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Well, I just got back from an amazing trip. Truly. It was a blast and one I will never forget. Almost everything went just about as good as it could've. Thursday morning, I woke up at 7 and gathered 3 good buddies. We loaded the vehicle and were on the highway out of KC around 9. We hit Springfield, enjoyed the Buc-ees experience, and then divulged in our route. We were in no rush to our 4 o'clock check-in in Lakeview, and I wanted to explore some Ozark country I hadn't seen before. I received zero objections. So, we hopped on 14 East through Ava all the way to Vera Cruz Access on Bryant Creek. It was cloudy and it may have rained a drop or two on us, but otherwise, I thought the conditions were perfect. We decided we (mainly I) would wade around the access for an hour and see if we couldn't catch any fish. First off, this was a beautiful little access, and the country around Ava was stunning. Everybody in my group (4 20 years olds) was absolutely giddy with excitement and just happy to be out in the country. The water was clear, the trees were green, and the bluffs were high - this is truly what we had been waiting for. On this river I threw a ned rig and an underspin. Wading in some shallow water, I was able to pull out an 8 incher on the underspin. It was small, but man I was happy. First Ozark Smallmouth of 2025! After a little longer, we decided to pack it up. We drove the scenic route through Gainesville all the way to Lakeview, where we found ourselves amazed by our AirBNB, a nice little unit with direct river access. We were not far from Gaston's. We set up shop and began grilling some Brats. In the meantime, I set up in the backyard with the goal of catching some trout off the bank. The river was definitely high and tough to fish, but I was able to find some slack water off the bank. I threw my bait to where that slack water met the current, and let it settle. I fished a simple rig with some corn as bait. Don't crucify me for the bait fishing. I was just trying to have a little fun from the backyard. Well, about 5 minutes in, I saw my line run and set my hook on.... a Brook Trout! Wow! Casted out to the same place and over the next hour was left with a total of 4 Brookies and 2 Rainbows. Needless to say, I was surprised about catching the little Brookies. I knew they were in the river, but I had thought they were few and far between. They seemed to be in bunches. At dark, I went up, enjoyed a few beverages, and got to sleep for an early trip in the morning... Woke up at 6 and had a buddy drop me and my friend who enjoys fishing off at Cranor's. We set up with our guide and got out there. He brought us way upriver, closer to our place. The fog was unbelievable. It actually had me a little worried with the boat and river moving like it was. We began drifting shad with a river rig. The style of fishing was a little tough to adjust to with the casting, and I think our guide was pretty frustrated with us. Regardless, it didn't take long for both of us to put a 20" brown in the boat. Beautiful fish, and one to cross off my list. The sun came out strong and I definitely caught a few more rays than I needed. We had lunch and fished the rig for a couple more hours. I ended up with a total of 6 Browns and 2 Rainbows. He went ahead and dropped us off the boat into our backyard, which was a big help in driving time! In 24 hours, I had a caught a Smallie, Brookie and a Brown. I was thrilled. I napped, and then we went for a hike on a bluff trail near Bull Shoals. After getting home, we grilled burgers, listened to some music and relaxed with a White River view. The next day we woke up and checked out at 11. We had the drive to Jasper ahead of us. On the way I implored we stop at Crooked Creek (Kelly's Slab) for our second hour-long wade fishing adventure. The water didn't seem too great to me. It was high and a little murky and most of the promising looking spots with a little current were out of reach. Regardless, I threw around a Rage Tail Menace around the bridge and was able to pull out 3 footlong Smallies in an hour. For not having too much hope, this was awesome. We saw some kayak fisherman floating by. I assumed they had a great day. We checked into our home south of Jasper. It was truly amazing. It felt far too fancy for us to be at, but this is what I had been saving up for. The views were amazing, the accommodations were nice, and we couldn't be happier. We enjoyed some more beverages, listened to Bluegrass and started a bonfire. This was awesome! The next day we took our time getting up and embarked for our float with Buffalo Outdoor Center. We went Steel Creek to Kyle's Landing. The river was incredible. This region had truly exceeded my expectations in scenery and I believe I had a grin on my face for most of the float. As for the fishing, I continued throwing a Rage Tail and a Zoom Curly Tail grub on a jig head. It didn't take long for me to get on them. I feel like I had really improved on my positioning and finding where to cast since previous trips, and I had found a lot of confidence in bouncing the Jig. A lot of this I can thank to this forum. I ended up with nearly a dozen Smallmouth and 2 Rock Bass. My biggest went for 15, which was just about a new personal best for me. The river was a little up, but not terribly and I thought the conditions were near perfect. Mix of clouds and sun, and nearly zero wind. Just casted behind rocks and where slower current met structure. It was a blast. I went for two swims, one voluntary and one by the way of flipping. I'm not the most experienced fast water floater and one little chute sent me right against the bluff wall, where I tried to gently push off it. It sent me flipping, but thankfully I was able to hold on to everything. Rod, paddle and all. Being able to keep my possessions, it didn't spoil anything at all. We went home and found ourselves realizing we had to leave the next day. It was sad because we really had a great time. We got a fire going and had a jolly night. The next day, we woke early and departed home. We ate lunch in the wonderful town of Eureka Springs (I was very tempted to make a wading stop on the Kings) and made it home around 6. It was a great time for friendship, scenery and fishing. Ended with a total of 15 Smallmouth and about the same in Trout. I will DEFINITELY be back.

