sean c

Rick for the Durango guided trip I would do a guided float on the rio grande should be big dries that time of year. Sounds like a great trip enjoy.

I'm with Ham when I think of overnight smallie trip neither river come to mind but that's not saying it's not worth doing or that you can't and it's actually something I want to do just haven't gotten around to it. I would need to go in the spring I need pretty good flow to get my boat down the upper and I wouldn't want to deal with floaters. Everyday of the summer from Hammond down you will deal with floaters, on the Bryant the accesses can fill up with locals on the weekends.

Mark you will likely not be harassed by land owners and you certainly won't be harassaed by the "resorts" they are well aware of the stream access laws and the importance of them to their canoe rental business. I have never had an unpleasant experience with a property owner on the river and have only heard of a few and those usually involved new home owners on the river who didn't understand Missouri stream access rights and drunks. Also it's the trout water where the private property is I'm guessing 2/3rds of what your talking about floating isn't.

A new bridge would be great but I'm sure that's out of MDC's control also if there was ever a new bridge built having a ramp on either side during construction would be nice. I personally don't see a real need for an upstream ramp but it would be easy given they own the land and already have a parking lot and it would take some pressure off the existing Patrick and Blair accesses. Personally I think what they are doing to Hammond is completely unnecessary it was just fine it's not how I would spend money on the river but I'm sure they are limited to what they can do but any money spent on the river by MDC is a good thing. Now if they were to buy property farther down stream to put in another access that's something I could get behind.

An upstream take out would be good as long as we don't lose the downstream takeout. Honestly it doesn't seem to be a heavily used access mainly locals and driftboat guys losing downstream access would suck in a major way. Safer absolutely no question.

I think you can I don't take my motor off my towee when I float it. Not sure why you would want to you wouldn't make it very far up or down from any of the accesses.

Wow great pics flysmallie thank you.

I put a ix5 on my Towee it is hands down the best trolling motor I have ever owned for fly fishing. The spot lock is amazing especially compared to Minkota not sure how much current you are talking about but I would think 24v would be better if slowing down in current is your main need

I have no idea what will happen to the trout population long term if the dam is removed but neither does TU or Shawn Taylor. I know there has been a hole in it for a number of years there have been stripers in the river and from a fishing perspective the trout population is just fine in my experience. That doesn't mean long term if the dam is removed the trout population won't be severely impacted. In my opinion the MDC should own the dam and repair and maintain it or remove it based on what's best for the river long term it seems from the outside looking in the decision is being made based on what's the quickest and most cost effective solution to remove the the hazard based on the terrible tragedy that happened this summer. I don't understand the dirty politics that go on behind the scene on these types of deals but it seems to me everyone involved or that has a financial stake in this deal is missing the point. Sad really.

Agreed. You will likely get down any of those rivers safely in your drifter but learning how to actually row is a whole different story it's best learned from someone who actually knows what they are doing. If you don't have any friends with rowing experience hire a driftboat guide for a day just to see how it's done I did that and it shortened the learning curve considerably.

Boat is sold but still have trolling motor for sale: Minn Kota pro drive v2 I pilot 12volt 45 lb thrust 48" shaft with quick release bracket $500. Chris has first dibbs. Sean

Not sure of its benefits in rivers I mainly use mine lake fishing make sure you try before you buy. I have one on a 15 foot Jon just got a new boat and debating if I want to keep it or get rid of it. I have been pretty underwhelmed with mine it's annoyingly noisy the spot lock function isn't as tight as I expected it to be and it is a bit quirky. I'm really too impatient to learn and use some of the other features even though they seem like they might be beneficial so the jury is still out. I will probably mount it to my new boat dedicate one more season to it and really give it a chance but if it's more of the same I'm going back to a bow mounted tiller and if my main use for a trolling motor was on rivers it certainly wouldn't be my first choice.

Worth every penny another top notch place! Just wish I could get a beverage there or that it was open a little later tough on the fishing schedule but excellent grub.

Yeah back 40 I love that that place ham can see a person having a bad experience there though. Pretty much all Mexican food is good with the exception of Lettie's but for an Okie it's just the same ol same ol

Meh Mexican food is Mexican food never been. What's the barn place just down the street? I like that joint too. Good burgers cold beer.

Baragas Feedlot? Do tell.

Gracias. I just assumed the liquor store smack in the middle of two accesses would have canned beer besides natural light go figure. I usually hit the place between Yellville and Cotter on the way in. Thai food and waders sound very dangerous I did hit "the arena" on this trip for the first time I'm a fan.

The other problem is the canned beer selection in Cotter is pathetic

I didn't take what joe wrote to mean that.Trigg responded to this thread to be helpful was asked a question and gave an honest accurate answer. The White is popular river that gets lots of publicity and a lot of people make their living off of it I'm sure not 100% of what's put up on social media etc... Is completely reliable or the entire story. Trigg is very good peoples.

I pretty much agree but fish are being caught it's the White river fish are always being caught. The browns are tough for us feather chuckers nothing new about that not a gear guy and I'm not sure what optimal jerk bait flows are but I'm guessing 30k isn't it. We got out the weekend before fished hard for 3 1/2 days caught a handful of decent browns. Sorry for the ugly muggage, fly fishermans perspective shots and lack of Yeti representation we needed it the beer didn't go down fast the river at 30k required our undivided attention really cut into the consumption.

Like anything else try before you buy and know exactly what you want your vise to do. I use a 16 year old renzetti traveler with the rubber o ring I have considered upgrading a couple of times but I don't have any reason to do so I have also tried a few of the vises I wanted to upgrade to that I just didn't like at all. For me I need 3 things in a vise pedestal base true rotary and a vise that will hold 5/0 to size 20 hooks anything else is just noise for me. If I was into dubbing brushes and used the rotary function a lot in the tying process I would likely buy a nor vise.

Actually this is pretty close to frank sawyers original pheasant tail nymph pattern. If I remeber correctly he tied it a little differently but the only two materials used were copper wire and pheasant tail fibers. The peacock herl, legs, thread and bead heads are new additions.

Thanks Lancer and Joe. Joe what can I say I'm a gear junkie and a retail advertiser's wet dream I can't help myself. I do use it everyday it holds ice pretty good and the latches don't break it's way heavy for the amount of stuff it holda it also doubles as a rowers bench in my jon boat and will have the same use in my new towee so I probably get my money's worth more than most.

Got out with troutnut69 and a few other friends this weekend to fish one of our favorite Ozark streams. The weather felt like late spring and we were in short sleeves until the rain came Sunday. Troutnut69 and I threw streamers all weekend and the other boat bobber fished we all caught some fish. Thought I would post some pics up from the trip

Great stuff plastic worm I want to do this someday!