hoglaw

Cool deal. I'll be fishing Friday through Sunday. Hoping they turn loose some more water than they have been, but I'll take anything over none.

Yeah. The water above swinging bridge is no Bueno. We float from cow to sb, and bring a 3 horse to motor through all of that.

That sucks and it seems like you guys normally hammer them. Seems like my late fall or early spring trips are always hit and miss. I've had some great ones fishing a Sammy or a big jig. But my favorite lure in the colder water trips has always been the new wiggle wart. Too scared to throw the old ones out of a canoe in moving water.

Not aware of a Coosa in the longer lengths you indicated. I thought they were all pretty much the same length.

I build pretty much all of my rods with micro guides now and I'm a big fan, but why specifically would you want them on a rig that you're going to use such heavy stuff on? Or is that just the rod you really want and it just happens to come with micro guides?

You don't have to follow the bouncing ball any farther than the first two bounces. Two trolls trolled eachother within the first few minutes. /endofthread

You were NOT on the same clear creek that's down by Ft. Smith. That one is a big tributary of the Arkansas, and I've caught a bunch of crappie in it. Yours is a tributary of the Illinois. It flows through Locomotion Fun Park, through Johnson, the Blessings golf course, and ultimately into the Illinois. There are small parts of it that are floatable, but most of that water is dammed up and very very private. I'd have a hard time calling clear creek navigable by any stretch of the imagination. It's possible to float a boat down it, but you'd be dragging 75% of the way. So my understanding is that it is indeed private property. That being said, it's not posted where you were to my recollection. I only know that because I've fished it dozens of times. I never had an issue with anyone, but I guess I just never got caught. You will get run off quickly at the Blessings. But people fish it there at Wheeler all the time. I used to walk a long way upstream from that bridge. The stuff about "no streams in Washington County have been declared navigable" is BS. The Illinois certainly is, and there's no magical "declaration" that makes something navigable or not. In my estimation, you were trespassing just like the hundreds of other people that fish down there. There may even be some kind of public easement to fish it by now it gets used so much. But it's not posted, and I think that may be a requirement for misdemeanor prosecution. The guy shooting his gun at you is rediculous, and serious scary. I had my own encounter with gun toting landowners not too long ago. Fortunately they never fired a shot. I do believe you did the right thing reporting it to the sheriff. I would have if they shot near me. And good on you for not bowing up to someone with a gun. I was going to ask if the guy was shooting before you got around, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have kept walking downstream if he was. Seems like your presence/dog's presence is what prompted him. That sucks and I'm sorry to hear it.

Use a heavier weight? At least then you can sweep the rod up while letting out line and it will go down better than peeling it off by hand.

I haven't. It would be awesome though. Everyone would know it's you!!

It's on the calendar. I'll be there plus boat.

If only there was something where you could just type in a question and get a result rather than reciting points with no factual basis whatsoever.... Just messing with you. But it's always been my impression that crime has dropped significantly in the last couple of decades. Freakonomics, which is a great read if nothing else, attributed the drop in violent crime to Roe v. Wade and easy access to abortions for the women most likely to give birth to future violent criminals. That's one thing, but the statistics are another. Here's what I found from a quick Google search that linked to Wikipedia: Crime in the United States has been present since colonization. Crime rates have varied over time, with a sharp rise after World War II, before peaking between the 1970s and early 1990s. Since the early 1990s, crime has declined in the United States,[1] and current crime rates are approximately the same as those of the 1960s.[2] I'll confess that I did the exact same thing Jerry mentioned at the beginning of the thread. I was taking a deposition in Magnolia Arkansas last Thursday and saw flags and half-mast everywhere. I had no idea what it was until I realized it was September 11th. I remember where I was and what I was doing when it all went down - I had just finished taking a shower in the dorm and was walking by my RA's room in a towel when he told me what was going on. So I'm by no means too young to remember it. I just forgot the date. Just as an earlier poster said, the significance of the event never changes, but the immediate reaction to the date certainly wanes over time. Probably part of a natural process.

Sounds like it fell off the truck. I'd be all over this but I just bought one.

Yes I'm for sure in again. I'll make whatever date happen. A big plus from last year was the crazy temps and the fact that we had 24 miles of river completely to ourselves. That was cool. But as it happens, my wife told me to get out of the house on the weekend of November 8th. That's also the opening weekend of modern gun I think which may be a problem for some. So I'm going to go to the river that weekend. That may or may not be a good one for the official trip which I will also attend.

I've tried the really light weight casting rod builds before. It's tough to get the right balance. You really need some flex in the rod to throw light lures. Can't toss a fluke junior or tiny torpedo on a stiff casting rod. I've got one I did for a small crank bait rod that I screwed up early on. May be able to re purpose it. I didn't think about swimming a grub or an tiny torpedo. I haven't fished a torpedo in years and I used to love them. My favorite creek lure growing up was a teeny wee frog, same as a rebel craw really. The flick shake worm is working really well for me with a tiny jig head and robo worm.