I really appreciate the feedback from all you folks, and I thought I'd give an update with a new set of questions. Update: There are a number of boats available right now that look good, and if I wasn't so lazy, one would be sitting in my driveway right now. But when the freezing rain and ice hit, I pretty much curled up in a ball and stayed inside. I still have a sheet of ice in my back driveway, so I'll probably wait a bit longer. And to add some confusion, I've started thinking about a mod-vee jon boat as an option--something like the Grizzly 1648 with a side console might work. We'll see...If you have experience with this boat or have a better suggestion, please let me know. Moving on to the second question: I need a small boat of some kind to keep in town because there are quite a few places nearby where a small boat would be perfect as well as some of the strip pits where you can't use a gas-powered boat. While I could bring a kayak back in town from our LOZ cabin, that takes planning and effort-- I'd like to have something that lets me get a wild hair, load a boat or whatever into the truck and go fishing at a moment's notice. I grew up fishing out of a pram, and I can see a 10-footer as being something that would work well. But it's slower than a kayak--more stable, too-- and would require that I build it. Most stable kayaks cost a bundle new, so I am not sure I'd do that. But what about a Pond Prowler or one from that category? Are they as good/functional as they appear? I have no experience with these and could use some input. Thanks in advance for your help!

I tried Wyandotte Co. Lake Park for them yesterday. No finds. So much foliage to contend with. Should've just got a kayak and fished it!

Used but like New Suspenz Yellowfin portable kayak rack. Gets you boat off the floor and up at a more manageable height if you want to work on rigging etc. product can be seen online at suspenz.com Not a thing wrong with it, I just don’t need it anymore. i won’t ship it, but I can meet someone halfway or more. $100 Cash

