hoglaw

I'm leaving for Turks and Caicos on May 3rd. It's actually a honeymoon, but I'm going to do a little bit of bonefishing. As you can imagine, this is not a "fishing trip," so I'm packing pretty light. I have a travel nine weight and a bar stock reel that I'm going to carry with me. I've never been bonefishing before, and I'll ultimately wind up going by McClellan's in Fayetteville for a few supplies before I leave. There are multiple areas near where I'm staying that we can access by rental car where they have walk-in flats, and we'll likely hire a local at some point to take us to some of the more remote ones. My question is, what do I need for a minimalist bonefishing setup? I'm guessing 9wt floating line, leaders tapering to 8lb, and 0x or 1x flurocarbon tippet. As far as flies go, I'm sure white and silver clousers are at least somewhat productive. I have proper clothing and shoes. What else do I need to know? Any advice is appreciated.

Nice birds. Don't call this a turkey hunting forum or I'll be covered in boats next weekend. It looks like we're going to have a little lower water than you guys had, but I'm going to rig up something to slow the drift in my solo canoe. Was there quite a bit of traffic before you got close to the White? This is my first time on that part of the river and I think our conditions are going to be great. Nothing but sun from today through the weekend. The highs on our float days are 83, 83, and 83. Did you see any other campers?

Did you guys get a bird? Was the current so strong that it was just blowing you through the whole thing, or did some of the pools slow down?

Was this the same trip Clay went on? How long is the float from Rush to the White taking (even though I noticed you were in a boat). I'm doing the lower on Friday-Sunday.

Guys: I have a deep cycle marine battery that I use for my trolling motor in my canoe. I ALWAYS charge it immediately after getting home, but I do it on a 2 amp trickle charge setting. My charger has options for 2 amp, 10 amp, and 15 amp. Should I be using one of the higher settings? I was told that the lowest setting was the best for charging deep cycles.

I scrapped the trip for this weekend. 2700 cfs and 8 ft water level seems a bit high for the easy going trip we have in mind. The long term forecast looks good - stable and warm, so we're going to wait until next weekend. I'd have liked to run into you guys Clay, but I just think the water's too high and likely to be off-color. Next weekend it seems like they may be doing their pre-spawn thing. Good luck with that big guy.

I've been watching the highway 65 guage. I've done pretty much every part of the buff...except for this last one. If we're going to be blowing through there at 8mph, I don't want to go. I know how to get a high water bite, but I want this to be a fun trip for everyone. After the big rain today, everything looks blown out. It looks like rainfall is going to be sporadic and light from here until Thursday with slightly warmer temps. I can push this trip back to the next weekend if I have to, but I don't really want to (that's my fiancee's birthday weekend). Is anyone in the area that can tell me the water color around the 65 bridge? If it's stained on Wednesday, I think I'm going to have to scrap this one and push it back a week. Of course, there will probably be monsoon type weather next weekend, but that's just my luck.

I know what you mean about the long term forecasts, but I have to look at something. See, I don't mind camping in hurricane conditions. For this very reason, I seem to lose a floating partner about once every year or so...missed takeouts, unplanned overnights, etc. The guys I'm taking this time will probably be a little more hardy, but I really don't want the fishing to get blown out on the first day. Then again, I've caught muddy water fish on the buffalo before, so I'm sure I'll manage. Bobber, have you gotten into any consistent catfish down that way? Might need to catch a few tags to supplement the cost on this trip. Are you supposed to remove the tags, or just record the information?

Bobber: Is Riley's upstream? I thought it was directly across? I've been trying to call the people at Rileys but can't get a return call or email. Water temps are 48 on the upper?! That's a lot colder than I thought it would be. Starting with the long term forecast, it looks like the highs and lows are: 52/38 (some rain) (today) 65/44 56/50 (rain) 65/42 (isolated storms) 69/44 72/51 67/50 (rain the day we arrive to camp at Rush) 69/48 (first float day) 69/50 (second float day) (rain) 65/44 (take out day) With days of 65, 69, 72, 67, and 69 leading up to the first day of the float, it looks like that water temp might climb a few degrees. Hopefully that will be enough to get some prespawn action going. Bobber, are you in the area? Is the river muddy right now? If this is going to be a high muddy float, I'm not going to do it - I'll hit crooked or Oaklawn for the weekend. I just can't help but think that conditions for small mouth fishing are either going to be dead perfect or dead. I don't think I've ever logged on to USGS and the weather channel so many times in a week.

I can confirm that they put a ton of new stuff on the shelves from other stores that were closing, but I haven't been up there in three weeks. Anyone know when the last day is?

I'm doing the lower weekend after next (10 days from now). My itenerary and questions are as follows: I'm going to meet my group at Rush on Thursday night and camp there. Is the campground adequate? Is it a fee campground? Can I leave cars there while we float down? Second, I'll need to leave a vehicle at our takeout in order to shuttle people back upstream to pick up any vehicles left there. Where should I take out? What's the name of the place that's five miles downstream on the white? I think I saw a link in this forum before, so I may check that out. Third, how far is the shuttle between Rush and the takeout? I've been looking on google earth, and I can't even figure out how to get between the two. I guess I have to go up through Yellville? Fourth, water levels. Yesterday, the river was at 1400 cfs on the 65 guage. Today, it's fallen to 1200. What would you consider optimal for fishing the lower and still getting a little help through the long pools? I don't want to fish stained water - I'll go somewhere else if it's bad.' Finally, is this a pretty popular time to float the lower? Will there be lots of other groups on it? I've done most of the river, but I've saved this one for the right conditions. God willing, it looks like I might have them.

