Clay Goforth

I read your report. Great job. The river is fishing just great with the consistent generation of 8,000-12,000cfs. The bigger fish are getting dumb in the higher water and easier to catch. Loved seeing your son with that big fish. Keep it up and he'll be hooked for life.

Two weekends in a row spent on the White River is almost too good to be true. I went last weekend with my Dad for Father's Day and then back over this weekend with some buddies for some R&R. There have been a couple of other reports already and you can see from those that it was a pretty good weekend. I'll say that this river is fishing better than I have seen it in a long time, producing large numbers and consistently dishing out 20"+ fish. There were six of us on the trip in 2 boats. We stayed at Rim Shoals with Gary and Paula Flippin, who are always ALWAYS so friendly and take care of everything you need. On Saturday morning, the other boat decided to chase numbers on the fish and stayed around Rim Shoals, floating down to Crooked Creek and then on down to Rough Hole. Because we had put a small wager down in a Big Fish pot, my boat headed up river, making the haul to the dam. They were generating about 8,000cfs which is just outstanding water and we fished with about that much most of the day. The COE did crank it up to 10,000cfs later in the day and we started to see some trash coming down. We put on the water about 7:30am and fished from the dam down through State Park. First fish for me was an 18" brown, second fish was a 16" rainbow, and third fish was a 21.5" brown. We fished on, catching pretty consistently and continued to find really solid fish. My friend caught an 18" rainbow and we had some other really nice 15-17" fish. We continued to fish around the area and then I finally tied into a good brown, thick bodied and 22" long. (as you can see, we are a serious bunch) All was going well until my buddy went to turn on the trolling motor and watched as the prop shot off and sputtered away upstream before sinking to the bottom of the river. We tried to fish around a bit more but the current was pushing and spinning us this way and that so we decided to break for lunch and go fix the trolling motor. The three of us had boated around 50 fish that morning which, is not an outstanding numbers day but I was after the money fish and was in the lead. We checked in with the other boat and they reported over 100 fish to the boat between the 3 of them but big fish was an 18" brown. With the trolling motor fixed, we headed down to Rim and put in and motored down to the Crooked Creek area. The bite was still hot and we continued to rack up the numbers. The other boat wanted to do something a bit different so it motored up Crooked Creek a bit and they fished for smallmouth which reportedly were biting as well. We motored back up through catch and release at rim and fished the stretch of water about 1000 yards above back down to C&R and we found an incredible bite with doubles on almost constantly. We racked up the numbers there in a very short amount of time and ended with about 90 fish in the boat for the day and my brown remained at big fish. We kept a few for dinner and headed in to filet and fry up the fish. We cooked dinner at the Rim Shoals Resort pavilion and just enjoyed sitting out on the deck watching big fish cruise the shallows, the biggest of which was a 30+" brown that came to eat some of the scraps from the fish we had cleaned. I happened to notice something else of interest chewing on a fish carcass and decided to have some fun. You have never seen the likes of grown men running for their lives when I came up to the pavilion holding this. A banded water snake...granted it was a good 34" in length, but a harmless animal, nonetheless. We fished Sunday morning as well but were very relaxed with it, boating fish here and there but mainly talking and enjoying hanging out in the boat. All in all, a great trip with as many laughs as fish caught, great conversation, and a real weekend retreat from the rat race.

awesome...

I haven't seen many posts lately in this forum, so I thought I would post a fishing report from the trip yesterday. For Father's Day, I took my dad over to the river to chase after some trout. We put in at the Forrest L Wood Access in the Catch and Release area at the dam. Bull Shoals was generating 2 units of water. The trout fishing was on fire. We fished in the C&R area for a while before deciding to float down river and fish some water that we haven't touched in a while. We floated through State Park and fished our way down to Gastons. It happened to be about 12:30 so we pulled up to the dock and went in for Gaston's Sunday Brunch. We got back on the water, motored back up to the dam, fished for maybe another 30 - 45 minutes and decided that it was too hot and we were both pretty beat so we loaded up and headed home about 2:30. We boated 104 fish in the 5 hours on the water, the biggest was a 20" brown my dad caught. We also landed a couple of 19" rainbows and a slew of 15-17" fish in throughout the pretty constant catching. We solely fished PJ's jigs. My dad started out with a brown and orange with an orange head and did very well but by 9:30 the sun was high and the bite had changed to all black, 3/32oz on 3lb test line. I will be back over this coming weekend with a group of guys and will post another report after that trip. I expect that, if they will continue to run between 2 and 5 units, this coming weekend could produce a true trophy size fish. All of the fish we caught yesterday were healthy, fat, football shaped fish. They seem to be loving this generation.

