hoglaw

I don't know anything about it but I can't imagine how cool it would be to fish a jitterbug in the deep hole below McClellan's and get a top water trout blowup!

You'd enjoy it for sure. It's definitely different scenery than fishing the White, and a lot less in terms of water fluctuations (they're either generating or they aren't). The cool part is you can float to and from any of the accesses and you're going to get on water that doesn't get pounded because of the shoals. Every inch of the river gets fished in some form or another, and the vast majority of it has boat docks on it with boats in stalls and ready to go, but they can't travel up and down between the holes very well. I've yet to do a float I don't like. The dam to Cow Shoals I've probably done the least because of the heavy crowds around Lindseys (which may be a thing of the past now), Cow Shoals to Swinging Bridge I've done the most (but the put-in is a long walk down stairs carrying a boat), Swinging Bridge to Lobo might be my favorite (but very long with lots of flat still water...need a motor for this one). I've never put in at Lobo becuause our place is about two miles downstream of it. So we'll float from our place to dripping springs, then from dripping springs to Ramsey (long still water float that's mostly accessible by boat, but one of my favorites). I've yet to go below Ramsey. The next take-out is like 20 miles downstream, and there's a wier wall down there that keeps folks from coming up. So it's a ton of untouched water. But it gets warm and I doubt trout are much farther down than Ramsey most of the year. But it should be good warm water fishing. Just haven't done it yet.

I've caught a handfull of smallmouth that looked like that. Hunchback fish.

Little Red is awesome. Much different feel than Norfork and White for sure. I tend to catch my biggest "average" fish at the Norfork, but the stockers on the Red are a little beefier than the stockers on the White. All of the fish we caught had their fins fully developed anyway. A few "silver bullets" but most were very dark with some really deep purple, like this one. The Red feels so much different than the rivers farther north. It feels a lot closer to fishing in low land cypress type rivers. You see lots of minks. There are boat docks all up and down it. The boats are more constrained in where they can go because there are periodic shoals that can't be navigated, even with a jet, unless they're generating. There is a ton of grass in it. Hydrilla maybe? During some parts of the year it gets so thick and matted that it just lays on the top of the water. So the grass can be a bit of a pain, but fish hang out in the seams between it and underneath it. I've never caught a truly big fish from the Little Red. My best is probably an 18" brown. My step-father has an 8lb rainbow and handfull of 5lb browns from it. There are some big fish in it no doubt, but even though I grew up fishing there I've never really gotten into them. I'm sure jerkbait fishing can be good, but the rises are so dramatic that I've never really tried it. The jig is by far the best weapon for that river in my opinion, but maybe if I'd spend some time fishing the high water with a jerkbait I'd feel differently. I've just never been there during the right conditions for that. I'm sure it's a good river for wading and fly fishing too, but a canoe or kayak is really where it's at on that river.

Went down to my family's place Saturday and Sunday to celebrate mom's birthday. The generation is great right now with heavy water starting late morning and shutting off at night. We put in at our dock and floated about 4 miles or so to dripping springs. We had two gheenoes with small outboards and one solo canoe. Yesterday the conditions were great. We started around 7 am and the water had fallen out. Heavy cloud cover had me amped up. I know ham limes sunny days on the white, but on the little red cloud cover is a major blessing. We caught more fish than we cared to count. Probably 80 or 90 between my brother and I. All of mine came on jigs. He caught them on a rebel craw and jigs. No big fish to speak of. Lots of very pretty 13s and 14s. Lost one good one in the swift water in the catch and release area. But all in all a great day on the little red.

Great read Al.

This. Bull is the largest retention area on the system. When everything is big down south, they can't let as much water out of Bull. It also takes a lot of generation to drain Bull, so they'll keep water upstream as much as possible until they HAVE to send it to Bull Shoals. I don't think the tourism influence has much to do with it since the COE has the exclusive power to determine what do do when the lakes are above power pool. I could be wrong about that, but that's what I believe to be the case.

You've been here long enough to know Chief was going to chime in with a Ned comment on a non-Ned-related thread. I've never seen anyone so obsessed with a lure in my life.

