hoglaw

That's navionics. Autocorrect got me.

What do you guys like? I researched this in the past but don't remember my conclusion. I recall one of them having sample maps on the web I could browse. Would like to look at a good topo of the war eagle area in the morning, but ultimately want to buy a map pack with beaver and some Oklahoma lakes on it. Avionics and hot maps are the only ones I'm familiar with and I don't know the difference between gold, platinum, or whatever else they offer. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks Ham! I visited Kevin on the way to the river on Friday and talked to him for a while. Super nice guy with a cool operation. I picked up two of the spider seat bases from him for $50 each I think. Boat ran great this weekend. We fished the Norfork on no water on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning - just put in and eased downstream to McClellan's. Fished the White on Saturday afternoon/night and Sunday morning. It was a great fishing weekend.

Just don't run on plane through there. I was told (sternly) it was no wake from 62 to the dam.

Heck of a first two posts.

Mine didn't have any seats. Just an open hull with a big raised back deck and a big raised front deck. I doubt they have a website. They haven't been making boats for quite a while have they?

Those are all going to say wiggle wart. Did they ever say Rapala under the bill?

One of my favorite campfire meals is a big honking steak and a potato. I always save the leftover steak for skillet fried potatoes with steak and eggs for breakfast burritos the next morning. On my engagement float, we pre-made foil packs with meat and veggies for dinner, and with breakfast sausage saturated with egg and onions for breakfast the next morning. Those pack up really nicely. The dinner one worked out great, but the breakfast one didn't do as well. Really didn't need as much heat for the breakfast pack.

Hit it again yesterday and pretty much struck out. Caught one largemouth and missed what felt like a decent bite. Fiancee never caught one. We went to the same area, but went as far up the War Eagle as I thought I could go. There's a tree that looks like it's all the way across the creek. There might have been some room to go around it but I couldn't see. It was getting very shallow and I didn't want to get stuck. We fished from about one to six, so I missed the evening hour. Didn't do much other than run banks with a spinnerbait since it was a little windy and I wanted to make sure she could fish too. I saw a ton of small baitfish a good ways up the creek. The surface was alive, and it looked like there were small whites chasing them with the occasional big splash. Acres and acres of bait fish.

The one thing I didn't see mentioned skimming over this is a hammock. I have a Grand Trunk Skeeter Beeter. It has a bug net and a rain-fly. It eliminates a ton of weight and space, and expands your camping options. A friend of mine used his in one of the swamps down south for a winter canoe trip and didn't set foot on dry ground for three days. I have a thermarest that I put in mine, though it's not necessary for a real minimalist. It is necessary for me. I would rather sleep in my hammock than in a tent, even if I was car camping. I only take the tent when the fiancee comes with me. For food, one of the easiest things for me is to shred a rotissery chicken from Walmart before I go. Super healthy, high protein, dense and compact, and very tasty hot or cold. A shredded chicken, hamomck, and a bottle of Bullet or one of the Glenn's and I'm happy for the night. If I want some variety, I'll pre-make a foil pack with ground chuck and veggies to put in the coals. I don't do dehydrated food or dinner that doesn't have to be refrigerated. I'm just not that much of a minimalist.

Sorry for the late response. I did not put in at mt shira. I accessed at a campground at shady lake

Ham, do you grub fish for trout?

I've always stuck to the creeks and rivers and electric motor lakes. When I was in college my uncle put an old bass tracker with a 25 at his dock in the Rambo area for me to use. I never was very good at the lake fishing stuff. But since I bought my river boat, I've been venturing into new areas. Last weekend it was Shadow Lake on the Elk. This Wednesday I decided to fish the war eagle area before heading to a poker game in Springdale that night. I launched at sidewalk hole and ran up the river a ways. Not as far as I could have, but at one point I got out of the channel without realizing it. I was running wide open when I realized I was in pretty shallow water. I started to turn and rubbed the bottom. It was just slick mud, but it was only a few inches deep. It scared the heck out of me so I just turned as slowly as I could towards the channel and kept it wide open. My jet was blowing mud out the back like crazy the whole way. Won't make that mistake again. I only caught five bass. Two were little, two were slightly bigger, and the biggest went maybe 2lbs. I caught two on a jig and three, including the biggest, on a spinnerbait. A slow retrieve around wood was the key. Talked to some guys at the ramp and got some good intel, so I think I'll start spending a lot more time out there. I'm anxious to find out how far I can run up the river from there. I've got access to a 15 acre pond that's full of hydrilla and big bass that like frogs. It's hard to make myself fish in other places, but once you've caught every fish in a pond, there's something to be said for catching "wild" fish. The bass out there should keep getting better for the next couple of months so I'm excited to do some more exploring. The guys I talked to were crappie fishing. They said they just caught one big one.