Over the years my smallmouth tactics have evolved into heavier gear - never less than 8lb on my bottom bouncing stuff with heavier line for frogs and cover. But it seems I'm going to be doing a bunch of fishing on a new to me stream that's pretty small water. It reminds me a lot of trout fishing out west. Pools and drops with crystal clear water and little short runs that get 3-4 feet deep at the most. Gravel, chunk rock, water willow, and downed wood. But I've confirmed that it's full of 14" fish. It's fun to catch them on the baitcast rod and hula grub, but given that I already know the size and locaiton of the fish I'm going to be targeting now, I need to get back into lighter weight stuff to put a little more sport in it. Only problem is I'm not sure where to start. Most of this fishing is casting upstream and letting the lure drift back. Mostly wading, but there's a floatable stretch. Upstream from me is wading only because of all the log jams - but would be marginally floatable otherwise. Downstream is completely floatable. I'm interested in the wading part, just not sure what to use in order to fish lighter stuff effectively. Can't present a rebel craw effectively casting straight upstream and I don't like small trebles. So these are my thoughts so far. A ned rig with a 1/16 or smaller head. A flick-shake type worm with a small jig head, and a weightless finesse worm. That's all I've got. Maybe a maribou jig? Never did fish those for anything but trout and carp. Definitely wanting to stick to small spinning rods and 4-6lb line. Don't really care to fly fish it - again, most presentations are straight upstream standing in the middle of the channel.

I seem to recall arkansas being limited to half of the daily limit. I've done it free dividing in the Pacific. Always wanted to try it here.

I was told the beaver tailwaters were no wake from Highway 62 all the way up to the dam, is that correct? I may have asked this question on here before but forgot the answer.

I'm with Al, the hotter it gets, the better the fishing gets. I've had some great days in the worst heat of the summer. Have you floated the Illinois above Tenkiller? Not sure about gravel bar camping over there, but it's some decent water that's closer to you. If you stay farther down on the river you won't have as many folks to deal with. That's a lot closer to you than the Buffalo if you're concerned about heat and water levels.

I've fished above and below a lot. I've caught more big ones above. Never night fished below though. That's a long float to commit to in the dark.

Haven't been fishing much lately. My wife and I are supposed to close Tuesday on a house and 5 acres on Osage creek between tontitown and Siloam. There's one spot with great creek acess on the property (most of the frontage is extremely steep except the one spot). From what I can tell, there's a float to the house and a float from the house to chambers springs on the Illinois. We are extremely excited...and broke! I've always wanted a house I could canoe to and from. Osage was the only thing that fit the bill and was still close enough to our respective places of employment.

Float from Noel to cowskin and it won't be crowded. No idea on hogs game. Bella vista seems like the safe bet. There's a guisanos there.

Maybe just as far as Wrench for you, but Smith Full Throttle in Farmington/Prairie Grove has been great to me and my Yamaha. Super nice young guy who's working on a lot of very very nice boats.

I don't think I ever caught an 8 out there, but I did catch a spot that was just over 7. Big enough to make me check the state record (7lbs 15oz at the time as I recall). We used to just dominate big fish out there. A trip without a 5 was a lame trip. All we ever fished were spinnerbaits and weightless trick worms. We threw other stuff, but those were the top producers. The crazy part is our very best hole was the 200 yards or so right below the 45 bridge, and even under the bridge! You could spend all day out there now and not catch a nice bass. The water quality used to be so much better too. I think that has to do with runoff/effluent from the treatment plant by Wyman, or at least that's what someone told me on here. We always canoed it. My uncle owns a place on Blue Springs (it's about to sell I think) that's about 20 acres, and his property goes to where Mill Creek and Richland come together, just a couple hundred yards below the Richland bridge. So we'd park at his house, walk down the mountain, and unlock a canoe that was chained to a tree. We'd walk/float it down Richland and fish the river. About the same time as the fishing started to suck, someone stole that canoe. A red old town. Don't remember the model. So It's hard for me to say whether pressure or water quality ruined that area. I think it's some of both. I've floated from Tuttle Road down to the Richland bridge as well. Haven't done that in years. I bet there are still some decent fish along that float, but it's a bear to do and just not worth it anymore. It's the worst decline of a fishing spot I've ever seen in my relatively short life. Really makes me sad.

Yep. It sucks. And that really sucks because it used to be so good. 2002 or 3 was my last good bass summer out there. The year of the big flood when they built the bridge and ramp. That was the last of it.

I would love to do that trip.