cotterboy2007

I used to save these high dollar baits for bass only, but I have been converted to using them on the river for trout. they just flat work, and I hardly ever lose one. Generally, I have to go through 5 rogues to get one to run right and suspend the way i like them to. Those lucky craft jerkbaits always run right. I buy them off ebay during the off months in less than desirable colors and have them painted. I also use many of the stock colors. You can cast them like a bullet and just don't have to mess with tuning them. My last two trips i have out fished my buddies using stock rogues 10 to 1, so I am a beleiver. One last note is I really work these baits hard. if you were watching me jerk these things you would think I was crazy. I realy rip them and try to make them look as injured and panicked as possible. SIO3, no trebles in the Rim Shoals C&R area, although i think you can use a single barbless treble onthe upper end C&R We were outside the C&R boundaries(not too far though) for these fish. I like baits with 3 sets of very sharp trebles for trout since they are such slashers. They were just hammering these baits with all these fish being hooked on the front hooks. Cricket, I don't know Dale, but bet he would not be too hard to track down. What area of the river were you on. guides are kind of differtent around here. There are basially upper end( from wildcat up) and lower end guides(wildcat down to the buffalo). Although I don't guide anymore, bu I would consider myself a lower end type and that is most of the guys i know as well. kevin, No experiance using flashers or smelt, but drifting dead shiners on a river rig can be a killer. one of my guide buddies has been killing them on minnows here lately. They are just too hard to catch right now for me on this high water. I don't mess too much with live bait on high water. Too much work and too messy for me as I am lazy. I would be interested to know if you ever get down here to see if those type of techniques would work here.

Guys I had one of the best evenings on the White River I have ever had. Me and Doug Flippin of Cotter put in at Rim Shoals Around 6:00 PM sunday evening. The water was up & rolling as it has been for weeks now. This was my 1st outing with my new boat motor, so we ran around a little to test it out. We were interested on having the best chance to land a large brown so we both decied to throw large jerkbaits. On Thursday 7-3-2008, I hooked the biggest trout I have ever hooked on a Lucky Craft slender Pointer 112 custom painted by Tim Hughes in the Table Rock shad color. I fought the fish for approximately 5 minutes before he wrapped me around a log and it was over as fast as it started . I have a 12# fish on the wall caught in high water and this fish fought much harder, so I hate to say how big it was. I fish baitcasters with 10# test and could not turn it or control it's run at all. anyway, back to today. We hooked a number of Rainbows in the 15 and 16 inch range. They were fat and healthy. Around 7:30 we ran back up river to make one last drift, and I pulled in so we could cast right onthe bank in an area that is basically a submerged grass flat that is only covered on extreme high water like we have now. I was throwing my last table rock shad slender pointer and hooked a fish big enough to shake it's head, so i knew it was a decent fish. We landed it and it weighed in the 4-4.5 pound range.(picture 1). We released it and ran back to the start and I made a cast or two before brown trout #2 struck. Very stocky male that weighed in right at 6 pounds(picture 2). We released him and decided to make one last drift and on the 1st cast I hooked a 7 pounder that jumped at least 4 feet out of the water and fought hard(picture 3). We were laughing like two little kids and giving some high fives. I caught all these fish in 15 minutes or less. My wife had dinner ready , so we had to run, but I hope my new motor is this lucky all the time. Also, it is about time to send a few more baits to Tim to have painted. I always change out the front two trebles with red hooks and the back with a feathered treble(photo 4), so I don't know if that helped,or if it was the color, brand, or just one of those special days, but I wish they could all be that awesome.

I have purchased a new motor and am parting with ol' faithful. It is in good conditon and runs like a top. I purchased this motor five years ago from Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock off of one of their rental boats, so it was never in the river until I got it. It is used, but not abused by any means. These 2 stroke 25 motors are hard to find. Asking price is $1400. Make me an offer! I would even take the buyer fishing in the Rim Shoals area for a couple of hours when they come to pick it up. Thanks Phillip 870-421-2155

I have a 1992 johnson 9.9 converted to 15 HP short shaft manual start for sale. It is in good condition and runs great. It comes with gas tank as well. I have kept it as a garage stored spare motor and for going to the buffalo river a couple of times a year, so it has only been used a few times over the last four or five years as I have a 25 HP mounted on my boat and am too lazy to switch them out. Asking price is $750 as these motors are becoming pretty hard to find thses days. Let me know if you are interested or need more info. Thanks Phillip 870-421-2155

right in the middle of the river just below the 1st island. We also saw another boat catch one about the same size a little earlier in the day. By the way, we were the only people in this run for most of the day. I think the lower end of the C&R sees very little pressure

The 11th photo is a truly impressive fish. Is that a straight smallmouth or one of those meanmouths? It just looks different than a straight smallie to me. Maybe because it is so big!!

