hoglaw

Someone may have posted this, but on all the Spro frogs, I find I need to bend the hooks out away from the body ever so slightly. That really helps increase the hook-up rate. Even on a good bite with a full take, sometimes the hooks don't clear the body I guess....so bend them out a hair (which is not easy to do). I second the horny toad. If you use a light guage hook it will let you run it a lot slower, and even kill it without taking too long to get back on plane.

I'd have posted this in the crooked creek forum but thought I'd share it with everyone instead. For memorial day weekend, I really wanted to do an overnight float on a stretch of crooked that doesn't get much traffic. You pretty much have to overnight it, especially when the water is as low as it is right now. She wanted to fish this weekend, but I didn't know if she'd be up for gravel bar camping and two pretty long days of floating, so I gave her the choice between an overnight float or staying in a cabin on the white and two days of trout fishing over there. Fortunately, she picked the float trip without hesitation. That was good for me because I had some big plans and didn't want to clue her in. We put in on Saturday around lunch and it was non stop fish all day. We saw two turkeys, a couple of deer, and some of those aquatic mammals I always have a hard time identifying - either otters, muskrats, mink, or something like that. We didn't catch any giants on Saturday, but between Saturday and yesterday we caught well over 100 fish (it may have been 200 counting goggle eye and long eared sunfish), with probably a third of those being 15-16". But we were missing the big one. I had a couple of big ones flash during Saturday but never managed to hook up with any of them. On Saturday night, we found a nice gravel bar with a grassy plateau above the river to set up our tent. We got a good night's sleep except for the dang whippoorwills that kept going all night. We didn't see another soul the whole time except for a couple of locals on four wheelers. Sunday, we finished up by about 2 I think, and finally managed to get into a couple of nice big fish. She lost an absolute monster at the boat while she was trying to grab the net. Here's a pic of one of her good ones, but it also shows my best catch of the trip - some new jewelry for her!

Guess they've already started. The water came up fast and is dropping out quickly. Here's my prediction. They finish in two days rather than three. Day 1 is tough fishing by Kings standards with the high water. They make it all the way to Rockhouse by dinner time. Day 2 the fishing gets a little better, but they're done floating by lunch. A lot of beer is had by all and they have a great time. Maybe they even go back up and do it again for day 3. If they remembered to pack the big spinnerbaits and warts, they catch some personal best smallmouth.

Nice fish. Crooked got some water with these last rains. I'm headed there this weekend, but won't be on that stretch you did...which is a nice stretch. We're doing about 11 miles and camping half way. You were headed in the right direction with the tree bait by the way. It can get tough fishing right behind a group that's really fishing the holes hard.

I'd be surprised if anyone wants to run a shuttle to Mt. Hersey. It's a long gravel drive and the outfitters can put folks in at easier locations.

It reminds me of when I was a kid fishing the Little Red and we were catching lots of good trout. When the passers-by would ask "what are you using" my stepdad would always say "chartreuse spinnerbaits."

I've heard that the "river" is clearing up nicely. But the south end of Blue Springs still seems like the lake to me. I think you'll have to go farther up the river to find clear water. And you can look at the forecast and have as educated an opinion as most anyone here on whether it will continue to clear. No telling how much rain we will get towards the end of this week.

It's funny how up in arms people get about these things. I realize folks pay money to fish them and what not, but if you invited me to a poker game with a substantial buy-in where everyone got to bring their own deck of cards, or got to play cards from behind a partition where I couldn't see them, then thanks but no thanks. Look, I've fished in a tournament where you could take off when you wanted, on the honor system, and there were no livewell checks and you could put in where you wanted. It was the Smackover Drum Rodeo. What's even more funny is my friends who run the Rogers-Lowell Chamber who are fielding calls from pissed off participants who read a rumor on an internet blog that the folks who beat them by 15lbs were....wait for it....cheating!!!! There's nothing in this world more disgusting than a liar, thief, or a cheat. I wouldn't play cards with one for sure. And if there's one group who's known for fudging more than card players, is anyone shocked that it's "tournament" bass fishermen? Someone here suggested earlier that the year following a win, the top 5 should be followed by marshalls. What would that do? So the cheater has to either not come back, or come back and get watched while they catch a few bass but don't win? Do they have to validate by finishing in the top 10 the second year? It sucks, and I certainly feel for all the folks who fished on the up and up and got beat by a bunch. I've been in that boat. But the bottom line is if you don't like it, don't play the game. OR, take the initiative and ask the powers that be to implement procedures to curb this kind of thing. If they don't want to take the necessary steps (and they probably don't because they don't care about the tournament aside from the fact that it raises much needed money), then the only thing you can do is not fish in it next year and hope others follow suit.

