hoglaw

So you guys went up the creek a ways it appears, or maybe the camera angle is throwing me off. It looked like people were catching fish on Sunday, but I think they're really scattered. I fished for a couple of hours on Sunday evening and never found them. It looked like people were walking a long way for bank space.

Oh, I think it's hysterical, particularly his quick dash to the car. It's like the guy knew the fish was short, but if he did know the slot, why would he do it when he knew he was being filmed? I guess he's a moron on either account.

I've seen spoonbill in the part of the White that I fish. I'm sure they're a blast to hang, but I've always wondered what you guys do with these fish? Do you eat them or their eggs, or do you release them? Is there a high mortality rate when you snag, or are these guys big enough to swim away after being untangled?

I wouldn't expect much out of your report. Not sure the length of the fish could be proven.

Has anyone got a picture of the hills you guys are whining about? You Missourah fellas sure do sound spoiled. When I was a lad here in the Boston Mountains, I would carry my Discovery on my head down an old wash-out for a quarter of a mile before I hit Richland Creek. Did I say down? I meant it was uphill - both ways.

Have you had a look at richland since last night's rain? Is the creek backed up, or is there any current?

Booger: You must have been close to Wyman. Were you able to motor up the whole way? I bet you didn't see to many folks up that far, but with this water you may have. How is the current? I'm anxious to get a report after last night's rain. I'd like to solo it one night myself in my newly patched bass buddy, but I'm not interested in fighting current all night. I'm equally disinterested in swimming in the dark, so i hope my patch job does the trick.

I've caught stripers by accident night fishing for bass, so I anticipate I'll be slow rolling on the White. In the past, I've intentionally fished for stripers on Texoma with a slow retrieve. We weren't quite slow rolling, but we were letting 1oz white spinnerbaits with trailers fall quite a ways. I imagine I'll try deep steady retrieves and bumping the bottom.

Big stripers can be released 99% of the time if you have adequate tackle and don't play the fish to death. If they're using light walleye stuff, I'm sure they were badly exhausted.

Has anyone been out lately? I have a few questions: Is there any significant current or is the river backed up? Are there any stripers/hybrids up yet? What's the water temp? Anyone thrown a black spinnerbait at night for stripers?

I don't fish swimbaits, but I've always used a drop of superglue on the head of a trickworm. When I throw them in creeks, the gog's and perch attack them and knock my worm out of whack really quickly. The superglue seems to help a little and the back side of the worm still moves freely up the shank for a big bite.

Yeah, I considered a few quick fixes, but I need this to hold up. First, it's on an area that gets stressed when I wench the boat down to my canoe trailor. Second, I got it for night fishing on the White here in Fayetteville. I'm carrying a pretty darn nice trolling motor, my rods, and a battery in it...I don't want to have to swim. So, I bought a good bit of fiberglass cloth at Lowe's for $6.00 or so. I bought locktite brand epoxy for plastics for another $4.00. I have denatured alcohol and my sanding materials at home. I forgot to get paint, but I'm sure I have rustoleum or house paint in my garage. I'm going to do the work today, then I'll fill 'er up through the drainage holes and see what else leaks.

Google Earth the lake, find the most remote areas adjacent to large tracts of woods, motor in the dark, trolling motor + owl call when they get off the roost, tie up boat, work birds. That's the formula down south. I'm not sure if Missouri lets you actively hunt from a boat, but we do it in Arkansas as long as we shoot from dry land.

Please forgive me for my ignorance, but let me recap: I need to purchase a fiberglass cloth and (separately) standard epoxy? Any idea where I can get the cloth? Are we talking the epoxy I can get from Walmart? Also, should I inject the mixed epoxy into the pontoon prior to bonding the cloth? Thanks again guys.

Haha. You'd think as a lawyer I'd be more perceptive to vague language like "in the past." Actually, I'm not hacked at the seller at all. In fact, his wife put it up on craigslist with an ad that said (as I recall) "husband out of town, want boat out of my yard, $20 first taker." At least that was the message I got. I think they could have told me that it had a close range 12 guage wound and I still would have risked a twenty on it. I appreciate the insight. Where would I get fiberglass resin and cloth? Is that fiberglass cloth? I don't know what the boat's made out of, either some kind of plastic or other resin, but I don't think it's true fiberglass. I'll give southtown sporting goods a call and see what they have to say.

So I bought what is commonly referred to as a bass buddy. It's a little one man plastic pontoon boat that's flat on top with square(ish) pontoons on bottom and has mounts for a trolling motor in the front and rear. I picked it up for $20.00, and was told that it had leaked in the past. Well, you get what you pay for and apparently the past also means the present. The leak is on the bottom/front of one of the pontoons, directly on what you would call a seam area. There doesn't appear to be an actual seam, but it's the vertex (lowest point on the pontoon). It's a crack that's pretty long, and fills up with water quite quickly as I found out yesterday. My question is, is this fixable? It's a bit of a stress area because of the way I strap it down to my canoe trailor, so any fix would have to be pretty solid...we're not talking superglue in the crack here. Is there a kevlar patch or something I can bond to the whole of the bottom of the pontoon that will hold up? I'd love to get this thing fixed because it really cooks with my 50lb trolling motor on it (even when carrying extra water), and it's a great standing platform for fishing some of the places I fish here around Fayetteville. I can try to take a picture of the affected area if that will help. Also, should anyone wish to trade an old flatbottom or canoe(s) for legal work in Arkansas, feel free to shoot me a P.M.

they may be all the way up to lake sequoia. I haven't the slightest idea, but they need current to spawn. I heard Richland and the White were both flowing backwards for a brief period of time. Don't know if that's true or not, but it all looked backed up last night when I drove over 45. I'm thinking about slinging a big black spinnerbait one night this week...maybe tomorrow.

So I drove over 45 bridge last night and it looked like the water was standing still. I spoke with a friend who owns the Christmas tree farm out on Tuttle Rd., and she said Richland was flowing backwards. What will all this still water do for the spawning run? Seems like the whites might run a long way this year. Has anyone been down to fish the big water? Might be time to go chunk a 1/2 oz spinnerbait.

All I have to say is thank the good lord. The White, especially around Goshen, needed a good flushing. Eight years ago, that was some of my favorite bass water in the state. Now it's a toilet. Hopefully this high water will run some of the trashers off for a while and draw some new fish up from the lake. I hope it looks like a lake of its own for a while like it did five or so years ago.

Holy cow! Glad you guys are okay. I wonder if any of our Oklahoma residents could help me with my next question.... what's the limit on canoe snagging in Tenkiller?

I had heard the dollar hole shut down access to the public. We probably contributed to that...had to have a tow truck drag my college roommate's bronco out of the depths one time. I think I actually swam out of the window. Anyhow, you can still walk up to it on core right of way if you don't mind a pretty serious hike. Hey bobber, I sent you a P.M.

I haven't heard any reports, but with the massive amount of cold water we've had, I'd imagine they're either scattered in the lake arms, or starting to stage in the upper lake arms. At any rate, I don't think there are many in the river yet. If I had to guess, I'd say water temp's probably 45 or less. Magic number is around 53-56, or has been in years past.

Fayetteville got a slight dusting. Massive snow North, South, East, and West of us. Hardly any here.

Not sure about OK, but I know it's early for White's here (NW Arkansas). Too much cold water.

Maybe MDC should consider just selling its trout to these people. Could be a better revenue stream than licensing.