back angle. Only cons: The white will show dirt. I need to re-learn how to kayak paddle without filling the boat with drips. After a cruiser tried to swamp me I decided I will buy the forward skirt.

The wife and I decided to take our first paddle in our new kayaks. I checked the generation report for Beaver dam and saw they had not started the 24/7 discharge reported last week. We put in at the dam and paddled to Houseman. It had been a while since we were in kayaks and we had to relearn several things. It was a beautiful day and the river is in good shape. No discharge when we put in, but when we went to pickup the second car I noticed they were generating. Of course the rise never caught up with us. Two pictures to share. The first is looking back up stream at the long deep hole below Parker. The second is one of the new boats. The wife wanted something small and manuverable. I wanted something stable to fish as well as to paddle with her. Only thing that marred the trip were the PWC riders (8 of them!) and the cabin cruiser (24 feet!) that cruised by near Houseman. The cabin cruiser actually put water in my kayak.

techo: Last year was unusual. Seemed like a good deed a week. This year I've been so busy grumping around with my boat adventures, I haven't really had time to put on my super suit. Picked up the troll motor from Marine Repair Center in Springfield late yesterday. They had the repair complete the day after the part came in. The really good news was Minn Kota replaced the shaft for free. They stood behind their unbreakable claim. Two good things to say about companies in the same post! I'm feeling giddy. On Monday I'll reinstall the motor on the boat. With the new this year hole in the inner deck and the bolt through system now in place, this is something I can do. I am going to the hardware store first to buy extra nuts and washers to replace those I drop in the bilge. Tuesday morning, barring a lightning storm, I'll be back out. I will look for a good deed to do.

Redraider: I will teach what I know, but I don't pretend to have it mastered. Anytime you are headed this way, PM me and we can try to set up a time. The invite extends to other forum contributors as well.

I've been out twice this week, Sunday and Wednesday. Met redraider on the Sunday trip. Both trips were without troll motor and did not include early morning topwater fishing. On both days I encountered post front winds and cooler temps. Yesterday's early day water temp was below 80 degrees. On both days I trolled known productive locations and tried new places. Over the two days I caught maybe 35 bass and three walleyes. Not one keeper among them all. Two of the walleye and two of the bass were close, but none were legal. Most of the fish I caught were 20 to 22 feet deep. When I tried deeper for better size I just came up empty. I scoped huge schools of shad, mostly suspended over dropoffs and other breaks, and the shorts I caught were under these schools. On Wednesday, I watched Chuck, a good walleye fisherman, catch 5 walleye on a crawler harness rig. One was legal. He was barely moving the rig on a brushy flat in 24 feet of water. I could not copy him without the troll motor. I eventually left that area to try another. I do not know his final tally. The corps announcement of intent to draw down Beaver starting Friday will soon affect the upper end. Millions of gallons of much colder water - not well oxygenated - will be coming down stream. In the past large outputs have tended to drive the bass back into coves out of the flow, but this will be a much larger, longer, and stronger flow. I don't know what it will do to the bass or walleye. It will also have an effect on the pleasure boaters. With my luck, it will draw the crowd for the novelty of cooler water. As I learn more about the flow's results I will report.

When Congress funded the dam building, they created a priority list for use of those dams. First on the list was flood control. Second was generation of power. Remember TVA dams were hero makers for the previous generation of Congress. Recreation and tourism were not on the lists. Thus, until the minimum flow movement began to have success, every decision for water release was based solely on flood control and electrical generation. Over the years, the pattern developed to hold the water, like pools of oil, and to sell the generated electricity during peaks. That way, the funds recieved to pay for dam maintenance and to "justify" the original building were maximized. At the same time the cost to consumers for power during peaks was reduced by the available product put on the market at times of highest prices. The trick, for the corps, was to do this in a way that did not interfere with the first priority - flood control. The contracts between the corps and the electric companies are elaborate documents stating the parameters for who controls releses at what times, levels, and under what conditions. The bottom line is that Congress never really changed the dam's priority list. Instead deals have been made to add some consideration for the fish and the tourists. Some consideration. That's it. No real promises. Will that ever over-ride the interests of the electric consumers, the powerful electric coops, and the farmers down stream. Duh. No. BTW, these same factors explain why BS and TR were kept high all last summer. The farmers down stream were too wet to plant and talked to their Congress men. We are just lucky we didn't have two Springs in a row like last year.