http://www.trophyanglersguild.com/blog/fathers-day-an-ode-to-dad/ Thought you all might enjoy.

Five syllables first, Seven in the second line, Five again to end.

Color does matter, "Match the Hatch," I have been told, More Fish in the Boat

In agreement with ^^^. I have thought, for a long time, that the bait is only as good as the person fishing it. Which, if there is a bait that you are comfortable confident with, you are more likely to catch more fish that way. I love the hula grub. I have a lot of experience fishing the hula grub. I am confident in how to fish it in multiple scenarios. Therefore, it is my "go to," because I believe in it and my ability to use it. It may not be any better than a baby brush hog, or a carolina rigged lizard, or a chomper spider grub, but because I know how to use it and have confidence in it, it works for me.

With the amount of water that has been running (consistently 3 - 5 units) I would fish a sink tip. Although, if you have a floating line, the dry fly bite is kicking off over there in the slack water seams. I would throw that 5wt with a white and grey streamer or with a black wooly bugger, somewhere in the size 14 range with a strip retrieve and an egg pattern or san juan worm to drift. I wish Mr. Berry would comment here. He is on the water every day and usually has great insight.

I don't know if I should take exception to the comment about me using the same bait as your wife (just kidding) . I'll have to check out the stuff from Drts5kprs. Are the heads painted? This sounds kind of similar to another rig that is wildly popular right now...Do you call this the "Ted Rig?"

Oh, I am sure you have heard of it. It just surprises me that nobody mentioned them. I fish the Buffalo River, Kings River, and Crooked Creek for smallies and almost, ALMOST, exclusively throw this bait. A 4" Watermelon and red flake Yamamoto hula grub on a PJs 1/8oz or 3/16oz weedless jig head. In really deep or really fast water that I want to get to the bottom quickly, I might step up to 1/4oz.

I am really surprised that no one has mentioned my absolute go to bait for smallmouth on this thread... I'm having that inner turmoil where I want to keep it to myself, but I also want people to have good trips on the water. :/

First things first, Congratulations! You will be surprised at how much you can still get out on the water with just one little one. And, even if it requires you to stay at home more, it is worth it. Without question or comparison. Second, hopper season could be epic this year...a bunch of water, a bunch of big fish spending the better part of the first few weeks of summer gorging and getting fat on shad and worms, losing some of their inhibitions in regard to "natural" baits...and then come the hoppers. Best test for hopper season: Stop somewhere out in the country next to a big field. Go into big field. Open mouth as wide as you can. Commence running through field. If you make it less than 10 yards before you have to stop and spit, it is hopper season. In all seriousness though, in regard to hammering them with jigs vs fly fishing, I have the same dilemma. However, a top water bite on any fish, when it is on, is just awesome to experience. Just the thought of a big 8lb+ brown rolling up onto the surface to pick up a big fat piece of foam and then rocketing back toward the bottom gives me goosebumps.

Ned is a fictitious character... The "perfect bait" that catches any and everything in all weather and water conditions. The proverbial "unicorn" so to speak. It is the macabre bait of a fish's nightmare, provoking them feed against their will. or it is a small piece of a senko-type worm, about 2 inches in length and glued to a 3/32 oz or 1/8oz shaky head and fished finesse on 6-8lb test.... I can't remember which.

TFR, that is pretty slick, man. Congrats!

Ha. True. Authentic Corn tortillas are fantastic. And the corn fed farm animals is true as well...but even they have additional foods and supplements fed to them. Soybeans, grasses and hays, grains, mineral blocks, etc...

