troutgnat

I am curious to know if anyone is after those bluegill beds? What has been your experience and technique on the gills in this high water? Next to walleye and crappie they are 3rd on list for tablefare. I need a good couple of batches to stock up for a fish fry. I already ate all my crappie, oops!

Anyone been out of Gages Marina/Long Creek lately? I would like to launch there tomorrow but have not been on that end of lake since the devastation. Can anyone let us know what the water condition and clarity is around Gages? Thanks in advance for the help and information.

As just stated, head for the bushes and get the flippin rod out. Big Tubes, sweet beavers, jigs, etc. Also, white spinnerbaits with white blades burned in and around the bushes, second that with some shallow running crankbaits and pink floating worms if they get really active. I'd first look for them to be tight to the bushes.............D

I fished the Long Creek Arm again today. I had been on a good dock bite this last week, particularly with the shakey head but it didn't happen for me today. The good news is, just as Don stated in his report I saw alot of beds and alot of empty ones as well but plenty with fish on them. My bite today was working the shallow beds with the floating worm and landed several nice keeps. However, it was slow. I had a lot of lookers, not so many takers. I had alot of tail grabbers who would mouth it and let go. The few good ones who wanted, had no problem eating it. I caught some more fish on the grub today, right where they should be but again not many but that bite has got to turn any day now. BTW, I saw more 30lb+ carp today than I could count. Not singles, but in packs......Next time my bowfishing rig will be in the boat and I'll have a much more entertaining day........LOL

Very nice report Sir. Bill, you hit it right on the money. I have been fishing the Long Creek Arm and doing very well. I have taken 2 5+ and a 6lbr within the last week. Here's a couple of additions from my field tests. The night bite can be had, however, it is slow. I fished all night last night and was rewarded 1 keeper kentucky on a jig/craw. But, last Thurs. I fished from 3am on and had two bites before sun-up on the jig and landed them both and each were over 5lbs. Both came from the same little spawning pocket next to a bluff-end. Also, topwater is funny right now. Sitting out over my little spawning pocket at twilight this morning I see fishing beginning to ball up shad all around me so I go to work throwing the kitchen arsenal of topwater at them and notta, not one bite. The sky begins turning bluer and fish and shad migrate out to the open flat break and all of the sudden they start biting with aggression on a Sammy. Go figure. Could it have been too early??? BTW......the grub bite is to be found but again slow, there are only a limited amount of outside shady dock corners to be found LOL, but my experience has proven that every one holds a fat kentucky who can't pass up a 4" smoke grub

Bill, Donna and Capt'n Joe, Thank you, that is all I needed to hear. How depressing! My second favorite technique of swimming that grub is out the window this weekend. I guess it's that 70 mile drive back to the James Arm and where I know my wart fish are. I hope to have a repeat of this last Wednesday. To you all, grab a wart and head up river!!!

Gentlemen, Now that I've clued everyone in on the wart bite up the James,............Can anyone tell us if the grub bite has started in the dam area??? Please include water temp and clarity if you would. I thank everyone in advance for their posts.

Gentlemen, I almost don't want to post this because it's just SICK but 100% true! Wednesday I launched in the James River Arm at daybreak and fished all day until dusk. I was blessed to have boated 41 bass with 6 being over 3 lbs. My best 5 would have gone around 16-17 lbs. I had two kicker fish a 4.8 and a 4.5. The picture is of the 4.8. She had a small buffet of craws in her gullet. Hopefully, that just gave way to what the bite was. Ah, well, yes, all 41 fish were on the WART!!! The water is wart perfect up in the James! I never had the boat in more than 10' of water and all fish were caught at the 6-8' range scrubbing that wart on the bottom with a good slow steady and pause retrieve. They "gullet" eat the wart and you will feel the take! They are on the bank and pea gravel helps. The water in the James is stained with about 2' visibility. Average water temp was 50 degrees but by end of day I did find 55 degree water and then some.

Gentlemen, I wish I could call this a fishing report but I scratched but then again I didn't concentrate all that hard on fishing. I was there on a recon mission more so than fishing. I'm not real familiar with Kdock so wanted to use the day cruisin and a eye ballin' the water for some upcoming crappie fishing trips. Now I can see why so many of you like Kdock for crappie.........LOL Anyway, here is what I did learn on the water today. There is talk of whites in the area and apparently word is out. There was a good dozen rigs up and down the Kdock stretch. I heard two different "rumors" if you will. Whites caught recently somewhere near island above Tucker Hollow and secondly whites caught out in front of mouth of Snap just above Kdock. I tried the latter and never got bit. Worked several good looking areas up and down from Snap looking for whites and could not find them today! Didn't see anyone else doing much good either. Had 50.3 water temp at 3pm in front of Snap before I left. So someone else tell us what we would really like to hear!

Wow. Job well done Phil.........Congrads on "one of those days!"