Me and Steve Brigman fished from noon on 5-23-08 til dark and early AM on 5-24-08. We had an excellent day on Friday with Steve catching numerous browns and about a 2 pound cutt on a gold countdown with a single hook of course. His big brown of the day was just short of 5 pounds. Saturday morning was not quite as productive, but we caught a few nice fish before the storms rolled in. A 3/32 oz all brown jig was the ticket. They would not hardly touch any other color(ginger, olive, brown/orange) we tried and the 1/8 oz was just a little too heavy for the water that was in rim shoals. Really had to keep the jig moving for the fish to really attack it. Normally we sort of drift them with the current, but that was not very effective. Here are a couple of pictures of some decent fish we caught.

Put in at quaryy marina just before dark this evening. Fished the entire koso bay and thumb point areas without so much as a bite. We threw rogues, red fins and spooks around the outer edge of the trees. were targeting mostly stripers, but would have been happy with anything. Usually kept the boat in 30-35' of water. slow rolled the rogues back to the boat. It was dead calm and nothing was really busting the water around us. Did graph some balls of shad in the 10-15' range, so maybe should have swam a grub through those baitfish. Anyway, that is my crappy report. What should we have done different?

What colors do you like in the spook?

Here are few photos of White Buffalo Resort. A few of the cabins are good, but the office and the sleeper cabins are not. Could not get to the homes directly across from the mouth of the Buffalo, but I'd say thay are submerged. The river is completely flooded with basically all homes from crooked creek down flooded. Anything above Rim Shoals is good although Gary's pavillion was under water and part of the public boat ramp as well. Supposed to crest tonight. The Buffalo and Crooked Creek backing up is what really hammered the homes. Norfork village, stone creek, red's landing are in bad shape. No flood insurance in Baxter county, so there is some tremendous lose from these floods with many $250K-$500 homes totaled.

The upper end C&R zone you can use trebles, but not in The Rim Shoals C&R. Kinda confusing. I wish they would allow the trebles inthe Rim Shoals C&r since I only live one mile form the ramp. I would like to tknow the reasoning in no trebles in one but perfectly fine inthe other. Maybe someone has a thought on this.

What a pretty fish. What did you catch that beast on? The water was sure roaring today at Rim Shoals. I only fished an hour and a half from 6:00 until dark and did pretty well on a rainbow colored Lucky Craft jerkait. I did not catch anything of any real size with the biggest being about 4 pounds. This is the second evening I have fished this high water with overcast skies this week and caught all browns. I have been keeping the boat about 20 yards off the bank and sight casting any underwater structure I can find. I have had good luck with a long pause followed by a slight twitch. They generally hammer it when they commit. I had one today that was in the size range of yours slam it and miss, I twitched and she came back and nudged it with her nose right next to the boat. She realized something was not right and left in a hurry. Very neat to see. I proably had 10 fish swing and miss today, but it was fun. The high water has been perfect these last few for throwing the big stick baits. I will be at it early tomorrow around wildcat or white hole. I have a brown supreme with a 25 mariner that always has a black and white springer spaniel on the front deck. Feel free to say hello if you see me.

So true Clay Mikey, I feel ya. I always fish from a boat, but generally there is someplace you can get out of the high water. The way it has been the last few weeks, you may have rough go finding that spot. If so, take the wife out to dinner at Gaston's or the 178 Club in Bull Shoals, and stay at nice place with a hot tub or something. Oh, and tell her how glad you are to spend quality time with her. Aversion to problem is the key. My wife is pregnant right now, so believe me that I have been studying these type of techniques alot lately. good luck

glad to see you back. I know you caught alot of crap over that last deal, but I enjoy your fishing reports. Anyway, I worked at Bull Shoals Dam one summer while I was off from college. This has been about ten years ago, but the general consensus was that Bull Shoals was made large enough to hold most all of the flood water on the entire chain of lakes. I have a feeling we will see many days of low water coming shortly based on the downstream water levels. I have been wondering when the high water was going to end myself. I have a friend who lives in Batesville and he says it is getting about as high as it can down there without being a major problem. I have not seen the dam, but once it is over the flood gates, there is no more control, so maybe the corp is trying to control the water while they can. They may be scared that one or two more good rains could really cause some flooding they can't regulate. On the other hand, I love having high water in the lake though. In the high water we had four or five years ago, I had some excellent fishing days up in the covered brush. Also, spearfishing while scuba diving that summer was out of this world. We killed numerous walleyes between 4 and 10 pounds up in the shallow brush. If I posted the pictures of those stringers we shot in the high water, the bunny huggers would probably try to have me romoved from the site.

what size rat L trap and xrap? I have had a little bit of a slow start on jerkbaits so far. I just never seem to catch the right water. either too little or too much. Sounds like we will be getting mostly low water for awhile.