What's funny is I read about or saw a vertical crankbait presentation at one point. I can't remember where I heard about it. But the short version is a heavy pyramid sinker just above a floating crank bait. Pitch beyond and drag to a spawning bed, then pull slack in and let it out to imitate a bluegill nosing down on a bed.

FF, not that familiar with the lake outside of the river. Are you saying you feel like they're back down from the river by now? They were in huge numbers at and above Twin a couple of weeks ago. I just don't know how quickly they clear out of the river.

Thanks for the leads guys. I'd like to get nice ones, so I'll start calling around.

Anybody make it out yesterday or headed out today? If the weather cooperates we're going to run out there tomorrow after work. I'll probably jump around a bit to see if we can find the whites, but may just end up crappie fishing.

I'm having trouble finding two spider seats for my boat. The closest thing I've been able to locate are these, which don't look half bad. Anyone know where most of the lodges and outfitters over at the White get their seats? http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabelas-Quad-Stand-High-Back-Seat-Combo/735114.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3Dblind%2Bseat%26x%3D-1019%26y%3D-51%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%2BProducts&Ntt=blind+seat&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products

The polygraph at the weigh-in deal, I think, is meant to be more of a deterrent than a way to actually catch cheaters. I have always heard that someone can be trained in an hour or so to beat one. But there's at least some level of reliability in them. Results are generally admissible in criminal proceedings, but law enforcement officers use them fairly regularly as investigatory tools. I also heard a story of a guy who got disqualified from the Arkansas big bass bonanza thing that they do on the river. The story goes that he was an average joe who had the big fish of the whole tournament. When he sat down for his polygraph, they asked him if he had consumed any drugs or alcohol - probably to establish background for verifying his answers or something. He responded that he had, in fact, smoked a celebratory joint on the way back to the weigh in to commemorate his catch and calm his nerves since he thought he had a good shot at the big payday. He was DQ'd for violating the no drug policy of the tournament. I have no idea if that one's true or not but I thought it was funny. Definitely one of the most expensive joints ever smoked.

John, it is definitely sketchy up there if you don't know the channel (which I don't in that area). When we got into the braided area above neil's that you can access on foot from the road, the glare off the water was really bad and I wound up running through some bushes. Fortunately as long as I keep it on plane I can go over some pretty shallow water. Haven't figured out just how shallow yet and I'd prefer to have another strong guy in the boat with me when I do try to find out! Anyone have any thoughts on the fish? Two weeks ago I caught a few well above Twin. Before that, I had been hammering them below the bridge about a mile and a half. I haven't had a big numbers day since the middle of April. I'm going to go with my girlfriend on Wednesday, and I'm not really sure where we should go. I'll probably launch at Twin and head both directions and hopefully I can put her on some fish.

I went out for a boat ride yesterday evening. The lake is very much backed up into the White and it's high and muddy. It should clear up a good deal this week I think, but it's tough navigating unless you know the channel or can run shallow. It has been a long time since I have been between Walker's bluff and Beav-o-rama, so I was definitely on point yesterday. All I could do was make an educated guess on where the channel was, but I wasn't drafting much water so I just hauled and hoped. Didn't have any issues other than sucking up quite a bit of junk. There is a tremendous amount of human trash and wood debris in the water right now. We didn't fish because we didn't have time, but I did see some mega blow-ups around the Neil's bluff area that I figured to be stripers. It got pretty cool on us, but it was a beautiful evening to be out. I hope to be able to try the whites again on Wednesday, but I think I'll launch at 45.

