hoglaw

Circles are fine. Just remember not to set the hook. Let the fish eat and run with it until your rod is fully loaded the. Just reel. If you're using a stout rod and a short line directly below the boat, you'll probably have to set your drag really light so the fish can peel it off easily. Then just gradually tighten it.

9 lbs 3 oz. Will Thomas is our first. Glad to be home from the hospital and still in a little bit of shock. He's healthy and perfect in every way. Mom is doing great. Looking forward to staying up with him tonight and letting her get some sleep.

My wife has a cruise and loves it. Great boat for just floating down the river. It's my guest boat too. Slightly shorter and wider than the coosa. I'd use it but I'm already above max weight on my coosa. Isn't the cuda supposed to be the bigger water boat? I thought it's market was lakes and salt water. If so, and if worm likes it enough to fly fish out of on rivers, maybe that's the boat you need instead of the big rig?

Sorry for reviving this one but I forgot to check it until this morning. I think yall are right about the Buffalo. These definitely aren't drum or grass carp. Looked them up on Google images and that's what I'm seeing. Thank you!

Before this year i could count the number of walleyes i had caught on one hand. This year im up to my toes, so im doing better but not nearly as knowledgeable as the other posters. I caught a really nice one this spring on a kitech swing impact on a jig head. The others casting flicker shads.

Bring something heavier than an ultralight if you can. Fishing that light really limits your options on the Buffalo and Ouachita. On the Buffalo, I've had some good days this time of year on top water. A Sammy would probably be my top choice, but any walk the dog top water would be good. Ned rig of course, 1/16th oz head. You could fish that on an ultralight if you wanted to I guess, but I use braid with an 8lb floro leader. Crankbaits like a wiggle wart in crawfish patterns may be starting to heat up. It's a little too early for suspending jerkbaits, but you can probably catch some fish on a fluke. A 5" Yamamoto Hula Grub on a 1/4oz jig head is always a good choice. All of those lures will work on the Ouachita too, but I'd want to throw a spinnerbait some down there. Not sure on the flies. Crawfish patterns and clousers are probably your best bets. For the clousers, look up a creek chub on google images and tie them in those colors.

I just had two boxes of craws show up at my house. Thank you trophyfishr and thank you mitch. It's neat to see someone else's handiwork who you feel like you know a little but have never met. I'm blown away by the realism of course, but I'm more impressed by how hardy they appear to be. Looks like the pincers will stay on through multiple fish. Going to give them a shot in the back yard creek this week.

The My guess is, state wide, Missouri averages 5 10lb fish a year. That's purely pulled from my rear end. It may be that there are a few strictly managed private lakes that grow big fish and folks can catch them. The fish in my avatar was 10 pounds, 8oz. It's by far the biggest I've ever caught - from a farm pond on a frog. I've caught more 7's than I can count from a private lake I have access to, and couple that were 8. I have to think 10lb catches are exceedingly rare, particularly in Missouri. I'd think Georgia, Florida, Lousiana, Alabama, and Mississippi turn out quite a few 10's a year, as well as California.

Hey STL, might want to post this one in the boats section of the foum. Might get a few more eyes on it that way. My jet is a fiberglass river john, so I don't know that my opinions would be helpful. Welcome to the board!

This thread had so much promise....

Ah. Same deal as the White. I doubt catfish make it up very far in reliable numbers, though there are probably a few to be caught. A few creeks come to mind that dump into the LRR that may have some in them. One of my bucket list trips is to go from Ramsey to Searcy, about a 25 mile float if memory serves. There may be some on that stretch, but there's no real access. You could go up from Searcy, but you risk getting stuck above the weir wall if you don't have a boat small enough to carry around it.

I'd love to be there, but our first child is due on November 1. I doubt that I'll want to leave him and my wife for a whole weekend that quickly, but maybe if I play my cards right she'll be ready for me to be out of the house by then! So I'll try to make it, but I'm doubtful.

I heard the George's Creek acquisition fell through. Any truth to that Mojo?

Why are you asking about catfish in the tailwater threads out of curiosity?

Ask him I guess. I'm sure there are a few scattered through the river from time to time, but I can't imagine targeting them in the trout sections of the White. Must be an awfully well kept secret.

