hoglaw

When I was out last Friday I saw lots of bass on beds, including some good ones. I saw more than one bed that had both fish on it. I was crappie fishing (theoretically) so I didn't mess with them, but it was neat to see. I have to think bed fishing will be meaningful for someone.

I crappie fished that area last Friday and it was a bust for me. I'm just not that good at it. Anyone look at the White River gauge this week? Water level and discharge are close to normal, but the turbidity is waaaay up. Guess that means one of the forks got hammered by rain and the others didn't? I'm hoping to take off tomorrow and fish. There's a chance of rain, but mostly cloudy and calm winds should make for a decent crappie day. Just can't figure out where to go. I'm thinking I may head down to the Arkansas river but they've been running a bunch of water there, so my normal spots aren't that great. I'd chase the white bass if I thought I could do any good, but if the river's that muddy, I don't know about that.

Will you just go away joe, or at least read more and post less? You stopped adding anything of value to this board a long time ago. It's just not funny anymore.

I've always fared a little better on crank baits and bigger than normal jigs when the bite is like this. I've been catching my creek fish on a wiggle wart, a robo worm on a flick shake head, and another finesse style bait that shall remain nameless for fear of reprisal from a couple of forum members who don't like folks helping others catch fish. That little finesse bait is not one of my favorites and I don't bother to tie it on during the summer months in the creeks, but it's been producing some big smallmouth for me lately.

You know, in the year we have been out here we have seen a handful of high water events, but only a couple of "floods". It comes up fast though. They have places they can get out of the current I'm sure. This evening we walked down and made a few casts. I caught a 4" smallmouth and lost one at my feet that was the biggest I've seen yet. No clue on a size, but it was a big fish. Both hooked out of the current in non traditional places. I've seen plenty of little fish so I'm sure there's some spawning going on. The Kentucky bass seemed to be thriving this winter, but I think it's because I live on one of the best wintering holes. You need to come out some time.

My selection has gotten smaller too. All I carry anymore are jigs and jerk baits. But I do carry a lot more jerkbaits than I need to. Still need to figure out which one is the magic one. I think a dd78 is my favorite so far.

I've been on a few wading trips and one float trip on the creek I live on. The bite isn't red hot yet but I'm catching some good fish. They aren't in their summer spots yet and it seems like I'm catching them toward the middle of pools out of the current, or at least in slower current. Not in the deep winter holes, but just a little farther down from the riffles than they would normally be

Would love to see them fish Maddox bay, beach the bass boat and take off bushwhacking to grab an old John and sculling paddle. That might be my favorite fishing in the world.

Glad to hear they're still getting after it. I've had plenty of good days, but not a "hand over fist" day out there yet. Maybe I can get on them again next week. After that, I leave for Fort Morgan for a week of trout and reds from the kayak!

There's a couple of guys on here who chase stripers in kayaks. I don't like being out on big water in a little boat myself so it's not my thing. I stick to the protected waters with my kayak. But FF and YakFM should be able to put you onto something with a kayak.

And I agree with the steady retrieve at night. I'm a big fan of swimbait and horny toads.

Don't tell that to the bass in a private lake I fish Al. It's about 10 acres and I feel like I know the big fish by name by now. Lots of 6 ' s and the biggest so far is an 8. I'm about the only person that fishes it anymore (and have taken a few OAF folks), and every fall and winter I re-aquaint the fish with rattle traps. They haven't gotten tired of them yet. Although I guess just one person fishing it every few weeks probably isn't a lot of conditioning.

Yes. It has a significant effect. White bass need current to spawn. They will move to current. Post spawn fish will scatter in the backed up areas as they travel back home, but the spawning fish will go to areas with current.

L5-S1 you mean? That's where my trouble is. Disc dessication - it's dried out to the point that it doesn't do its job anymore. It started about seven years ago and would put me down for a week solid every so often. It's worse than a herniated disc in the sense that there's no fluid left to herniate. It used to get just horribly bad. But I've been nearly pain free for quite a while now. It will hurt and get uncomfortable, but not to the point that I need to take anything other than ibuprophen. If I'd lose some belly weight it would get a lot better. The key for me has been doing things I was afraid to do previously like deadlifts, front and back squats, snatches, and cleans. Learning the olympic lifts has been a lot of fun, but they really hit your entire posterior chain hard. You have to walk a fine line between working and over-working. But your body will lie to you and tell you that things hurt. I made myself lift even when it was uncomfortable, and the added strength in all of those muscles has really helped protect my spine. Also, flexibility in the hamstrings is extremely important, and none of us have it once we start getting older. You have to work your back side out really hard, and stretch it harder.

