Dan Sweeney

Asparagus and walleye. There are few better meals.

I've been up there twice without a hit yet. Seen maybe 8 or 10 fish caught total, but it's been following nasty chilly snaps both times. Of course now I'm tied up with drill and work for a while. I may have to take a couple personal days next week.

Oh my gosh... That Navionics topo map... Just wow.

Super handy.

If you happen to be out on the east side of Rogers, say using Hwy 12 or Prairie Creek on Beaver, and find yourself a bit peakish, we've got a new burger and beer joint on 1st Street, right across from the railroad car. If you are familiar at all with The Rail, A Pizza Company, it's the same two fellows. Gutted and remodeled a building just up the street and opened a fantastic greasy spoon burger joint. Fresh, never frozen burgers, really good sides, a good lineup of local brews and some general goat water for the PBR types. It's a really tasty joint. Highly recommended.

Nice. Heck of a day. I'm taking off a couple days next week mid week to chase whites and maybe crappie.

That sounds like a fine evening. I didn't make it down to Twin yesterday (might today), but I did wade down from the War Eagle Mill and finally caught a few real fish: little Kentuck, some bluegill, and a goggle eye. Last time I caught a dozen or so fathead minnows or whatever they are. Another day or two and they'll turn on up there.

I've used Clousers for whites, smallmouth, and crappie. They really seem to work well for whites.

I hit Richland Saturday afternoon and evening. It was bright and clear out after a frosty night and morning. I didn't get a bump and saw only three small whites get caught. I'd expect a couple days yet before they get back up in there. As an aside, I nearly snuffed it in Richland. I'm a left handed fly caster in a right handed world. Even the rivers seem bent towards righties, never mind trying to cast in a crowd. Anyway, I waded across Richland and was standing under the bluff and fished a while. I waded back across to get into the brush to take a semi-private leak, then just ambled down to the water and kept fishing. About five minutes later a ten or fifteen pound slab of rock broke loose and dropped on what would have been my head had I still been standing under the bluff. Three or four guys and I had a good laugh at that.

I'd love to see it up in the brush during duck season. That's a little bit of an aside but a blind built with thirty yards of bare shore behind it looks a little suspect.

Crappie might could be over harvested, but it would probably take a fleet of commercial trawlers to do it. They are a lower end of the chain sunfish and are therefore highly prolific. I'm not saying you shouldn't practice some additional restraint if you are so inclined (I throw back quite a few legal ones some days, but not always), but don't be too hard on the folks who keep all they can to eat. The established limits seem to be quite adequate to maintain a robust population.

It's been a bit but I am pretty sure Marshall Ford is off Madison 1505 proper. Don't quote me to that effect though.

I catch a lot of those minnows early on small nymphs while waiting for the other critters to wake up. I can happily chase those little guys for a few hours. They get up to five or six inches sometimes. When they warm up enough to be shallow and eating, it means the assorted game fish aren't far behind. Kind of a precursor to the whites and crappie and bass and bream.

You can also go to the McLellan's Fly Shop site and go to his Water Conditions tab. He has links right to several of the gauges there. Kind of a one stop shop: White at Wymann, War Eagle, Kings, several others.

Very handy. Thank-you.

Still a bit early but it's worth going out just so you don't miss the start of it. I've been walking into War Eagle every third day or so for a couple weeks now, just to crack off the rust. The Wyman Road gauge has a temperature function. Select that and start getting excited when it gets to mid 50s. It was there for about a minute a couple days ago but has dropped to about 50 now. A couple nice days will get it going. There is a good discussion/explanation of the turbidity function just a thread or two below this one. For War Eagle, I like the gauge to read not more than 4, and preferably about 3. You aren't likely to see it under 3.5 during springtime though. But, it needs some water to get the fish headed up it.

Beautiful up there. Sounds like a nice time.

Oh it's entertaining. I make the trip three or four times a winter and am glad for it. I'm also glad it's not the only fishing opportunity we have in the area.

For what it's worth, the gauge at Wyman Road is up for 54 degrees as of right now. That's still a ways high for getting whites to run up to twin, but it's going in the right direction. I haven't been up the White yet but if the War Eagle is any indication it'll still be pretty thick. It WOULD have gotten okay by this weekend except that we look to be in for some rain and a cool down tomorrow and later this week, so go figure. Still... it might be worth the trip just to check it out.

That is a fantastic read. Thanks for posting. I dig around on the Nature Conservancy site quite a bit but hadn't seen that one yet. Good eye.

The trout below Beaver pretty much subsist on midges and leftover Power Bait that the spinning rig guys fling off when they cast. It's basically a sterilized linear aquarium down there. It's a place to spend some time in between hunting seasons and real fishing, but not much more. There are few real hatches besides midges down there.

Nice. I use an aluminium rowboat for a number of reasons, amongst which is simplicity. Had to give a fellow a ride lift a couple hundred yards out to his rig off the Hwy 12 ramp this past duck season after his son forgot to hold the rope. A good time was had by all.

I had the whole place to myself on the afternoon of the 28th as all the snow and ice was falling. Did very well with the midges coming up between the flakes. Rainbows were onto them. Also got a nice button buck to close out the last half hour of bow season. Not a bad day. I went back during the midweek nastiness as it was blowing in. Parked on top of the hill by the AGFC hut since I figured I'd not be able to get out if I drove down to the campground. Hiked in and spent an hour practicing casting in the wind that was whitecapping the river, but couldn't swear to you there was a trout anywhere in it. Hiked back out and called it dues paid. Still nice to have the place alone for a while.

Kings in one of those rivers where you get to pick good floating or good fishing, but not both. You can split the difference at about 3.5 and it's pretty good for each. It's fishable up to a little over 4 (fly fishing. I suppose with spinning gear you'd be alright a bit higher), and floatable down to 2 and some change as long as you have a stout heart and back to drag. Some form of plastic boat or canoe would be better than aluminium as it slides on the gravel more easily. Regardless, you should be able to make the trip between 2 and 5 on the gauge, but it's better to try and hit the middle of that range. Of course, you go when you can go and make do. It is worth mentioning that a heavy rainstorm will blow that river out in a big hurry.

That is cool. I used to catch a lot of nice sized shad off the dam face at Milford in Kansas while white bass fishing after dark. The big ones had no problem eating a 1/8 ounce three inch jig or a streamer fly. Congrats on unforeseen trophy.