And yes, Drew is as hardcore as hardcore gets when it comes to fishing. I'm not sure anyone can say they work as hard as he does. Driving around the clock for a day of fishing, bringing your running shoes on a float trip so you can run back to the truck when you're done....crazy stuff.

I've caught reds two years now in the Fort Morgan/Gulf Shores area, but it's NOTHING like what you're talking about. You can sight a few here and there, but not a lot. Moreover, if you want to have any decent success with redfish down there, it needs to be with fresh dead shrimp or gulp-type products, and you need to really know the area. I asked a guide down there if they ever catch them on spinnerbaits or swimbaits, and he said it's possible, but if you want to do that then go to Lousiana. It's a lot more waiting then it is spotting and catching. I'm dying to get down to SELA.

Yeah, no kidding. Thanks Jim. I grabbed the two non-goofy ones.

The cfs is relative to the stream depth and width is it not? At 2000 cfs the arkansas river is a trickle. My creek on the other hand will be washing out cut banks. The levels you mentioned are unwadable on both rivers. Norfork requires zero generation to really wade. Most good shoals on the white are probably too high above one or two units with the caveat that you can almost always boat to some was able water.

You typed the question correctly. The norfork is basically unwadable during any generation. I think they show 7 sometimes for minimum flow, right? If it's a double digit number, there's no real wading to be had.

Meant to say channelized but phone autocorrected

Man I wouldn't touch it in a paddle craft in arkansas but maybe you're above the channeled part of it in tulsa? I know guys wade fish up there.

They're spiral wrapped

Also, one morning I was out fishing and it was slow. Got back to the condo and my wife had caught countless lady fish when a school got pushed up next to the beach. She had one on every cast. Go figure.

It's a lot of work. And it definitely requires a change of mindset. My goal this trip was a big trout on top water but it didn't pan out. The bull reds were in places I didn't feel comfortable paddling a coosa. A hobbie would have been a different story. Hit me up next time you go down there. I'm by no means an expert but I've got some spots and I'm more than happy to tell you every one of them.

Anything is worth a shot but I've always gone big profile at night. Top water, big worm, swimming fluke on a baffle head, etc. I suppose fish still eat crayfish at night so there's no reason why it wouldn't work. And the slow drag off the rocks ought to clue them into where it is, but when I think night fishing I don't think finesse.

I don't have a clue about any of the competing brands. I have a Yeti Tundra and it's perfect for me. The deal on these is that I don't think they "keep ice" much better than a good Coleman 5 day. If folks are opening and closing the lid all the time and reaching in there, the best cooler in the world won't stop heat exchange. What I like about the Yeti is that it's indestructable. No broken latches, no broken drain, no dents or dings. Mine fits perfectly in the middle of my 17' canoe, but I could definitely benefit from a lighter cooler when canoeing. I use mine more in my trout boat. I can stand on it, use it as a step to get down from the motor deck, leave it in there and let it slide around - basically just forget about it. Is it worth $400 in ice keeping performance? Probably not. But it's nice feeling like I'll never need another cooler. If the competing brands make one that's just as tough and doesn't have components that will break or wear out, I'd say go for it if you can get one for less money. I'm pretty sure you'll notice no difference in the ability to keep ice.

Just got back from Fort Morgan myself. Fished out of my kayak almost every day for a week on the Mobile Bay side. Lots and lots of small trout with a few nice keepers mixed in, some flounder, and of course rat and slot reds. It was a good time.

The only stripers I've ever caught were in Texoma. We fished with a guide and counted down big white spinnerbaits with big trailers to about 20 feet, then steady retrieve. We caught 15 or 20 fish. No giants, but lots of ~10lb fish. It was a blast.

I can't say enough about braid with a leader. Nanofil, light power pro, whatever. The low stretch helps hook ups and bite detection 10000% in my opinion.

Slip bombers can be tough when it's windy, or are for me anyway. You guys are hammering them. That's awesome!

I've got a few of those. Picked them up on ebay when I was buying every jerkbait in sight to try and find the magic one for trout. They have a great action. In the warmer months I'm prone to use a fluke more than a jerkbait. I only throw suspending jerkbaits for trout or in the cold months for bass. Though I will fish them some next week for specks.