Clay Goforth

How about trying to find a used ganoe or gheenoe? If you aren't familiar, it is basically a canoe with a flat gunnel for mounting a small motor or trolling motor. One of those with a 45lb thrust trolling motor would be killer on a pond, and you could use it to float creeks and rivers as well.

Thanks for the encouragement everybody. These girls are new territory for me. I grew up with a brother as my only sibling and I was always outside shooting something, catching something, or playing with a ball. The only colors that mattered were black, blue, and blood red. The princesses, dancing, singing, and pink everything is a bit overwhelming. I'm swimming in a sea of estrogen so I have to make every attempt to level the playing field.

Saturday morning was one of those mornings dad's dream of. Over a breakfast of fresh eggs and "pigs in a blanket," my four year old daughter said, "Dada, can we take the canoe out fishing today?" YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES! "Why, sure sweetheart. Let's finish up breakfast and while mama runs some errands, I'll take you out." I loaded up the canoe and we drove up the road to our family farm since we didn't have a whole lot of time before we would be needing to get her ready for her dance recital (We are trying to raise well balanced girls). Once at the pond of my daughter's choosing, I tied up a simple but effective bait for her, a 1/8oz jig head with a Berkley Power Grub on a 6ft St.Croix spinning rig with 4lb test line (the rod is twice as long as she is tall). We launched the canoe and started fishing. A 4 year old girl using a 6ft spinning rod, you say? And after a few casts, with dad holding the boat steady, she began to land some fish. No big fish landed on this day, but a HUGE moment for dad, for sure. She ended up boating about a dozen bass, on her own, before some flowers on the bank caught her eye and she thought they needed picking. I am trying my best not to burn her out early, so I let her dictate how long we stay on the water. If it is 10 minutes, that is fine. The most important thing, again, is that I balance all my girls (Currently have 2 but adding a third in September) tutus and princesses with a good dose of the outdoors.

I, of course, don't know what you were throwing, but I always have good luck at Crooked Creek with the following setup. 4 or 6lb test maxima green line on a light spinning rod throwing a green pumpkin/red flake hula grub on an 1/8th oz weedless jig head. You have to creep on these fish and the presentation is SUPER slow because of the clear water. Fish the bottom of the shoals by casting across and retrieving slowly, letting it fall off into a deeper hole if there. Once in the deeper hole, let it sit. and sit. and sit. twitching it every once in a while. I have caught monster smallmouth out of there but have done so when working a single cast for up to 4 or 5 minutes. Hope that helps. Don't let a single experience on Crooked Creek turn you off to the water. It is a great creek.

I was fortunate to be able to take my family to the river this past weekend with another family. While the wives kept the kids occupied, us husbands slipped off for a few hours on Saturday morning. We stayed in a rental house at Wildcat but because of the falling water from 2 units to 1 on Saturday morning, we drove down to Ranchette and put in there. It was cold first thing in the morning so we took a short boat ride down to Rough Hole and caught quite a few little stock rainbows from 12 - 14 inches. Boring, right? Once it warmed up, I decided to make the run up to the bottom of Rim Shoals. We fished from the bottom of Rim Shoals down to Crooked Creek, picking up fish here and there. Then I had something happen that I have not experienced in the 15+ years I have been fishing the White. We found a pocket of rainbows that were holding right at the top of that deep hole directly across from Crooked Creek and down river slightly that were all 2lb+ fish. I know this is going to cause a fuss but because we didn't think we would spend but a couple of hours on the water, we didn't bring a camera or phone. (cue the trolls) We pulled 10 fish out of this hole, all on black 1/16oz jigs, and the smallest was 16 inches. The largest was a fat 22 incher. The other 8 were all sitting between 17 and 20 inches. I have not seen anything like that particular pocket of fish before. I don't know if the AGFC stocked a bunch of them or what, but it was a lot of fun. We would run just up above, get on a drift line, and cast out toward the middle of the river just before the gravel bar dropped off. Let it sit...2...3...4...SET THE HOOK! And then I had a run in with a guide who, as we were on the drift, motored his boat with 2 clients up to within 20 feet of the back of my boat and threw out a drag chain, "low hole-ing me." He had seen all the fish we were pulling out and, I guess I can't blame him for wanting to stop us from showing him up in front of his paying clientele. So, I proceeded to fire up the trolling motor, move further out into the river, and float past him. And as luck would have it, we pulled a double off the side of his boat as we drifted by, earning a thumbs up from one of his clients. Altogether, we fished about 3 hours, boating 63 fish. The hot colors were all black and a combo I tied that was yellow olive and sculpin. And, just because I am a proud dad, here is my four year old fishing from the bank with a spinning rod. That's right, my 4 year old is fishing by herself with a spinning rod. That's what no video games and very limited tv will do for you. And then here is a picture of the river at wildcat just below the house where we stayed. Sorry for no fish pictures.

Ham has got it basically down pat. His recommendations are solid. The only thing I can add is that, regardless of generation amount, you have to fish the water you are in. What I mean is, you may only have 1 unit of water, which would more often call for a 1/16 oz in most areas, but if you are fishing the area around, say, Angels Retreat just up from Ranchette, you want to use a little heavier jig to fish the deep water. Or you may have something like 4 units of water which would normally call for something like a 3/32oz but if I am fishing at Buffalo Shoals, I would go lighter to a 1/16oz because the water is shallower and I want the current to carry the jig over and around rocks, not letting the jig land and get hung on a rock. I hope that makes sense. The long and short is, 90% of the time I have 1 rod with a 1/16oz jig on and another with a 3/32. 5% of the time I have a 1/32oz and the other 5% would be an 1/8oz if there are 6-8 units of water.