No kidding. This is completely rediculous, but if there's a window where I can get my lifetime license for $2.00, I'm sure as hell going to do it.

Ditto on the carp and hybrids. Last year though, I fished in the annual Pop's Place Drum Rodeo in Smackover Arkansas. It's a drum "tournament," and an epic good time. Anyway, our boat landed a dozen or so drum, all of them right around the 10lb mark. I'm here to tell you, these guys pull like nobody's business. Any bass fisherman who's tangled with one accidentally knows that the second you drop the hammer on them, it's a dead-pull run on the bottom. As far as toughest to bring in, I'm going to go with a foul-hooked carp during white bass season. I've had to hit the ibuprophen after a couple of those guys.

Dan's got more experience on the lower end than me. My warning comes from just a single trip during the low water of the summer, so take that for what it's worth.

A sculpin pattern might be a good streamer to tie. I was dragging plastic worms through a hole above fisher's ford one day. I had picked up a few fish here and there. I looked down in the water and right next to me was a big fat sculpin sitting right next to my sandal. I scooped him up with a net and mouth-hooked him on an offset worm hook. First cast to the same spot I had been working with the worm and I see this big green monster come right to the surface and nail his butt. This bass was every bit of six pounds. Biggest largemouth I've seen from that pool (first long pool above the bridge at fisher's). He'd probably been dodging my worm.

Remi - Are you talking about the Illinois in Arkansas? Where are you fishing? I love the Illinois and have quite a few floats that I used to do. Haven't been out there in a while. It's a tough river to fish for some reason. I never catch big numbers, but I do catch BIG fish. That being said, I don't fly fish it. You might want to pick up some wiggle minnows from McClellan's fly shop in Fayetteville. When I do fly fish local rivers and creeks, these things are unbeatable. As for crawfish patterns, you're not going to do much damage this time of year unless they're heavy and on sinking line. You have to be on the bottom to catch the smallmouth out there, but they'll come up and chase a wiggle minnow. They can't resist 'em.

I'm one of the unfortunate ones that got a "Shibindo" Citica. From what I've read, the tolerances are all so tight on machining that a certain number of these reels have serious binding problems. Mine is one of them. Apparently there are a couple of fixes. Though Shimano denies any of their reels have a binding problem, they'll do a kit install on these for free I think. I chose option B, which is basically to power through the binding until you essentially grind a higher tolerance into the reel. Now it seems to be working much better.

I'm a Mike Anderson fan. That game last night reminded me of the Razorbacks of yore. I'm fairly ambivalent about Mizzou for the most part, but I'm pulling for them to go all the way. I normally can't stand Oklahoma, but I'd like to see them do it as well. They sure looked good tonight. I'm an SEC fan by default. Since we don't feel the need to dominate yet another sport (this is a matter of choice of course), I'll pull for the Big XII in the NCAAT.

No one's jumping to conclusions JD, it's in your signature line for goshsakes.

So apparently it's going to rain/snow quite a bit tomorrow, then Sunday's supposed to warm up a tad. Will the cold front shut down the whites, or will injection of rain water get them fired up? This is shaking up to be a pretty significant spring watering. I may have to head out there on Sunday.

Wow, thanks for all the info guys. I have a book on its way written by one of the big guys in that Rodbuilding.org forum. I've got some supplies on the way already...can't wait to get started.

You mentioned Jr. Crow. Did he have a TV show at some point? I seem to remember a show (possibly Ozark Outdoors) with two...well....good ol' boys who did a bunch of local fishing. Their shows included noodling and bowfishing as I recall. Don't remember who the guys were, but Crow sounds familiar.

As you can tell from this question, I'm not a snagger. Do you eat these spoonbill (or their eggs), or do you release them? Can you release a snagged fish, or is it a matter of ethics to keep the ones you snag? I don't have an opinion on this one way or the other (I promise it won't turn into a C&R debate), I'm just curious and ignorant when it comes to snagging, grabbing, noodling, or any method of fishing other than rod and reel/bow and arrow/spear.

You can access at Marble, Rockhouse, 62, Gateway (?), Stoney Point, and Romp Hole. Those are all public.

Someone asked me whether I had to have my canoe licensed while I was out on the White the other day. It is a regular canoe, but I occasionally mount a pretty big trolling motor on it. It never occurred to me that I might have to get tags for it. My stepfather says the key is whether the craft is "under power" or not. If that's so, sure seems like a trolling motor counts as power. What does it take to get my canoe licensed? I'm a lawyer and I should know, but I've never licensed a boat before. Do I have to have a serial number? Not sure if I have one on it or not since I removed all the seats and everything from the inside. Anyone know how much it costs, and is it an annual renewal? BTW, fishing was unproductive last Wednesday. Beautiful warm (windy) day, but only caught small males. I fished as far down as Walkers and didn't get a bite until an hour before dark. Had one big flash on a rapala jerk bait. Either a hybrid or a striper judging by the size of it, but all I saw was white and it scared the bejezus out of me, so it might have been a white or a carp in the area.