Up before Daylight. Got a walk in ( a little over a mile) and got myself prepped for the day. I was really looking forward to >90 degrees. the recommendations I got and the fishing reports seemed to show the east side of the swamp was a little better fishing. So, I pointed the truck towards Okefenokee Adventures which was pretty close to the campground I stayed in. I likely could have boondocked for free on NWR land, but I. felt like a shower and being able to leave tent/some gear unattended was worth $10 a day. grabbed a bag of ice, chatted with Eric (one of the managers at the operation there), bought a few flys to try for Flier, and slowly pulled things together. The previous day had been a max effort day and I wanted to get everything set up before pushing off. I saw a bowfin or two broach will I was prepping and giggled to myself really looking forward to catching the bowfin. I got started and as I was pushing off I asked one of the guys working there about getting to a more narrow Chute close by. He was like sure, but it’s pretty shallow and you are locked in for a couple of miles, but yeah nobody fishes it much. So, I get over there and it is tight and pretty overgrown. I was concerned that I would not be able to give a big gator room in that canal. Behind me things looked pretty good so I went that route. I had good angles at points, intersections, sections of bank, points in veggie mats, etc I had a lightly weighted brightly colored muddler on my 7 weight for chain pickerel, swamp sally on Bug Launcher for Flier, orange over chartreuse Clouser on 8 weight, and a big yellow streamer on 10 weight. i fished for Bowfin alternating rods. Liked my casts. Liked my flys. Varied my depth. Varied my retrieve speed. Nothing. Here’s we’re expectations can become a trap. If I had expected to struggle, I would have been less stressed. I expected to whack em. I was not whacking em. switched to Swamp Sally. I was gonna catch a few Flier to settle my nerves. Nothing. I cast tight to hard cover close to shore.what little hard ground there was. Tight to pockets in weeds. Let it settle. Watched for the line to jump. Nothing The scenery is beautiful. It wasn’t hot yet. I heard a Bull gator bellow. Bullfrogs doing their thing. I gentle but persistent Current takes you away from the dock and a sub 5 mph breeze kept it cooler and helped with bugs a little. I ran into a guy dunking crickets and asked him how he was doing and he said that he wasn’t catching anything. I had been told better fishing was further down the canal so I fired up my Garmin watch on kayak mode and paddled a mile down the canal and resumed fishing. I had a kayak paddle for distance and a single blade paddle for positional changes. I was sitting on the front seat facing backwards to help with weight distribution. Yeti Roadie loaded down in front of me. Most of my tackle in front of me. Net behind me. started fishing after 20 mins of paddling and caught a Chain Pickerel on the muddler in just a few casts. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy. I wasn’t going to zero. Really different coloration on this guy.. gave the Bowfin another 30 minutes on fly with No Love. I Decided it was time to catch one. I grabbed up the baitcaster with a Chatterbait and covered water. Fire Craw. Looked and felt great. Bowfin said nah. Turned into Cedar Glade Trail. Restricted Use area. No motors. I had a few Fish and Wildlife crew pass me in boats with go devils (odd that those guys never have the HP restrictions that common folk do) and thought it would be nice to avoid that for a minute. I had switched the 8 weight to a banana yellow bead chain bunny Clouser. I made a good toss up that pad edge in the photo and got destroyed by a massive bowfin. Zero to 100 mph hit. Hook caught. Good rod angle, when everything came really tight, the leader blew up on me. My knot failed on the connection from 20 lb fluro to 15 lb fluro. That’s never happened to me before, but I sure was sad that I didn’t just go with a straight 20 lb fluro leader. I rerigged and fished further up the Cedar Glade trail. It looked great and I made lots of good presentations to no avail. my bowfin insurance policy was a locally made lure called a DuraSpin. It’s an inline spinner on a flexible wire shaft. Good treble hook. Good skirt. I bought 4 colors because sometimes color matters right. I had it on my old BPS Medium Travel spinning rod. It is a fairly beefy medium and it was some flex. I was using 20 lb braid to 25 lb mono. I was on my second color. The sun was fully up now and pretty bright so I swapped to a silver blade. Pretty close to where I lost the first bowfin bite, I got a take. Good Fight. In the net, Monkey is off my back. my Lifer Ruddy Bowfin. I went back to my fly rods. Cycling between the three rods every 15 /20 minutes. Trying different things. Different flys. Different target areas. Different retrieves. Nope. every hour to hour and a half, I would pick up my spinning rod and in a few minutes do this. I think I caught male and female fish. Males top out at about 25 inches in length. After that they get girthy instead of longer. I did have one massive fish rush the bait after I lifted it clear of the water. I would like to have caught that one. I really wanted one on my flyrod and as much as possible stuck with that. I tried and I tried and I tried. Going deeper and deeper into the swamp. i got another take on fly. I briefly hooked up. The fish took it late and the rod wasn’t in the best position. Rod soaked up most of the strip set. fairly late in the day. I made a good cast and as I was bringing it back a bowfin moved close to the path of my fly. I did a quick strip/strip/strip and let it settled and I got that lovely solid bowfin thump. Good rod angle, good strip set, big crazy fish on the line. Well, idiots have trained the gators that a splashing fish is a free meal. So, you want to net the fish and get it in the boat to remove the hook quickly. I kept an eye out for gators, but I never want to believe that I see all the gators around me. I would never Trail a foot or a hand in those waters. ☠️ so, the fish is going crazy and I am holding on and grabbing Net from behind me. I am desperate to catch this fish. I get the fish in the net and before I can raise the net up all the way. It rockets straight vertical out of the net and powers off taking the fly line between my fingers. It jumps into a somersault and tosses the hook. I’m crushed. I’m a Blame myself first guy, but I didn’t do anything really wrong. 💩 happens especially with bowfin on fly. I fished on for a while and then started paddling the three plus miles out. By now the with is blowing > 10 mph gusting to 15 mph and I have to paddle into the teeth of it. The kayak paddle was the only way I survived. i did fish a little every now and then, but the wind would blow me back down the canal when I did. it took aver an hour of near non stop paddling to get back to the launch area which I fished again: i caught three Ruddy Bowfin on spinning and none on fly. That one color DuraSpin caught all my bowfin. I did try a third color DuraSpin when the clouds got thicker. I did try a couple of other lures which got no love. I left Okefenokee feeling defeated. Hot, sweaty, itchy (I forgot how much I hate biting insects), and beat down. I headed back to camp. Grabbed a shower and shut it down. I didn’t even go to town for food. I was just Done. I tried to get some rest for Day 4 the Osceola National Forest

Hello, A brand new Kayak Fisherman @ 45 Years Old checking in from Union,MO 63084.