Very weird lake. Water always has a strange stain, the forage base is all brook silversides, and the bottom composition is really weird. I used to fish there probably 10 or 12 times a year and could talk about it for a long time. I've caught some really big fish in it and have had a lot of not so great trips. I haven't been there in a few years though. It's more work than it's worth for me anymore. My best trip out there was during that giant flood a couple of years ago, and the water was almost at the top of the bluff folks camp on where the lake bends back to the right, probably over the top of the drain by 15 feet. The entire parking lot area was underwater, and I launched off the side of the road.

Yep, there's no replacement for displacement. 6'10" and 400 is a really big guy. I'd stick with a 20' boat and at least a 56" width if you're wanting a river boat. That L60 would be even better. My river boat has a 90 horse hanging on the back of it, so it would most certainly accomodate someone his size.

Batesville?

I always avoided two piece rods, but they're a lot better than they used to be. I still never buy them by choice, but it's always good to have one on hand just in case you need to pack short for a trip (maybe on an airplane or something). I was looking for boat rods for my trout boat a couple of years ago. I wanted five or six inexpensive spinning rods that I could set guests up with for drift fishing or white bass fishing. I bought a handfull of rods that fit the bill on sale at Cabellas. One of them was a two piece TFO rod. I absolutely love it, and I've started using it for my creek ned rod quite a bit. I'm sure I didn't pay more than $40 for it, but again, it was on sale. I guess my point is that I was always in the die hard one piece camp for the reasons Al mentioned, mainly a percieved loss of sensitivity. But I think this rod is extremely sensitive. I don't have a way to do a side by side test with its one piece counterpart, but I've been very pleased with it and it made it from back-up and guest boat rod to my starting creek rotation.

That's a good call. Not sure if cell phones work at the confluence, but if there's a signal maybe the rileys folks could pick you up. Never thought about that.

Also the Norfork has had wadable water in the mornings. If they follow their generation schedule, you could put in before daylight, paddle down to some of the good stuff, spend most of your day there, and head out when the water starts coming up. That's not bad if they're only switching on one unit at lunch time. If they turn on two, the paddling might get a little intense.

First, let me say that I fly fish. I used to do it a lot and I still do it a good bit, but I'm always going to use the best tool for the job. If you're adamant about fly fishing on the LRR, then great. You'll catch some fish I'm sure. But if you're willing to jig fish it/crankbait fish it, you're going to catch more fish in areas that aren't really well suited for fly fishing. Paddling the LRR and jig fishing from the kayak is tremendously effective. I've never tried fly fishing from the kayak, only wading and from my jet boat. But if you're used to fly fishing from a kayak, you might be able to do that just fine. I say all of that only to say this - I'm not a fly fishing hater by any means, so my advice below shouldn't be taken that way. If it was me, I'd carry my kayak down the stairs at Cow Shoals and paddle down to Swinging Bridge. It's not an easy put-in my any means, but it's doable if you can carry your kayak down a lot of stairs by yourself. I'd also ditch the fly gear (or at least carry a spinning rod so you can jig fish). Most of the water is jig fishing water or crankbait water. You'll pass through a couple wadable sections on the way down where folks fly fish all the time, and maybe you can spend most of your day in those places wading. One is a shoal that has a name and maybe a walk-in or private walk-in access, but I forget what it's called. You'll also go past John's pocket, which is a great area, but I'm not sure how great it is for fly fishing. The spot I'm thinking about isn't wadable. The area at the bottom/below the bottom of Cow is a great area year round, and holds lots of good fish. Again, it needs to be fished from the kayak. The water above swinging bridge we normally motor through for the last mile or so, so I'd be less inclined to paddle up from swinging bridge personally, but that's just my experience and Jtram's suggestion will put you on plenty of fish I'm sure. If you start at Cow and paddle down, you're going to hit a lot of good spots. If you're limited on time though, you might be better off just paddline up from Swinging Bridge, which is certainly an easier put-in.

Your buzz bait needed a stinger hook if they were short striking, but if they're totally missing the bait, not sure what you can do. I'm a fan of big baits on CC. Sometimes they just aren't biting though.

Shipps is the next access downstream, and it's on the east side of the river. Flows are likely to still be high when you go I would imagine, so I would plan on heading downstream. Floating on that fast water gives me the willies in a small boat, but I'm sure you'll be fine. Wear your life jacket and ease over to the opposite bank once you hit the water, then just ride the current and you'll be there pretty quickly.

Is there an objective way to tell the difference? I think I have a lot of meanmouth in my creek. How many rays should a smallmouth/spot/meanmouth have on the dorsal fin?