Looks and sounds like a fabulous trip. I haven't been on the Elk in years, and then it was just a paddle trip. Any new insights on the Ultimate 12? I am seriously considering acquiring one. If you don't mind can you PM or post where/how you bought yours and did you have to pay MSRP? I don't want you to say what you paid, just whether you were able to get a discount. Thanks in advance. rps

As I reported earlier in the week, my troll motor is in the shop. I didn't bother to go out for the morning topwater bite. In the old days when I had no troll motor, I fished from a 14 foot boat I could scull with a paddle. I am not man enough to scull my wide bottom 18 footer. I did go out at 11 and I trolled until nearly 5. I started at Rock Creek's mouth and worked back to Holiday Island. I fished tree tops and flats. I found spotted bass in the 20 to 30 foot range, although nothing of great size. I scoped and caught most of them on the drop off sides of long points such as the fingers between Panther Creek and Owl Creek. I caught three walleye. Two keepers, 18 and 20, and one short. All three came from 22 to 25 foot deep on chartreuse hard baits at 2 to 2.5 mile per hour. While up at the mouth of Rock Creek, I witnessed one of those "I can't believe it!" moments you sometimes see on lakes. Some doofus in a "go fast for no apparent reason" boat pulled his son on a tube directly into the danger buoy. Knocked the kid off and stunned him. Luckily, the kid didn't drown, and Mr. Smart left the area before he hit the reef. I just sat there and tried to convince myself I didn't see what I had just seen. I mean, what kind of boat driver pulls a kid into a danger buoy?

I am a fanatical wart thrower. Maybe not as bad as I am about my spooks, but if I am going to fish hard plastic under the surface, it will be a wart. I would add only one color to Eric's list. When the water is brownish and dingy I often use the red craw, V90. And I agree totally about the "original" series versus the rapala new version. By the way, Dave Storm's non compete agreement must have expired. Look at Dave's Ka Boom lures. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like he has remade the wart. Yet.

Use a very small hook - 12, 14, etc. and put a tiny piece of worm on the point. Dangle the bait in front of openings and near the bottom of large rocks. The sculpin hide under the rocks like crawfish. You need the 2 to 5 inch size if you are after browns. I urge you to use circle hooks when you rig the bait. When the fish takes the bait and you feel it is time to set the hook, don't. Merely start reeling until you feel resistance, then sweep the the rod smoothly sideways. The hook will catch in the corner of the fish mouth. High odds the hook will not permanently injure the fish. Regardless of whether you use the circle, if the hook is not in the lip/jaw but is farther down and you want to release the fish, snip the line as close to the hook as possible. Unless you've ripped gills or torn the stomach, recovery odds are very high. As a matter of fact, I believe them to be as high as fly fishing. The key is avoiding tearing gills or stomach.

Thank you Dutch. I had already dropped the motor off when I read your post. I am sure anyone you recommend is good.

powerdive: I guess you could say I was keeping a sharp eye on them? In reality, the summer TR walleye bite appears to have begun while I was gone July 1 - 10. I have been told several nice fish were landed up here. All I've caught have been 18 to 22 inch males, so far. For a week or two, I will be trolling with big motor only. The old in gear, out of gear routine. I hope the trolling motor doesn't take too long. I will miss topwater fishing and the in gear/out of gear gets old.

breakfast? breakfast? I don't need no stinking breakfast!

My charming wife pointed out the better, and more literary, title would be "Old Man and the Trolling Motor." The fact she is right doesn't make me any happier. BTW: Thanks Tom. I'll call them today to find out what I'm looking at.

You just heard the sound of a forehead slap with the classic, "Duh!" Sorry, my bad. It's here whenever. I would send it but it's bulky and weighs 15 - 20 pounds.

Met Chief and his son when they came to pick up the canoe. Nice people. Always a pleasure to actually meet someone from the forum.

I usually begin a report by telling that I got up before daylight and went out as soon as I could see to miss the buoys. Well, today I got up early, but I didn't go out. I don't like to play in lightning. I did go out after the thunder and lightning stopped - 9:30 +/-. I tested a few spots for topwater because of the overcast, but I had no success. I trolled and caught many small spotted bass plus two keeper walleye of 18 and 20 inches. No pictures this time. I fished 20 to 21 feet deep and fished edges - flat edges that dropped into channels, drowned tree line edges, that sort of thing. My day ended when I ran my wonderful 3 month old Minn Kota Riptide trolling motor into a submerged tree fork and proved Minn Kota wrong. You CAN break one of their unbreakable shafts. Who would you recommend to replace the shaft? Can a composite shaft be replaced? I think I'll work on a story about my year so far. A Greek tragedy called A BOY AND HIS TROLLING MOTOR.