I'm a big jerkbait fan. They do inflict some damage from time to time. I de-barb all of my hooks so I figure that helps somewhat. My fiancee really likes the Rapala XR-8 in the rainbow trout color. She's big on feathered trebles. I picked up some McSticks recently, but my favorite is a Lucky Craft DD-78 Pointer. I haven't gotten a good opportunity to throw them on big water yet. I've caught some good fish on white jigs in heavier flows before. We always fished jigs on the little red so they're just a comfort bait for me. My biggest trout have been caught on jigs so far, but hopefully I'll get a good heavy water jerkbait weekend this winter. One of my favorite jig holes ever is the hole just below the island at McClellan's on the Norfork. I used to love sitting on the log just down from that hole over the deeper water and throwing a white jig. It was brown after brown there.

Not sure about the live well. I have a much larger back deck than yours since I don't have the center console. I have a live well and dry storage there. Had it out in steady 20mph plus wind on the elk today. Caught a bunch and it floated way better in the stiff wind than my old shawnee.

That's my boat plus a center console! I have been absolutely thrilled with mine. Taking it to the elk today so we will see how it does in the wind. I don't have a clue on the value, and you have a newer motor than I do. Mines a 2 stroke 90 with the jet conversion. And I don't have the prop lower unit. Yes the fuel tank is in front under the deck. 12 gallons plus two batteries near the front balances it nicely for me. To Als question, I don't know if I have much advantage over aluminum. I just know I got what I felt was a great deal and I couldn't be happier with comfort and performance. Yeah it burns more gas, but if economics was a huge concern for as few trips as I get, I'd still rent or wade. With minimum flow in effect, I am thrilled I decided on a jet. I think there will be a lot more on the white.

I ordered a bunch on Monday of this week before I saw this post. Was hoping they'd get here in time for this weekend. They came in on Tuesday. 24 hours is a pretty quick turn-around. I have always thought they were well made and reasonably priced jigs. Maribou jigs were about all we used when I grew up fishing on the LRR. I maxed out on 1/16th and 1/8th oz myself. The rod they market doesn't sound terribly impressive. They are charging quite a bit of money for an IM6 blank, in my opinion anyway. For that kind of money you could easily get into a much higher quality blank. But I built a spinning rod for my fiancee as a birthday present two years ago on a pink IM6 blank and it has become my one of my favorite maribou jig rods ever. I'm going to be building some more jig rods soon on some high end blanks for throwing the 1/16oz jigs. I'm a big fan of micro guides for that application, and with CX-premium you can just about cast all the line off your reel. I haven't tried the nanofill trout fishing yet. I'll give it a shot this weekend. What kind of leader are you using? 4lb floro? I just learned the uni to uni connection and I'm gaining confidence in its strength.

A not guilty plea is probably the best thing for those of you who are still following this or still in contact with law enforcement on it. A plea is entered at an arraignment. Had he pled guilty, the judge would have just decided what the sentence should be and gone about the rest of the cases on the docket that day. Now that he has pled not guilty, that means a prosecutor has it in his or her hands rather than just the judge. The prosecutor is the one who will decide what to offer on the case. I used to do some small town prosecution early in my career. I liked it because I really didn't have any oversight, and if I had a case that was a really bad one - one that I thought needed to be met with stiff punishment, then I had the ability to do that. I'd say, I'm offering X. If you don't like it, we can have a trial and I'll ask the judge for Y. The judge almost always took my recommendation on sentencing once we had a trial. The judge just assumed that if we had a trial and I was asking for more than he would normally hand out, then there was a good reason for it. I say that only to say this. If you want to be heard on this, you probably can. You can call the prosecutor and tell him or her why this should be taken seriously. Be polite and respectful and remind him that you understand he has a lot of cases to deal with and many of them involve far worse offenses than a game and fish violation, but you feel like a message needs to be sent and that poaching old native fish goes on constantly and enforcement is very difficult. This is a rare case where one of the worst breeds of poachers got caught, and you feel like the punishment should be severe enough to deter others from doing it. I'd have hammered this guy as a prosecutor anyway, but I can tell you that when citizens of the town where I prosecuted called with concerns, I took them very seriously.

