hoglaw

I've got a hearing in Mountain Home at 10:00 on Tuesday the 13th of May. I'll probably just make a day out of it and either drag my boat over there to fish, or maybe rent a canoe from Dominick and float the Norfork. Anyone want to go?

Crappie were tough for me, but then again I'm not that good at it. I wound up with six keepers that I gave to an older gentleman and his wife. I caught my fish very shallow swimming a jig. I had one really good one get off, and another big one flash at it just under the boat. While waiting to get my boat out of the water, I talked to a guy for a while who had an extremely sweet spider rigging set-up. He said he was pre-fishing for some kind of crappie masters tournament this weekend. Very nice guy all decked out in ASU stuff. He said that they had got into them pretty good fishing in 12 feet of water and had caught a bunch of big fish, but he said all the big females they caught were spawned out. Water temps were between 69 and 67 where I was (the 412 bridge area). Seemed to be warmer up the river and cooler downstream.

Going to try the crappie upriver this afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm not set up to troll 11 rods unfortunately so I'll have to make do beating banks. Are the whites still up around twin in numbers? I had a pretty disappointing year with the whites. Never seemed to be in the right place at the right time for fly rod fish. Caught good ones by beavorama in march, but that's just about it other than one not so good wading trip.

I struggled at lake fort smith two weekends ago and caught dink crappie at elmdale on Sunday. First trip to either. Last trip to elm dale I think. Used to slaughter big crappie at bob kid, but only in one particular spot on the old fence row between the fields. Have it in mind to try there again. Lots of cats and bream in bob kid as I recall.

Simon Absolutely no need to spend $200. Check pawn shops, craigslist, walmart. Heck, I didn't realize you were 17. Shoot me a pm and I'll give you a spinning rod and reel. I'm in Fayetteville.

If it works for you great. The stuff about the rod bending the wrong way is true to some extent, but it's not really a big issue. Rod builders for a long time have built rods on the "spine" of the rod. There's a natural shape the blank wants to deflect to when under load, so you put the guides and reel where it will make the blank deflect to that spot when under a load. But now I see lots of talk about builders building on the "straightest axis" instead of the spine. I'm not sure what exactly that means. Bottom line is folks are disregarding the spine stuff nowadays anyway for top end custom builds. The guide placement is the big issue for me. Putting a spinning rod on a baitcast guide setup is inherently flawed because it isn't getting the line under control in an efficient manner. If the question is "can you do it," then the answer is sure, you can do anything. You could put guides on a golf club and fish it if you wanted to (or a bananna). You can do whatever you want. If you like it and it works for you, then great. There's nothing "wrong" about doing it. But like Al said, all equipment has limitations. You're combining the worst of both worlds and maximizing limitations instead of maximizing performance within the confines of the limitations of proper equipment. I see zero benefits and plenty of negatives. But that's all outweighed by the fact that you like it apparently. I could put a four cylinder in my tundra and still tow my boat if I wanted to. It's "possible." Doesn't mean it's a good idea or that it will perform as well as it could with just using the right tools for the job.

Why do you assume that it's a good and financially viable thing to do and demand evidence to the contrary? Seems to me that these folks on the state side who failed in their attempt to take this over should have been the ones saddled with the burden of proving why it's a good and financially viable thing to do instead of that being assumed. Maybe you just have more trust in the motives of legistlators than I do.

That video is painful

Looked (and sounded) like a pretty dully colored wiggle wart to me.

Sorry wrench. I did misunderstand your post. I saw Joe insinuate that my hands were somehow dirty in this deal and thought you had said basically the same thing. I see that wasn't the case. Joe just really pissed me off and I lumped you in with him. My fault on both accounts.

I really didn't put this up here to for folks to place blame on me. My hands are clean. I have good reasons for not wanting to share a landowners name on here that I've gone through the trouble and effort to figure out, as I'm not here to throw stones. You're right Joe, I do regret having posted this in the first place. I thought it was a story worth sharing, but like so many other posters on here I get bashed for telling the story I want to tell but not the information you want to hear. I was unarmed, not drunk, not trashing anything, keeping to myself on a gravel bar (below the high water mark) that was somewhere between Harmon and Payatt. I'm sorry I don't have the GPS coordinates. The landowner owns about five miles of both sides as best I can tell below the Harmon bridge. So if you want to avoid confrontation with him, that's the area to stay away from. I took the landowners side that night and every time after it in my mind. If I were in his shoes I'd have been armed too. I would have handled the situation very differently, but I don't blame him for having a gun. I have no desire to get on a soapbox or turn this into something bigger than it is. My intent is purely to make sure I can camp there in the future. So my first approach has been the adult discussion route. I don't know why I felt the need to share it. I thought it was an interesting and scary experience, and I consider some of the folks on this board to be friends that I like to share things like that. Obviously it was silly for me to attribute my good experiences to every member here. You and Wrench can kiss my butt for assuming my fault or placing blame on me simply because I want to handle conflict with individuals privately before disclosing their identifying information. For the most part I've enjoyed your posts and your sense of humor. I guess that's just because I haven't been the butt of it before. You are both well aware that you are ignorant of some of the facts as evidenced by your repeated prods to try to get me to share more information, yet you assume that the absence of that information means I have something to hide or that I have some share of the blame in this incident. . It's one thing to disagree and have an intelligent discussion online. It's another to assume the fault of people you don't even know. You argue for the sake of arguing, and stir the pot just to see yourself type. I've been through plenty of women like you. They're great for a good time and a few laughs, but pretty difficult to be around for any length of time. I expected as much from you Joe. I'm surpirsed Wrench jumped on your bandwagon too