Thanks for all the input. I need to spend more time playing with it and someone else helping me would probably help a lot. This unit has no side/down imaging. It's strictly the color sonar and has two beams

I have a Hummingbird 597HD. It has the dual beam and switchfire, though I don't know what those do really (I understand one beam is a higher frequency and one is a lower frequency - one has a wider cone and one is more detail oriented). I haven't really played with it at all, and haven't used it for much more than the depth and temperature. I wish I had a better understanding of how it all worked. I understand how to "read" the image, and that it's a picture in time from left to right going from oldest to newest. What I don't understand is how to use it to make me a better fisherman. When I'm cruising around at a decent clip I can see fish arches and tracks and know what they mean. It was fun jigging around horseshoe bend last year for white bass and striper. But I want to apply it more to helping me find brush piles, logs and crappie. Sometimes I see lots of clutter on the screen and I know it isn't baitfish. Does that mean my sensitivitiy is too high? Do I need to turn the little fish icon things off? It's easy enough for me to see a big school of bait in deep water with zig zagging lines underneath it and know what's going on, but I want to be able to see evidence of structure better. Is there a good article someone can point me to that will help me understand its capabilities a little better? If you could offer a quick crash course, what would you recommend? Ultimately I want to be able to slow troll through an area from 7-15 feet deep and find the stick-ups that I'm sure are in there.

The river is fed by a lot bigger watershed than just east on 45. If it rains in blackoak, St. Paul, or Elkins - that all hits twin bridges. It's unfishable right now, but it didn't come up THAT much. It should clear up enough to fish in 3-4 days provided there's no more rain, but that doesn't look like it's going to be the case. You can walk Richland Creek until your heart is content. You can walk the shoal immediately above the bridge, and the two shoals below it on the White (all accessed from 45 bridge). The problem is that the lake is backed up to at least the first shoal below the bridge. The second shoal is most definitely a lake this year. To access the shoals above the bridge, you need a boat, paddle-craft, or private access through waterford (or up higher even).

You have to think backwards at night in my opinion. Every turn has a shallow inside and a deep outside. During the day we float over the shallow side and cast to the deep channel. At night it's backwards. I think the big smallmouth chase the minnows in the shallows at night. I've caught a lot of good fish floating over the "good" water and fishing the marginal shallow water at night. I can't top matt's jitterbug. A hollow body frog maybe?

But no rainbows like that. Great fish.

Last several trips (December I think) we have caught nice cutthroats. There's one spot that's past the boat docks going downstream at the top of the long slow hole where I always seem to catch a good one.

I can relate personally, but I get the bow fishing deal. And ultimately it's a culling tool for a population that's difficult to manage otherwise. It's not my deal, but I get it.

The carp buster guys I assume are the Peoria guys? Different deal if so. Those are invasive Asian carp. We don't have them. I highly doubt there's any truth to them Taking up oxygen considering they occupy .000001% of the water at any given time. There are a few people who I think waste oxygen for the rest of us, yet in reality they have very little actual effect.

I figured someone would know who it was. That was incredibly scary and you made a hell of a move to hit the kill switch. I'm so bad about it that at times there has been a zip tie around mine just to make sure I don't have to mess with it. Did you catch any fish? Seemed like we left them biting a little.

Which part is illegal? Not arguing, just a legitimate question. Is it that they were supposed to dump them somewhere else, or that they dumped them to begin with?

Craziest thing I saw yesterday was a guy in a Ghenooe (however you spell that). He hit a rock with his outboard (a 2.5h I think) and it threw it straight sideways. Threw him out of the boat and he was hanging onto it while it spun like a bull in 4' or so of water. He was holding on for dear life and had lost his footing, but was near the stern of it. I thought he was going to get chopped up by that motor and he came extremely close. It probably spun 15 or 20 times with him stuck on/under it. He finally managed to hit the kill switch. PSA to wear a kill switch. I'm bad about not wearing mine. Gave us all quite a scare watching him, and a hell of a laugh afterwards.