I'll take your squarebills and McSticks

Is it possible? I see an access on google earth but it doesn't appear to have a ramp. I don't necessarily need a good ramp, just the ability to get the back of my boat wet and roll it off the trailer. Even if the folks at Shady Beach would let me, I'm not sure I want to back down on their shallow sloping gravel.

I have a 21'x56" flatbottom with a jet, but I idled through the shallow areas instead of running it and I never rubbed the bottom. Normally I'd blow through all of that but with the water as low as it was, I wasn't sure where all the trouble was. There was plenty of water though. At idle I probably draw 9 inches. Maybe 3 on plane. You might have a hard time going upstream in that boat. I'd say it would be impossible on the left side as you head up, but you might be able to get into the next pool up if you go right around the island. You won't make it any farther than the top of the next pool above the bridge - maybe a mile. You can go downstream as far as you want. You can launch at Beavorama by the way. That's a lot better than going from the 412 bridge if you're trying to go up the river.

I know where that property is I think. Last time I was in the area I drove down and checked it out. Also, I thought the big tract with the private bridge (I think it's between Snow and George's Creek) was for sale at one point. It was more than a section. If I could only find a dozen folks to go in on it with me.

John: What has your experience been with the new water level in the wildcat shoals area? I had never been there before but they turned some water on at the dam, so I figured I'd put in there and wait it out. I tried to head upstream from the ramp but it was too shallow to do anything other than fun full speed ahead, and I didn't feel comfortable doing it. Dragging the boat in the current was a little too tough that hot day, so I loaded up and headed elsewhere. How much higher is the water level at minimum flow just above wildcat? Are you seeing 6+ inches of water throughout the river?

Was it not that way back in 2000? It's astounding how much of a change there has been. That used to be one of my favorite places to fish. I caught a spot that was just over 7lbs from a canoe when I was 19. Didn't even realize it was a spot until I got the pictures back and at that age I didn't really know the difference. Anyway, yesterday was a good time. All fish were small. Caught a few flipping laydowns and a few on a small squarebill. Tons of schools of tiny fish on the surface right now. I lost one good fish and never did see a big pod of gar worth breaking out the fly rod for. Had the place to myself and ran about 3 miles down from Twin with no problems.

When I was in college, we used to fish the twin bridges area a lot. My uncle owns the land where mill creek runs into richland and he used to leave a canoe tied up down there for me to drag to the river. We never strayed too far from the main pool and the long ones on either side of it since we had to paddle back. We used to catch a ton of bass out there. We could almost always count on a 5lb fish every trip, and we never fished anything other than spinnerbaits and weightless trick worms. There was a big flood back in 2002 or 2003 I think. Maybe 04. That flood seemed to coincide with the 45 bridge construction and the installation of the AGFC access. Ever since that happened, the bass fishing hasn't been a fraction of what it used to be. Last time out there for me was earlier this summer when it was 100 degrees and we managed a handfull of average sized spots from one area, but otherwise it was slow. I'm sure increased access and pressure has something to do with it, but the water quality doesn't seem to be nearly as good as it used to be out there. It was always on the murky side in the summer, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it is now. Maybe the boat traffic from the ramp has eroded banks more? I don't know. Anyway, I've got the hall pass for the evening and my normal solo spot is so overgrown with hydrilla now that it has become extremely difficult to fish. So I'm thinking about taking the big boat out to twin this evening for some crankbait fishing. The river is running about 2 CFS right now and it's down to 1.4 feet, so it's not backed up from the lake anymore. I can run some pretty shallow stuff, but probably don't want to take any chances by myself. Does anyone fish that area anymore aside from the white bass run?