He has moved on. He currently works for Bass Edge and still does some free lancing. He is planning on coming to vist in a week or two, so I will know more then. You can can find some bass fishing articles of his at www.bassedge.com

Never heard of the Trout SOS, but looks interesting. I may try a spool of it out. I put 4# maxima on one rod, and 4# of the new berkley 100% flurocarbon on the other. If the weather will cooperate, I will post which one i like better one day this week.

John Richesin, Owner of Cranfield Junction in Mtn, Home has terminal cancer and is currently in the hospital suffering from a stroke on Thursday. He is great person, and has really been a proponent of the whole fishing scene in general from tournament sponsorships and administration to just general good fishing advice to his customers. Please remember him and his family during this tough period.

This is from the Springfield News Leader by Steve Brigman. Fun day to say the least. When Phillip Rice e-mailed me that he had recently been catching some nice brown trout, I was soon staring south through the windshield of my pickup. He had been fishing the White River in the afternoons when the water is high and running fast. The need for summertime electricity has been making that pretty much of an everyday thing of late. Throwing large jerkbaits, Phillip has managed four or five browns a day, between 18 and 23 inches, in the week before my arrival. A trip to the White had been brewing in the to-do section of my brain anyway. Summer is a great time to enjoy the cool air that accompanies the cold water down down the White. Anytime is a good time to catch big brown trout. “Babe, I have to go down to Arkansas.” “I’m sure it’s urgent.” “Yep. I have go to do a brown trout story.” “Poor baby.” Phillip warned me right up front not to show up with any weenie gear. He was throwing a baitcaster rig to handle the big baits he was throwing. I had recently contributed the last of my baitcasters purchased this century to the Gasconade River, so I ended up pairing a rod that I would employ during the fall muskie campaign with a reel that wasn’t clearly identifiable because the paint had worn off. These fine components and a little 10-pound fluorocarbon and my big-trout rig was ready to roll. It dawned on me as I was rummaging around the garage that I had sure been buying a lot of spinning gear lately. I wonder if that is an age thing. The gathering of Rogues, Model As, Rapalas and a host of generic unidentifiables offered a nice window into the history of jerkbait manufacturing. The only recent additions were a foursome of X-Raps I had picked up on sale with smallmouths in mind. The game goes like this: You get on the phone after lunch to find out how many “units” are running at the Bull Shoals Dam. The veteran river rat knows at what rate the rising water travels: when it will be where. Fishing the front end of this water is tough because of all the debris washed down by the new water. Phillip had been catching his fish in high water that was several hours old, from about 6 p.m. until dark. I said something inappropriate for the pages of this paper when I crossed the bridge at Cotter a few hours before we had planned to hit the river, and there was apparently no water running. After about 30 minutes of catching up at his house near Rim Shoals, Phillip called to learn that they had just turned on five units, at 3:30 p.m.. Since the water was about two hours later than it had been on recent days, we put in the farthest upstream spot he liked to fish and headed farther upstream. After a few miles it became apparent that we were not going to outrun the cloud of weeds, sticks and slime of various flavors that was being washed down by the cureent. A couple more miles and it seemed to be getting worse. A phone call confirmed that they had turned on two more units. It was time to join ’em. The need to clean your bait off after every cast was mildly aggravating, but imagining what lurked in these waters was a proper antidote. It’s exhilarating, riding the swift current. A distinct pleasure is derived from making the perfect cast to best take advantage of the boat’s quick pace. The rare lure that comes to the boat without need of cleaning is quickly deposited back into the river. Phillip soon caught a 16-incher, which relieved that sort of hopeless wonder about how much your bait was getting to run without a glob of slime attached. Suddenly, I stopped some profound thought in mid-sentence. It’s one of those moments you’ll remember always. I even recall in my mind’s-eye the trees in the background when my line just stopped. I gave it a just-in-case hook set and sure enough, something was alive on the end of the line. As I raised my rod and reeled, the only give was from the drag on my reel. “This is a good one.” The fish just seemed heavy and wasn’t fighting as much as just holding in the current. I soon had it coming my way a bit too easily. As I pumped and reeled, a shiny out-of-focus apparition grew into the biggest trout I had ever seen outside of an aquarium. It was like the fish saw the boat and realized that the program hadn’t gone well for him up to that point, so it launched an angry run into the current. “I’m running out of line!” Phillip quickly cranked the motor and chased the fish. When I had gained back most of the line we stopped, but the fish went on anther run. We settled into a tug-o-war with the big brownie lashing out in short, violent sprints. Each approach to the boat would result in a vicious protest. The big trout tried getting tangled in the drag-chain rope and then the motor. Frantically hustling around the boat, a big net in one hand, Phillip dealt with the boat issues as I panicked and kept the line tight. The whole time, in the clear water below us, we could see a special fish. That’s nerve-racking. Finally the fish surfaced near the back of the boat as I stood in the front. A quick stab with the net, and Phillip had the big brown landed. The salmon-like hooked jaw identified the fish as a male. It measured 29 and a half inches, and on plastic tackle box scales weighed 12 pounds. We’ll be doing a replica of that bad boy. I’ve got a list of things I want to do before I go to that giant trout stream in the sky. Now I can mark off catching a big brown trout. Let’s see, what’s next on the list … Africa! Wife: “What’s after that ?”