Joe I believe in second chances for everyone and don't believe either the landowner or myself caught each other on our best day. For that reason my preference is not to disclose his name on a public forum. I'll either resolve the issue amicably or it will all be a matter of record at some point. In the meantime if anyone is considering an overnight trip on cc I will be more than happy to share my thoughts on overnight spots to avoid. Just shoot me a pm. Was I outraged at the time? Of course. I was in genuine fear for our safety. Am I still burned about it? Absolutely. But by the same token I can understand his perspective. He didn't handle the situation the same way I would have, but ultimately he didnt threaten me or point a gun at me. He scared me and chewed me out for ten minutes and then left me alone with instructions to float and fish all I want but never set foot on "his land" again. Simply put I'd rather resolve this with the landowner directly. I feel like throwing names around in a public forum won't help me do that. I'm not out for a pound of flesh. I just want to make sure I can camp safely in the future.

The precedent is set. Sort of. Just not with respect to crooked creek. There was a big case from around 1980 dealing with the mulberry river, which is comparable to crooked creek in many important respects. The case established that the mulberry was a navigable waterway, and the general public had a right to the use of the stream up to the high water mark for hunting, fishing, boating, swimming, and attendant "recreational activities." Unfortunately it did not specifically reference camping one way or the other. The landowners were held to have the ability to refuse access through their property to the water, but not to interfere with the lawful recreational activities of those in the waterway. Arkansas does not appear to be alone in this rationale.

We did my favorite float on CC last weekend. We always make this one an overnight float. The water on Saturday was a little higher than I'm used to, so fishing conditions were somewhat difficult and the shoals and turns were pretty treacherous with a fully loaded canoe. Despite those issues, we absolutely tore them up. I've never done this well in terms of an "average." We caught very few fish that were shorter than 15", and had a couple of really nice ones. My fiancee (wife as of tomorrow) outfished me, but I wasn't too far behind. She caught the big fish too, a seriously chunky smallmouth that was 3lbs plus. I'm trying to get her permission to post pics of the big fish. She wasn't happy with the way she looked in the picture...you know how women are. All of the fish were really pretty and I got a few of mine that I can put up, but they're on my good camera so I have to figure out how to download them and such. The biggest story from the trip though was we got confronted by two armed landowners at our campsite. I won't mention his name yet, but it was a very tense deal. They both had rifles and came down to our campsite after dark. At first they were telling me I had to leave, but there was no way I was floating after dark and would have much prefered law enforcement get involved at that point. Finally, they relented and let us stay the night with instructions to leave in the morning and never come back. That's the very short version of this story, and there will be a much longer version at some point in the not too distant future. Since I've returned, I've become very well versed in the state of navigable waterway law in Arkansas, and have read all of our reported cases dealing with the issue. I'm going to try the nice approach with this guy first, but I'm assuming that won't work. If it doesn't, I intend to file a lawsuit for a declaratory judgment as to the navigable status of crooked creek and the public's right of use below the high water mark including gravel bar camping, and seeking an injunction to prohibit him from interfering with the lawful recreational activities of the public taking place below the high water mark. That's a last resort since I don't really want to make this a big public to-do, but it's what I do. I wasn't confident of the state of the law on that issue before this trip which is why I don't chime in on the periodic discussions on that issue that take place on this board. But now that I know the correct answers, I've gotten our likely attorney-general to be involved as well as a number of other colleagues (including a friend who is about to file a petitoin to enjoin the CAFO operations on the Buffalo) on board who have an interest in these types of issues. More on that before too long.

You'll probably have to save the fly fishing for the end of the week. The river crested at 10 feet just a little while ago. That's about a 6 foot rise over where it needs to be. It will be very muddy for the better part of next week for sure. Richland should clear a little faster. Not really sure about War Eagle. It probably clears faster than the White. It's not that you need crystal clear water for fly fishing, but chocolate milk with an inch of visibility isn't going to make for a productive day. Once the river gets back down to 4 feet and change, the good shoals are shoals again.

Plenty of wading water. There are two primary shoals below the 45 bridge separated by long holes with cut banks that are un fishable. There is a network of trails through the woods. Just start walking downstream and find the gravel. Hike through the woods to avoid the cut banks. I've also heard good reports in Richland creek.

Golf I mean

Bet today would have been decent but I played gold instead

Probably not clearing any time soon with these intermittent rains. Last year my best day was April 15th for the whites on the fly rod. So hopefully we can catch a good week or so before the fun dies down. I hate these muddy water events. I'm in trial tomorrow so maybe I'll knock off early on Thursday and run up from twin some to find some clearer stuff. I hate it though because I feel like I know where the fish are, but the water is so dang muddy I can't fish them the way I want to.

The newer tundras have a vastly improved turning radius fyi

My fish were in the beavorama area. But the parking lot will be so muddy that you'll probably want to run up from 412 or down from twin.

yep. They're here.

Can you post or pm your phone number scott? Or text it to me? Launching at beavorama in 5 minutes.

That's funny scott. I had never heard of Yates. I'm going today so I pulled up the map on my phone and it was already centered! Must be a sign. If anyone wants to meet up today feel free to call 957-83two8. Have to get packed for an overnight canoe trip this weekend first, but will try to hit water around 11 or 12.

Or maybe he'll think why the rabbit runs the way he does, where he runs from, where he's running to, and where his family is - and pick a better spot to let the rabbit come to him. Or something like that.