Clay Goforth

OH YEAH!!! Beautiful place you have there...I have floated by many many times...Great fishing right out in front of you, even in low low water. Maybe I'll lose a few lures in high water next to your shore line so when the water goes down it will be like Christmas for you...

Sometimes I think the BS level is much higher on the forum

Awesome pic Mr. Berry...It was nice meeting you over the weekend at Rim Shoals...I will be back this weekend but not sure where we are fishing yet...Gametime decision.

Mikey, Definately hit Dry Run for your son...In the camping area parking lot, park as close to the east and north as you can and there will be a steep set of stairs heading down to the creek and a waterfall area...LOTS OF BIG FISH HERE. Another great spot is on the other side of the road, actually parking in the hatchery parking lot...Go around to the east side of the hatchery and follow the sidewalk that runs parallel to the creek and the hatchery...The sidewalk will end but continue on through the grass and you will see a path worn down through the woods...this is basically the beginning of the fishable part of the creek as it gets much to shallow just above this spot...There is a massive pipe pumping water into the creek and that area along with the deep hole just below where water falls off a shelf is another excellent excellent spot...Another option is to walk the entire thing, which I did a number of times when I was younger...If you are flyfishing I can't help you much as I don't know much about the subject...If spin fishing, 1/16 oz maribou jigs in black, olive, and brown/Orange seem to be the ticket...casting up stream and letting the jig fall...Also, fish parts that look way to shallow to hold big fish because it will surprise you how little water a 20 inch fish needs to remain submerged.

Snagged you are completely right about the dam generation number not being updated...They did a good job this weekend because we called a number of times to test it out but I too have had the frustration of them saying there is nothing on line only to drive to the dam and see the water pouring through...Don, you don't happen to be the gentleman that my buddy and I yelled back and forth to from the water on Saturday and Sunday are you??? Is your ramp a grass ramp? Anyway, we caught a number of good fish in that long stretch of deep relatively slow moving water...That is where I hooked a fish I believe to be larger than the one in the picture as it peeled a good amount of line off before the hook pulled loose. If you ever fish the area at Buffalo City, my family owns the cabin that is the old buffalo city store on the left before you cross the railroad tracks...Anytime we are there, feel free to stop in. I also was fortunate enough to meet Mr. John Berry in the flesh this weekend while at Rim Shoals...genuinely nice guy.

I threw both the XR08 (just over 3 inches) and the 10 which is 4 inches with minimal difference in the catch...The Rat L Trap was an 8 as well... Mikey, I can give you two phone numbers: 1. Bull Shoals and Norfork Dams Generation Report: 870.431.5311 This number gives you information on current lake levels and generation...It also tells you when more units were added, when they were shut off, and how long they have been running units...This is probably the number you will use most often. 2.Generation Schedule from the Southwest Power Association: 9185956779 This number calls Tulsa but gives information on all of the hydropower facilities in the area...They are rarely correct in the number of units they say will be online and the times at which they will turn them on, this is more helpful in finding out if they are going to run any water at all...