Here is a copy of an article from the Springfield News Leader by Steve Brigman. Some of you may have already seen it when originally published, but I think it is pretty good reading for a wet Sunday afternoon. It includes a familiar name around this forum, as well as myself and another colorful character that guides down toward the Norfork and it's confluence with White. The pictures are not included, but as I recall the larger rainbow caught by Lilley was in the 10# range. Lilley, if you are out there, maybe you could post that picture to accompany this article. I will also post another article that reports the story of a huge trout Steve caught on Jerkbait with me in August 2006. Check it out as well. Here it is. The sun had disappeared behind the ominously flashing clouds to the west. It took me back to a time on Taneycomo when Phil Lilley hooked a huge rainbow just as a storm was rolling in from the north. On a small jig using 2-pound line, it would be a race between landing the fish and exposing ourselves to the dangerous weather. A glance at the fish as it surfaced out in distance ruled out any cut-and-run thoughts. With my rain jacket, I shielded the camera from the first huge drops. After a few exposures, Phil released the fish and we took a wet but contented trip back to Lilley’s Landing. Phil had caught his largest ever trout. On this July afternoon, the storm wasn’t as eminent, but Phillip Rice, Corey White and I were watching the clouds closely as we bounced our jigs along the bottom of Arkansas’ White River. “I’ve been catching them on Y2Ks,” Rice had explained before we launched. “But olive has also been good. As we pulled into the ramp he commented, “I like a little more water … we’ll just have to go throw smaller jigs.” He started with a 1/16th-ounce jig in the bright orange and yellow Y2K, but the morning was cloudy and he quickly switched to olive-and-orange. Immediately, he landed a fat 18-inch brown. White and I were soon trading in the smaller rainbows we had been catching on jerkbaits in hopes of catching larger browns on jigs. The time Jig fishing had been introduced to this Texas transplant four years earlier by Lilley. On that cold January day, trout were feasting on dead and stunned shad being washed through the dam. “They either die and drift down in the deeper levels of Table Rock and get suck through a turbine in the dam,” Lilley said. “It is a natural occurrence in any lake when you have a large population of threadfin shad. Temperatures get around 40 degrees and a portion of those fish die.” Constant flashes of silver down in the water and shad leaping across the surface told of a feeding frenzy. “Anything white,” Lilley recommends when the trout are feeding on shad. But there are exceptions. “We have found that if they are coming through in large numbers, your white jig can get lost in the crowd. We start throwing a little bit different colors at them and find them starting to hit chartreuse, pink, gray and even some darker colors.” Jim Brentlinger, known by guide clients and friends as Linger, fishes the White and Norfork rivers in Arkansas in every season and uses jigs 60 percent of the time. “I fish them all year around,” Linger explained. “The water is the same temperature all year because of the hydroelectric dams.” Veteran tailwater anglers know that it’s the amount of water being generated from the dam that determines how they must fish. The water “Anytime except for dead low, jigs work,” said Rice, who lives just over a mile from Rim Shoals and fishes the river at least weekly. “I fish them in any water up to four units, and after that I have to go to a jerkbait.” The number of “units” refers to the number of generators running, up to eight in the case of Bull Shoals. River rats like Rice and Linger keep tabs on the generating activity through the phone. A computer message reports the number of generators running at the respective dams. Each veteran angler knows how long rising or falling water is from the stretches of river they fish. “Anytime when there is just a little bit of tailwater coming in or water from the night before, I think they work a little bit better,” Rice said. As anglers will, the two have a little different take on fishing their rivers. Linger likes the lower water. “As you go to shallower water you can use lighter jigs. You can catch the heck out of fish in two feet of water, you just need to go to a 1/16th- or 1/32nd-ounce jig.” He just doesn’t like fishing jigs in extremely high water. “The jigs are harder to use in high water because it takes longer to get them on the bottom, and that’s the key thing.” White River jiggers typically keep an assortment