I don't think it is the corn that kills the trout but more likely the high percentage of those that fish with corn keeping the fish caught. It may be an incorrect assumption on my part but I haven't witnessed a lot of corn fishermen practicing C&R. Which, mind you, I have no problem with so don't accuse me of "trolling." I'm just stating my evaluation of observed behaviors. And I think Netboy nailed it too...I have occasionally found small pebbles, snail shells, midges, powerbait, etc in the stomachs or tracts of fish...If those things don't kill them, I don't think a little yippin' yeller #5 will do it. Maybe if fed a diet solely of corn over an extended period of time, but I don't know of a digestive system in the world that could handle that.

Thanks for posting that, Jim. I picked one up... You are right about a lot of the designs being "out there." To reiterate the importance of sun protection, I'm 32 yrs old and just had to have some skin cancer cells frozen off of my left ear... a result of youthful years and being 10 feet tall and bullet-proof. I wear a goofy wide brimmed hat and long sleeves almost all the time on the water now. Take care of yourself. I know the human mortality rate hovers somewhere around 99% anyway but we don't need to help it along.

Treated similar to the "culling" rules I guess?

Hey, I have a question that kind of fits in here at this point in the convo... It is something that, to OTF's point, is common practice and I did it for years without thinking about it... Lets take the guide out of the equation for the time being and just discuss a trip where two buddies are out fishing. We will take the daily limit of 5 trout as an example: If I am out with a friend and we are fishing, just wanting to keep an overall limit of 10, if we have 9 in the live well, can we both continue to fish? Or does this speak to F&F's point about to whom each fish in the well belongs? Would you have to only have 8 in the livewell for both to continue to fish? Can you claim catch and release after you reach your limit and continue to fish? Technically, when you boat that 6th fish, you are in violation of the law at that point, right?

I think I talked about the guide putting people on fish, not necessarily adding fish to the client's bag. I have guided in the past and still have a license just because I take so many people fishing that I don't want there to ever be a question about my legality but that is beside the point. I understand what you are saying completely. Any guide worth their weight will be able to put people on fish and teach them enough about it to get them their own 5 fish limit, so I completely agree with you. There are two situations, however, that I admittedly contributed to the client's "limit." First was on a trip where I was responsible for a shore lunch of 15 people. That day, there were 8 units of water on the White below Bull Shoals. I had three boats running, each with three plus the guide. Fishing was TOUGH. Normally, when I had to recruit other guides to assist, I had strict rules (and most do) about the guide not fishing but on this day, I had to have them with lines in the water just to make sure we picked up every fish willing to eat so that we would have enough for a shore lunch, not even a 5 fish limit. I wasn't worth my weight that day. Again, it was really tough fishing. The second situation was when I had young kids in the boat. I would have them with a line in the water and then I would have one as well. If I hooked a fish, the rod was handed off to the young one to fight and bring in. If that makes me a bad guide, I guess I'll accept the title.

Bottom line, most of the trout fisheries are put and take systems. Designed to be that way and much of the reason was to create an attraction and develop an economy around them. If the person hiring the guide buys a license, which they have to, they are entitled to keep the daily limit of fish that the license affords them. They can do that with or without a guide. I would argue that guides help the economy around the fishing industry much more than they benefit from it. What happens if a bunch of snow birds come down for a weekend of awesome fishing on the White River in Arkansas and get skunked? Do they ever come back? Do they tell all of their friends about the terrible trip they had and discourage others from coming down? Possibly. Let's say, in turn, 5 guys come down and they hire a guide. Guide puts them on fish and they catch the dickens out of them, each keeping their daily limit (mind you, the possession or carry limit is 2 day limit) of 5. Fish for three days, each keep 10 fish to take home, paid the guide $400 a day (a guide that lives in the area and will spend that money in the local economy), paid for their lodging, ate out and spent time in local restaurants, etc. And the big kicker, they come back and do it again year after year. The next year, it is 8 guys, and the following year it is 12. The dollars spent increases, the local economy benefits. Tag on top of that the guide license as well as the annual fishing license for the guide, all of the gear purchased in the local economy and you have much greater tax benefits for the local area and the state than the cost for a regenerative commodity like a fish. I know, I am feeding the troll. Still a good discussion.