I find it amusing that folks can point to the fact that this May 12th was colder than last May 12th and intimate "where's your global worming now??????" But when the overwhelming majority of experts in the field agree that each decade has been progressively warmer, it's all crickets. I'll be the first to confess that I'm willfully ignorant when it comes to politics, but at this point are there any credible sources that actually dispute that the increased emission of greenhouse gases actually causes the artificial warming of the earth? I know lots of folks at one point would say "well yeah, I believe it's getting warmer, but cycles and such...people aren't causing it" but surely that has gone away by now. But saying because it's cold today the earth isn't progressively getting warmer, in 2013, really does seem silly.

Well, so much for this weekend.

Thanks Nick, I was trying to figure out how to get it off my phone and onto my computer at work to post it. A friend and I worked LATE last night getting the TM installed. My whole body is sore today from holding a wrench taped onto a broom stick for most of the night, but we got it done right. Nice fish. Glad you got to get out before the rain. I'll probably give it a go on Saturday.

After what seems like months of waiting, I finally got my boat. It's a 21' x 54" AFF fiberglass river jon with a 90h yamaha jet. It's a beast and it runs like a scalded dog. I took it out on the White below Bull Shoals twice before I bought it, but I haven't had a good opportunity to see how shallow I can run on plane yet. I'm hoping to get out there on Saturday. Hopefully they'll still be doing their thing. I'll probably try to launch at Beavorama as I don't need a whole lot of ramp with the EZLoader. Going to try and get the TM set up on it tonight. We'll see how that goes.

Jason: Do you have a Supreme (or similar type fiberglass river john)? A couple of times out there this year I've seen a guy (the first time was a couple of guys in a couple of boats) cruise by me in a trout boat headed, I assumed, for a set of shoals that I've been wanting to fish that you really need a boat to get to.

I drove over it twice on the way to pick up my boat (that I've been waiting on for over two months it seems). Finally got it home. I think it's destined for a twin trip at some point in the not too distant future. Wednesday if I can swing it, Saturday if not. The fish are in the river. I caught small males a long way above twin last week. I thought I had them dialed in until a rain or two ago. Anyone think they're done yet? I'm starting to wonder whether triple digit days will have to wait until next spring.

Tom definitely knows what he's talking about and his book is the first one I ever read when I started doing this. The choke guide is in the same spot regardless of rod length because it's placement is relative to reel diameter, and it's measured from where the spool lip plane bisects the rod. Let's say that measuring the spool diameter and multiplying by a factor of 27-30, depending on what you use, yeilds a product of 60cm. Your choke guide is 60cm above the spool lip plane whether the rod is 5 feet long or 10 feet long. But here's where I'm confused. The choke guide in a concept system is the smallest guide on the rod, and all guides above it are the same size. The choke guide is not the bottom guide - it's the bottom running guide. On MOST spinning rods, that's the third guide from the bottom and you generally have two (or 3 on big rods) progressively larger guides below the choke, with however many identical sized "running guides" above the choke. That's the true concept guide placement system that Fuji credits itself with pioneering (no idea whether that's true or not).

It's like I was explaining to someone earlier trophy - a spinning rod built with micro guides has to be tailor made based upon the dimensions of the reel that's going to be used with it. That's the only way you can properly position the choke guide, and if it's not in the right place you lose some or all advantages of micro guides in the first place. In some cases, they can even have a negative impact on overall performance if the rod is not set up absolutely correctly. Line makes a big difference too. I haven't really tried any small diameter braid. But I do know that I get rediculous results out of PLine's CX Premium, which is florocarbon coated copoly. And I've had some bad results with cheap florcarbon. It's a lot like buying a porsche. The tolerances are tight and it's tuned for performance. If you put E85 or even regular in it, it's going to run like crap. If you're going to get into micro guides, you really have to do it right to take advantage of what they allow you to do, or you're not going to get any benefit. The Duckett rods and a lot of the off the rack spinning rods with way too many guides are evidence of that. Their designers know that they have to be set up very generally or folks would hate them. But there's no comparison between one of those and one that is built correctly for the specific reel and application. That's not so much the case with baitcasting rods, but the refusal of the commercial manufacturers to spiral the guides to the bottom of the rod makes them have to use WAY too many guides on the micro setups, and they sacrifice a lot of performance.

Good on you for getting out. I wish I could have been out yesterday before all this stuff came through. The water was just a little too high on Wednesday. Very nice fish.