Over the last ten days I have looked at (actually touched and sat in) the Old Town Otter, Vapor, and the Dirigo, as well as some other boats. I was even in a Cabelas and in a LL Bean outlet while I was driving the wife cross country. The Otter is a pure recreation boat and will be the wife's new boat. She does not fish and wants a light, inexpensive boat so we can do easy, simple paddles on the Kings, Buffalo, and upper White. She could carry a small bag with sunscreen and a lunch cooler (six pack size). I will use the kayak I buy to join her and also to fish by myself. Because of the gear I want to carry, a 10 foot would not suit me. A tackle bag, a cooler, two rods, a dog, and a boat bag (sunscreen, camera, pliers, boga, GPS, bandaids, toilet paper in baggie, etc.) persuade me to look at 12's. The Vapor 12 is advertised at Bass Pro at $499. It weighs 54 pounds. The $679 (BP price) angler version comes with an anchor and trolley system and rod holders. The Dirigo 12 weighs less, 48, and is made of a three layer poly. It has a MSRP of $859. BP advertises $749. The angler version, with rod holders and anchor, has a MSRP of $939. BP does not list them for sale. I was more impressed with it than the Vapor. The Old Town Pack has a MSRP of $799. If you buy the Angler version (lower, contoured seat; anchor system; nylon "work deck") the MSRP is $1019. Both the regular and angler versions weigh 33 pounds. To make an apples to apples comparison I had to factor in shipping. If BP or someone local doesn't carry what I want, the shipping on small canoes and kayaks runs around $100. From his posts, I can tell RSBreth loves his Pack. I was in one once and found it tippy. Of course, it was a regular version with the web seat at gunwale height. And, of course, I was in it very briefly and I am clumsy and uncoordinated. If I owned one and practiced with it my initial impression might disappear. Especially if I sat below the gunwale. I will be going to look at the Native Watercraft Ultimate 12 at a dealer in Fayetteville this week. The MSRP for the regular version is $969. The angler version MSRP is around $1100. I do not yet know the dealer prices, but assume they will be lower. What has me interested is the apparent high initial stability the boat derives from the tunnel hull. Basic catamaran principle at work. Video on the net shows people standing to fly fish and doing so with ease. The same video seems to show secondary stability is also good. The seating on the boat is lower, like a kayak, but not on the floor and with the feet lower than the butt. That strikes me as stable but more comfortable than most kayak set ups. After I learn more, I will report. Hope the information is useful to those looking.

I have been looking too. I have focused on the Native Watercraft Ultimate 12. Anyone know anything about them? http://www.nativewatercraft.com/ult_12.cfm

Pictures. I hope:

The wife and I have driven 3300 miles since my last report - Savannah, Georgia; Summit, New Jersey; Pawtucket, Rhode Island; and home through Virginia/Kentucky/Tennessee. Both daughters and her mother are now visited for the year. I rested Friday and went out early this morning. Topwater bite for bass was slow for me. Four total and no keepers. Caught 15? white bass when they decided to chop shad within casting distance of my in line spinner. They weren't really that big, but it was fun. Caught four more bass on a shakey head rig - bluff end points around 15-20 feet deep. No keepers. Started trolling for walleye. Two of those, one 19 inches and one nearly 22 inches - bluff end points 20 feet deep on chartreuse/orange reef runner at 2.1 mph. As a bonus I also caught a 21 inch largemouth that my Boga said weighed 5 pounds. When I brought it to the boat an identical fish was trying to take the bait from its mouth. I let the hooked one swim for a bit to see if it would happen. Then I realized that wasn't real smart. They might break off and die trying to lose the lure that bound them. All but the walleye are still swimming. Later today, after my nap, I will edit this post to add pictures.

Didn't buy it from Cabelas, but the picture they have illustrates. http://www.cabelas.com/hprod-1/0030168.shtml The one I have for sale slides into my hitch receiver instead of the ball.

The wife and I believe we will go to the rivers more if we sell the canoe and buy two kayaks. Maybe we are crazy; maybe it will happen. Anyway, the first step is to sell the canoe. Three years old. Very good condition. Two seat backers. Two paddles. One trailer hitch canoe loader. Less than half of new price: $500. Eureka Springs/Holiday Island area.

Pea Ridge was the site of one of the more significant civil war battles in Arkansas. It was mainly a Missouri based Union army versus several militia type Arkansas units. To understand the engagement you have to envision it as the land was then - cultivated and more open. Neat stop if you have time.