of 1/16th-, 1/8th- and 1/4th –ounce jigs in a variety of colors. “In the lower water I use a 1/16th ounce and go to an 1/8th-ounce when it is a little higher,” Rice said. The presentation. The variety of jigs available is staggering, with dozens of combinations from the old standard olives and blacks, to more exotic, three-colored jigs. John Richesin, at Cranfield Junction tackle store near Norfork Lake, had a new shipment of jigs in the store. We had exhausted our supply before lunch, so we headed that way. Richesin laid hundreds of jigs out on the table in dozens of color combinations. He picked up an olive-ginger-yellow jig, handed it to me and smiled. You will find olive, black, brown and white in almost every jig box, then it starts to become a matter of an angler’s personal favorites. “It seems like brown, olive-orange and ginger are my favorites colors,” Rice said. “That olive-orange is hard to beat. On darker days I like to go to a solid black or brown.” The Linger take on jig selection makes it quite easy for the newcomer to the sport. “On the Norfork, white seems to work a little better along with olive,” he explained. “On the White River, the mustard-head jig with ginger marabou works excellent in most water conditions. Day in and day out, that ginger is the ticket.” Lilley likes purple for night fishing on Taneycomo. The jigs are fished by casting across the current as you drift, the bait allowed to reach the bottom before popping it back toward the surface. “When I first tie a jig on, I flip it in the water next to the boat to see how long it takes for it to hit the bottom, whether it’s three or five seconds,” Rice explained. “I like to pop it on intervals, like every three or five seconds. You want to fish that jig toward the bottom, and almost always the fish hit them on the fall.” There is an art to getting the bait near the bottom without the jig collecting the slimy vegetation from the bottom. “Those fish, unless they are up cruising, they are down by the bottom,” Linger said. “When you pop it, it gets their attention. When it is dropping down dead they go get it. Ninety nine percent of the time they hit it when it’s sinking.” The catch Fishing had been excellent in the morning, with a couple of nicer browns mixed into the dozens of rainbows, but with a new arsenal of jigs in our boxes, we put back on the river with eagerness. We had fished the Wildcat Shoals area in the morning and there were quite a few folks out enjoying their Saturday, so we decided to hit the Rim Shoals in the afternoon. We ended up having it all to ourselves. This trophy management area is a single-barbless-hook, catch-and–release section of river known for its nicer size fish. With two units running, we were throwing 1/16th- and 1/8th -ounce jigs. My companions were sticking with the olive-orange that produced so well in the morning, but I was throwing the olive-ginger-yellow that Richesin had suggested. They all caught fish. A few minutes into our first drift, Rice hooked into a nice brown, a beautifully colored three-pounder. By the time heavy clouds began to roll in, we had at least a dozen fish apiece. There was a sense of urgency about the casting as the thunder grumbled in the distance. Rice hurried down into his box and retrieved a brown jig. The lightning flashed in his face as he cast. Hooking a fish while drifting in the current always feels like being hung up; the boat keeps going but your bait just stops. And hanging up a jig is always a distinct possibility. In that moment where Rice held his rod up in indecision, the bounce in the tip told of something alive, but just not moving. On the four-pound test needed to cast small jigs, the fish was allowed to take line generously from the reel. Finally, a golden flash in the water told us it was a big brown. Thunder snarled overhead has Rice lifted the fish with his Boga Grips – 4 1/2 pounds. The first drops got the camera wet. The dark clouds came down on us like a curtain on perfect day. Giving up early wasn’t overly difficult after having caught so many fish on jigs. After all, as Rice says: “They are pretty much a year around deal.” ***Please note that the article mentions John Richesin, owner of a well known local bait store in Mtn. Home, Cranfield Junction. John is a former cancer survior who beat it once a few years back. He now has terminal cancer and on Thursday suffered a major stroke and is currently in the Hospital in Mtn. Home. John is a great person and has worked very hard to help fishermen in our area catch fish and promote fishing and conservation in general.. He would take the shirt off his back to help anyone. Please keep him in your prayers.***

