BFTMASTER

Give me clouds and high water, don't care what temperature is. Glad you guys got into them, I can't wait to get back over there in a couple weeks

I can't wait to take my boys (2 & 4) to DRC, but it looks a little unforgiving for a young one with a fly rod. I might need to get something a little less than my sage or winston for them to learn with.

Sounds like a tuff day!! still better than cleaning out the attic. Thanks for the report

With as much water as tenkiller is getting, the next couple of weeks should be good on the LIR. Already seeing some striper activity, but more generation or releases should really get things going.

Those Zebra midges will work just as good as any professional tie, as long as they don't come unraveled. They look way better than mine, and I have caught tons of fish on mine on the LIR, RR, Beaver.

Nice, glad to see you guys had a good time

Did not go this weekend but a friend texted some pics of 18"-20" Stripers caught at Watts.

Clay, you get those kids hooked on Dry Run Creek, and they will be disappointed in every other river they fish, LOL.

I have so many PJ's that my next order will be Zig Jigs. I have a very busy life and trying to tie my own is not an option for me. I think the joy for me in Jig Fishing is working to figure out which technique the fish like for the day. Once you figure out the twitch, pause, speed, color, size, etc. you can light them up.

my bad man!! all apologies, just thought it was that ole boy trolling for a rise. Good fishing and hope to see you on the water.

You guys reckon JD Dudley is the same fella trolling under the screen name JOE D? Seems kind of fishy

The fly fishers have "sow bug". We should have a gathering for "Jig Fest" The nay Sayers could come put there money where there mouth is

Hit watts around 3;30 yesterday. Water was off and very thin and very clear. Saw lots of fish, and had to try many different things to get them going. Ended up finding a pattern with swimming white jigs across the flats fairly fast. This method produced some really nice rainbows to 15". I think the nicer fish remember the shad kill from a couple weeks ago. Fly fishers should try stripping white wooly buggers. Picked up lots of trash. Please do the same. What ever might be near you, pick it up. Maybe if people see people picking up trash, it might trigger something.

Boat was around $125 + tax . Included fuel, seats, paddle, life jackets, net, drift chain, and bleach bottle scupper.

A good fishing buddy and I decided to take a quick trip to shake off the fishing equipment. Rolled into Gastons late Friday night. We stayed in the bedroom accommodations and received 40% for winter special on the first night and 30% off for March Special the second night. Worked out great for us. The rooms were very clean, beds sucked (typical hospitality supply stuff). I would rate the shower in our unit as one of the best for hot water and pressure that I have ever experienced in overnight accommodations anywhere. Overall rating for convenience and value ****. Next, we rented a Commissary John Boat from the State Park Dock. For a rental, you cannot beat this. The boat had all kinds of room with spider type seats, live wells did a good job of keeping fish 100% alive, and the newer 15hp electric start Yamaha were completely awesome. We have rented boats from about every resort along the white over the years.every one of them rents a beat up 15-20yr old boat with a motor that may or may not start, and most are smoky old two-stokes, and you are lucky to get anything more than a 9.9hp. Now maybe some of them have been replaced since we rented, but that is what we experienced over the past 15+yrs. On Saturday we had min. flow and that restricted us to the state park area. Second cast of the day around 7:30, I hook a nice little brown of around 16" on 3/32 oz. Jig in the small amount of current near the rock jetty. We did well on the white until it was too bright (sun never came out until around 2:00 or so). The rainbows were very cooperative and hit brown/orange, sculpin/olive, black/olive. The trick was to work the jig slowly. I killed the fish by actually popping the jig and letting it sit on the bottom for several seconds. 9/10 times they picked it up off the bottom. Otherwise you would get followers back to boat, but they were not really that excited about a regular jigging retrieve. Yeah, you get hung up occasionally or catch moss, but that is normal jig fishing anyways. The fishing really slowed down in the early afternoon but picked up nicely around 2:30. Once the sun started to go behind the bluff, I switched back to White jigs. Picked up a couple nice chunky rainbows for the box and a nice 18" or so Brown that did not want to come near the boat. A fun fight later, he came close enough for the net. Just to switch it up, every once in while I would throw my rod with a Rapala CD-3 in Brown Trout Color, which accounted for several nice rainbows, just never got consistent with it, probably due to the low flow. I also tried some trout magnets I had bought on sale a few years ago. These little dudes work really well. Negatives: They are hard to throw because of the size, the hooks are very delicate and bend just trying to take the hook out, and the plastic bodies get chewed up really easy. I dont see how you could fish these with current of any kind. I guess I am not that good with 1/64oz lures. Positives: If you see fish, throw a trout magnet, one of them is going to hit it and they hit it hard..like they are feeding and not just investigating. All together I caught 103 trout Saturday. 7:30-5:00 in a boat . Guy from Tulsa? At min. Flow? Thanks Ham and others for the tips. Hope to meet you guys over there sometime Until next time. Fish all you can and don't listen to the haters --BFT

Thanks for the report Ham, we are going to give it a go this weekend. we will stay from the dam to cane island so I hope that we find some fish...but we always seem to do fine...high or low You say the bloom, you mean moss, slimy stuff, etc.? what was your favorite color this day?

I don't have any Zig Jigs yet, but have about 14lbs. of my favorite PJ Finesse Jigs.

Ham please don't stop reporting. I enjoy reading your posts along with every other positive post on this site. Unfortunately I have had some of my favorite fishing forums turn into cyber bully arenas. I hope that this one stays positive. Everyone I have met from here was genuine good person with a common passion for fishing, outdoors, and family + friends. It is one thing to be a clever smart butt, it is other to be crude ahole with no humor. I will be fishing below BSD this saturday and sunday in a State Park boat. If you see a tall guy in carhartts catching a 100 to 150+ fish, it was because I learned so much from this site.

Always glad to read reports with Dads and Sons. Those are the days to be treasured!! Thanks for the detailed report!

Still have the tube and sock?

One question Ham: What is your highest producing jig color for trout?

What do you guys want to see a hundred pics of rainbows? If he was taking a picture everytime, he would not get enough time to catch that many. Also, JoeD, nice hair man!! that LIB would make a helluva fine streamer!!

We do really well with Rapala cd-1 through cd-9 in all trout colors (rainbow, brook and brown) Slower the water smaller the number countdown. 3/32 oz marabou jigs in olive or sculpin or orange with brown Colorado spoons But if the water is completely off you had better have a ultralight rod with 4lb line or less and fish small lures.

Trigg, please share with us your experience owning a Towee. I am quite interested in how it handles on rivers such as White River below Bull Shoals, Little red, and perhaps coastal places like Matagorda Tx, or Apalachicola FL. Do they track well on the drift?

I bet a brown would gooble one down if it saw it before it was attached. I never keep big fish so I can't tell you if they have been found while cleaning.