My dad and a group of his friends fished Wildcat with jigs last weekend. Here is my dad's first cast of the day. We use PJs primarily, but it is moreso because of the cause behind their products, not because they work any better than a ZigJig. Ham is right that the ZigJigs are probably a better product overall, but a black PJs vs. a black Zig is basically the same thing.

Crappie were biting pretty good waaaaay up river this morning. We put in at Twin Bridges and ran about 3 miles up river. Caught 5 slabs and a dozen young bucks or so on a 1/100 oz white marabou jig fished under a clear float. Also caught 20 or so white bass. Mostly little males but a couple of big females in there. Also lost a keeper walleye at the boat. All told, not a bad day for only being on the water about 3 hours.

I will be putting in at Twin Bridges tomorrow morning for some white bass fishing. I have a stack of the OAF decals I will bring with me. If you need one and are going to be out in the morning, let me know or look for a white Ford f150 with a Supreme boat with a 30hp Yamaha jet.

Man, I honestly might try to save it and go another day. The river was like chocolate milk. Visibility was 8" maybe. We fished for 3 hours and I hooked one walleye at Dollar Hole/Walkers Bluff but it was on 4lb test and a white bass jig. It cut my line in a matter of seconds. I talked to maybe 10 other people on the water and we did better than most. The vast majority said they hadn't gotten a bite. There is a lot of debris still floating as well.

Well...if you like fishing in chocolate milk, today is a great opportunity. I hooked one walleye, not on my walleye rig but on a jig on 4lb test and had it on for all of about 9 seconds before I got a head shake and a cut line. Other than that, nothing. From talking to everybody else on the water, we had more action than most.

Thank you sir!

Thank you sir!

I hate to read those last two reports...I got a hall pass for tomorrow morning so I'll take advantage of it anyway. Putting in at twin bridges at 7am. I'll post a report of the happenings when finished.

With enough time, anything is possible. However with the size of the stickers being relatively small, it would make the rods and reels almost indeterminable. Good idea though. Maybe we can do another one later on with different rods. I'm picturing a skull and bones motif with two different rods and a fish outline with "X"s for eyes

Alright everybody! Thank you for the feedback. The stickers have been ordered in 3 designs. They are: The updated version of C, the first version of D, and an updated version of D where the bass outline was exchanged for the brown trout found on C. He is also going to be footing the bill for them so make sure to thank him. I think he is going to send a follow up email out to let everyone know when they are in at Lilleys Landing, which should be around April 9th. Thanks again for the feedback!

Here is an updated version for examination by the group. I included flashing and found some red eyes that got on the highway better. Next I will try some different patterns...maybe that white and grey that NEVER works.

RUN AWAY AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. Buy a canoe or kayak for yourself...or a Ganoe so you can mount a trolling motor to it. Don't do the partnership thing. Here is the scenario you will run into...Maybe you want to bring the boat home for a weekend because you want to fish with some friends there but Partner2 and Partner3 throw a fit because they had planned on using it the same weekend. Also, inevitably, someone will use it, break something they don't want to have to pay for, then put it back in storage. Next time you go to use it, you load up and take it to the lake, launch the boat, run across the lake, get setup to fish, and the trolling motor won't come on.

Updated version of C Below: Phil is a leader for the people and decided that, even though it is not in the logo, since the people spoke and wanted a different species of fish on the sticker, we could add something. I removed two of the bass outlines and replaced one of them with a brown trout, increasing the size of it and the remaining bass outline so the difference would be more noticeable. What does everyone think of this? OAFSticker.pdf

Thank you. A week and a half before the flood...We had some crazy weather when we were there. The day we left, it started out at about 68 degrees and we hiked some small trails since we needed to leave by noon or so. All of the sudden, the temperature dropped and we were in the middle of the one of the most torrential rain/hail storms I have seen. Apparently, it never stopped raining after we left.

So, last year I was fortunate to be in a position to travel for work quite a bit and got to spend a considerable amount of time in Colorado Springs, which is one of the most beautiful cities in America. I was also able to take a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park and this is just a consolidation of those two trips. They aren't necessarily fishing photos, but they are "outdoorsy" in nature so I thought you might enjoy.

I was looking at 3"x5"

I hear what you are saying, but I assume that when people are asking about HP, they are talking about how quickly they can get up and down a river or across a body of water. Of course, you know what happens when one assumes...

I may try to tie up a chartreuse. I have fished the chartreuse little fishies and the white/blue back little fishies and always catch more on the white/blue combo. That is a good idea. I should have a lot of that material left over after stuffing the girls easter baskets this year But seriously, I'll have to try that along with the flashing and the epoxy over the eyes. Thanks fellas!

Flashing...Brilliant. My issue with the eyes is that I am afraid they won't stay on this size of jig head very well. They are self-adhesive and I also glued them down with superglue, but the edges still stick up in a couple of places due to the contour of the jig head. I am afraid that one or two bumps on the rocks and they will get popped off. I like the bigger eyes too, but the surface area on the head is just a tad too small. I am going to test them out on Sunday and will make changes accordingly.