pretty much eliminates catching a couple of fish for shore lunch during a camping trip. good rule overall

I just wanted to see the picture of that trout because they are rare these days. Trav I like your style. We may be cut from a similar cloth, but just generation apart from what I have gathered from your posts noting how you are a native and have lived here a long time. I am going to try to get more active on the White River fishing report, and include some live/natural bait fishing info when applicable. The fly guys may freak out on me, but I just want to present another side of fishing on this river. I use artificial 90% of the time, but will use live bait when trophy fishing or when conditions call for it. The weights you note for you to get excited over a large fish are close to my own for each species. I have caught many 4-8# browns as well, but only a couple over ten. The fish in the picture on my profile was a male, 31 inches long caught on a lucky craft slender pointer. Caught near the end of August on eight units of water, so he had been feeding well on high water for over a month. Weighed just over 12 pounds on my IGFA certified boga grips. Those type of fish are few and far between I really enjoy this forum for it's diverse group of fisherman and fishing styles. No matter how long you have been fishing, you can still learn more. So many sites are so limited in their scope that i can't get interested in them.

I am not as impressed with a 6-11 brown as that is fairly common in my neck of the woods, but I think he said it was a rainbow. Did I read that wrong? I don't know much about Taney, but that would truly be a trophy of a lifetime from the White River below Bull Shoals. I have lived on the river and owned a boat since I was eight years old. I was a cooks help on hundreds of guided trips before I was advice old enough. i have also guided many trips myself. I bet I can count on one hand the number of rainbows(includung cutts) I have seen over the six pound mark. I caught one 8 or so years ago that died that weighed nearly 7 pounds. I put it in the freezer at my house and the power went out for a couple of days out while gone on vacation and was not turned back on until i got home a week later, so the fish was ruined. Anyway, unless that type of rainbow is more common on Taney than the White River below Bull Shoals, that is the trophy of a lifetime. Trav, i don't doubt your word and truly believe you are great fisherman, but a picture of that fish would have been awesome. Just for verification if nothing else. I know you don't care about pictures, but with as much activity as you log on this forum writing reports and giving advice it would help backup some of these fish stories. I bet we could take a collection from many of the regulars for a camera for trav, and maybe some igfa certified boga grips. I enjoy your posts and have read many before siging up as a member, so I know I have a reply coming back. Have a great spring

I can't comment on any type of flyfishing for them ,but on the Buffalo river I can generally get away with three or four lures 95% of the time. Zoom baby brush hog in green pumpkin or watermelon red either texas rigged with pegged sinker(which i feel gets snagged less than jighead) or a 1/8 ounce jig head, zoom fluke weighless(sometimes I will tie a swivel or carolina keeper and leader and add a dropper type rig with 2 flukes), small buzzbait or floating minnow, and a jitterbug for any night time fishing after mid April on. I think the main thing to concentrate on is being very observant of where you are catching (or missing) fish. If it is at the end of a fast water chute that flows into a deep hole with transition bottom from rock to gravel and your bite comes at that point, remember that and find areas vey similar. Fish them over and over. I have caught 30+ fish from a single hole once I find how they are realting to the the cover available. Early season river smallies can be a mystery from time to time. Seems like they flat get lockjaw. I that time, I think live bait is the ticket, but I may get flogged for mentioning it to you artificial only types. I use a glass minnow trap and can flat get some bait in a hurry this time of year. I like to use a standard river drift rig and a #4 hook to lip hook lively river caught meduim sized slicks or shiners and just drag them along. I have seen days where that is the only thing they will bite. Be careful not to get the hook to far back or you will kill the minnow. Believe it or not, I have slayed some big brown trout on this exact same set-up ifrom January through April When after the big browns, I upsize to the biggest minnows I have in the trap. Sorry to get off topic, but most people simply overlook live bait as an option. If it is between no fish, and catching fish with live bait, I choose live bait every time.

Where are you guys finding 3# Maxima. I think there is a time it could be handy. Maxima has pretty much been my favorite for a number of years, but then the flourocarbon is making a strong case the last few times i used it in light pound test. What knots are you guys mostly using?