Denjac and for everyone who has had hooks in the appendages I thought I would share this story to give you all a real good laugh.! Years ago I was flyfishing for winter trout in Sylamore Creek, down by the Little Red. I had just broken off a good fish and had retied on a #4 wooly bugger. With the #4 wooly held solidly between my lips I was pinching on a split shot above the fly. Yea, I know.....mistake #1......LOL. Anyway, unbenounced to me one of my buddies walked in behind me to head upstream. Not noticing where he was walking he stepped into a loop of my fly line laying on the water behind me. With several yards of flyline laying slack behind me you can imagine what happened when the line pulled tight! Wham, and a #4 hook buried to the hilt in the bottom lip. What's worse.......A screaming drag, me freaking out and trying to peel off line, my other buddy laughing and trying to yell for help at the same time(btw....that doesn't work) and the culprit of it all several more yards upstream before he got a clue. No trip to the hospital though, the hook actually came out easier than expected because it actually tore a ways through, but it did bleed like a stuck hog. I still wear a nice scar to this day thanks to "#$%*&hole" buddy #2 who said "let me look at it" and ripped it out before I had a chance to see the pain coming. All in All I can say, I know what a fish feels like!!!

Well guys I can tell ya that the jerkbait bite was not hard core today. I had the pleasure to fish with (denjac), another O.A.F. member on here. We fished the dam area and had two fish today, one each on a jerkbait. One just shy keeper Kentucky on a Megabass(denjac) and a keeper largemouth on a custom Pointer (me). We each had a couple other "swipes" with no hook ups. Tried to spoon up a few with no takers. BTW........Wow, is the lake low!

Here's some pics to go with Sat.'s report.

Water was off at 11am on Sat. Hit the handicapp access and was already a good ways upstream when the water was finally down for good. I had 3 of the 4 species for a grand slam and my buddy did it with the only brookie of the day caught on a Renegade dry fly. Between the two of us we had 68 fish by dark. We caught them all on a wide assortment of flys. But, most were on a scud and midge. Drys, Cracklebacks and small woolies got their share. Company on the water was minimal.

Gentlemen, I thought I would let everyone know how good the fishing is right now, or at least was on Sat. It was the best "quality" fish day I've had in a very long time, on rainbows that is. I only saw one brown and it was in excess of 18" in outlet 1 but I never hooked it. I fished from daylight till 2pm and managed to land over 25 fish with 10 over 18" and my largest a 21+" rainbow. They are fat and healthy right now and fighting very hard! All fish were caught on a scud with midge dropper rig. As far as the shad kill goes I do not doubt but I saw no shad on Sat. however.

Miket, I am using an Iwata Elipse 3.5mm airbrush. It's not a cheap one but I did not want to buy into it a second time so went with quality first. I did a lot of research and it was highly favored over and over again. True to be said, it is treating me very nice! It will paint pencil line to as thick as you wanna go. I bought the whole kit through an art supply store on Ebay. Airbrush, compressor, hose, paints and accessories for $270. I've already made that back in the baits I've restored. Here's a pic of my first custom phantom crawdad that earned me a 5lb+ largemouth on Bull Shoals this fall. Good Luck

Ah, Ham I see your into trout fishing too. You can't beat that zebra midge, it will catch em!. Let me know as soon as your here something about the brush. I will donate some time to help. Darren.

Motoman, Too funny. You and I started out just a like. I did the very same thing. From there the gadgets began to grow. Now the wheels just keep a churnin'. Just the other day I began pondering the attempt of airbrushing my .22 rifle. Does it ever end? But for now these spoons got me addicted. Looks like we need to rob Denjacs' pocket book......LOL

Well, The boats in the shop for some touch ups and needed repairs. Gotta love winter! Time to hit the bench. I decided to play with airbrushing some spoons. I would be curious to know what you other fisherman/tackle builders are doing with your down time.???

Be sure to check E-bay. I bought my whole kit for $250. It included Iwata Eclipse 3.5mm airbrush and hose/fittings, compressor, paint kit/DVD and all the accessories. It was all "brand new" and I (bought now) and had it within 5 days. It was sold by a major airbrush website company.

Brian, Outstanding information here! I am not a pro by any means but knew of alot of your techniques but humbly bow my head to having once again learned alot. Any one new to the game should take this info for gold!............D

Amen to the Citica. I own 3 of them. Not to put down the Curado but for the money my wallet is going to the Citicas! I've had problems with the older version Curado's but I have never had a problem with any of my Citica's yet!

The've worked for me in the past and there especially good next to boat docks.

As do I my friend! One other tidbit here. Check out this attachment. This is what I used to put out in my lake back home for the crappie. Their easy to make. All I did was take a pallet and remove a number of the slats and then screw those slats upright into the main frame of the pallet. Tie on some big rocks or concrete blocks and sink em upright and you have a stake bed pallet! You like???

Ham, If you want to get serious about this brush project I'm all in. If we can get a permit then by all means I'll donate my time this winter to sink all the brush you like. What do you say?..........Darren