I was fortunate enough to hit the water this weekend and thought I would report to you all...With the recent rain and rise in water level at Bull Shoals, the powers that be weren't afraid of running some units...The lowest water we had was supposedly 4 generators according to the dam generation recording but I don't know that the down river areas ever saw the low water... We started out Saturday morning as the only boat on the water at Bull Shoals dam at 7:00 in a brisk 20 degrees. There were, if memory serves me correctly, 5 units online and we fished white jigs, black jigs, and sculpin jigs...all 3/32 oz. By 8:30 there were boats of at least a bakers dozen ripping around and we continued to fish for about another hour with minimal catches...We ended up with 6 fish in the boat...By 9:30 the number of boats had doubled, including a 3 boat party from Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock and we decided it was about time to head out. We loaded up and headed to some more peaceful water at Cotter. From Cotter we floated down to Rim Shoals and this is where we had some good luck...this stretch had roughly 6 units of water and was flowing pretty good but we found some good fish starting about 2 miles above the catch and release area which consisted of a 15 inch cutthroat (not that big but I was exited as it has been probably 2 years since I have caught a cutthroat in the White), numerous 14-17 inch rainbows, a brown that measured at 20 inches, and a fish that was never seen but had no trouble peeling line off my reel...I fished this area differently than I have ever fished on the White, cranking a Rat-L-Trap in what we call an Arkansas shiner color. I also ripped a rainbow color Rapala X-Rap and had good luck with it. We spent the majority of the day floating this stretch of water again and again with it consistently producing good fun size fish. At around 3:00 we loaded back up and headed back to the dam. We got on the water again at about 3:45 to 4:00 and finished up fishing 3/32 oz black jigs in "The Triangle" at the dam and caught a good number more fish which included an 18 inch rainbow that was a great football fish and probably weighed upwards of 2.5 - 3 lbs...Overall, saturday produced roughly 40 fish. Sunday was another story...Another cold morning and I was bound and determined to get a big big fish...We drove to Rim Shoals and put in, motored about a mile up stream and began fishing jerkbaits, Rat-L-Traps, and I was fishing an 8 inch deep running countdown Rapala. We caught very few fish in the 7 units that were coming through...We floated on down to the stretch of river across from Crooked Creek and fished there a while as well...We had to pull out about 11:00 am and head back to Fayettnam...Sunday was much slower with only 14 fish in the boat by the time we pulled off the water. I included a pic of the weekends big brown...we wanted something bigger but are not disappointed.

Shimano, definately.

Honestly I haven't ever officially checked the depth. I know it doesn't take long for a 1/4 football jig to get to the bottom. I did fly fish it quite a bit when I was a little younger. I would throw a popping bug around the lilly pads and just hammer the bream and bass.

You can access some good spots at Taney up close to the dam that are walk in...If they are pumping water through the dam and the outlets are flowing, that would be a good place to start...You have to fight through the 4,000,000 flyfisherman though...HA

Giving them some credit, it would be more like trying to stock a florida strain large mouth and instead stocking kentuckys/spots...

Since I requested this thread I think it only appropriate I be the first to post in it...First of all, thank you Phil for the addition of this section... Now down to business... First off: Lake SWEPCO...Located in Gentry Arkansas next to the SWEPCO Power Plant...this lake is a "hot" lake with the power company pumping water into it...Year round the lake maintains a surface temperature of between 68 and 74 degrees...the best time to fish this little gem is early in February and the fish stay active all year...It was a catch and release lake for a long time but the bigger fish started to suffer as the lake became over populated...It was pretty common to catch a bass that would/should normally weigh in the 6-7 lb range and it come in at 3lbs...The game and fish changed this and now anglers can take a few bass out per day...I am not sure of the limits at this point but will try to find out...The lake is very small but deep and you can run a bass boat with no problem...It takes probably less than 2 minutes to run from one end of the lake to the other...I won't give up my spots but there is one section known as "the Locker" where big fish are known to hang...It is not uncommon to hear of an 8 or 9lb fish being pulled out... Another favorite local lake is called Lake Wilson and is located in south Fayetteville...Talk about a sleeper lake...This lake is roughly 125 acres and is packed with largemouth, bream, crappie, and some cats...This lake is perfect for a canoe, which is my preferred method of fishing on this lake...It is like an oversized farm pond...Wacky rigged trick worms, spinner baits along the bank, buzz baits along the lilly pad sections in the dead of summer, and texas rigged pumpkin and chartreuse lizards can illicit some powerful strikes by some BIG fish...A local business in the industrial park used to hold a company fishing tournament on this lake and it would, every year, produce numerous bass in the 5-8 lb range...The best part, this lake is rarely seriously fished as you can't run a bass boat on it...There is tons of sticks, stobs, grassbeds, and cover to throw at...A true diamond in the rough.

scotty mac, good to see another friendly face on the forum...love the self portrait by the way. Really is a pretty good rendition..."Remember that time we were all standing around after the Cotter tournament, eating, and someones boat floated away from the shore..." "HA Ha Ha...WAIT! THATS MY BOAT!!!"

Thank you both for the info...I will probably start by melting some old plastics to see if this is something I really want to pursue...If I get into it heavier, I may start looking to combine my own color schemes and change the hardness and fleck and all that other jazz...

Some nice Peacock Bass pictures from Brazil...

These were all on the same day, different fish, white jigs on the White River below Bull Shoals just below the Rim Shoals Catch and Release.