Sounds like you were lucky, a guy willing to pull you out and the car still derivable. I've seen cars that were strip salvaged right beside the street in the cities where police make constant rounds. In less than 1/2 hour time as I went down a sidewalk and made a return about 1/2 hour later. Saw what looked like a drug deal behind a doughnut shop where officers were having coffee at the time. A deputy driving by a couple times a week isn't likely to deter criminal activity at a place deemed to be "public". I bet you could find instances of drug labs and pot growth on private land that were tended by kayak or canoe if you searched a bit. Your anecdote describes a circumstance that seems to justify elimination of the free access. And that may well be why the MODOT has closed all their land. And as far as floats go, I've seen groups of kayakers at the low water bridge that appeared to be intoxicated while floating, and a couple of times groups of "wading anglers" that were obviously not sober. I suppose that if a pair of deputies spent enough time at any low water bridge they could likely find reasons to arrest a fair number of floaters, even though the boating while intoxicated laws wouldn't apply, maybe they should. Unrestricted public access means access by criminals is encouraged. Advocating for unrestricted public access to private lands is in effect advocating for criminal use of those private lands. But if we want access to streams at bridges, we must allow that same access to all, parties, drug deals, drug producers, dumpers of stolen cars, all. If laws are broken, the complaint must be about the law that is broken, not just use of the access. And although you say underage drinking happened and I say some kayakers were intoxicated, I expect that in both cases we'd have no proof, you didn't get ID for age nor take a blood test and neither did I.

Arkansas Game and Fish has organized gear swaps in six locations across the state. I will have a table at the event at Fred Berry Conservation area 3/15/25 from 10A until 230P I’ll have used rods, kayak gear, camping gear, NIP lures, used lures, and more. my stuff will all be at VERY friendly prices. I’m gonna be cash only. Please consider attending one of the events near you.

Yes sir, my son posted it on Facebook. Definitely Little Sugar in Missouri. This is what I was referring to. This is a common access that is used a lot by anglers and floaters. The landowner said he would permit floating in a kayak, but that his property line ended in the middle of the river. We made sure to stay within 12", one boot length, of the water, never encroaching on his property, or even desiring to. My buddy, who lives down there, wades and drags his kayak upstream to this pool several times each winter without issue. We encountered another landowner upstream who has a big Pyrenees for a guard dog and was as sweet as the day is long. This guy just wanted to be a dick for no reason whatsoever. Nah, Ronnie, some of us have to work and have young kids at home, so we can't always be sitting here waiting for responses. I had a few minutes to log in and check this thread as I have not been on here in a couple days. Just wanted to warn others who may fish this watershed that there is a renegade landowner above Pineville a few miles, but below Griffin Ford.

Honestly, I've had more luck in the lower stretches, but a kayak or a canoe is the best way to access this river. Check it out and get back with us. It is a fun river, but I have not had a ton of luck for size. My first 16, 17 and 18 were all from this stream on the same day many years ago, but nothing over 14 since.

OK, I need some help! I feel stupid for having to ask but I was hoping to get a better understanding of reading the water generation for the White River and the North Fork. I will be down later in March and I usually Kayak and then wade certain sections while Kayaking if water generation allows. This trip though I wont have my kayaks, and I will be wading a few days before and after a two day guided trip on the white. So I was hoping to have a better understanding of the water generation schedule along with, if I know its up and moving to fast to wade I can move to another section of the river or say head to Crooked Creek (I will add if someone has another river that I can fish if water generation is up I would be up for the suggestion. Not asking for spots just public access to rivers that would be good for trout and Smallies. I know that the North Fork is easier to wade then the White. That being said I would like to have a better understanding of the water generation and how to read the schedule. I'm assuming the number that I want to look at is the "CFS"? If so, what is a good range to look at to determine if I will be able to wade safely both the white river and the North Fork. If its not the CFS that I need to look at what should I be looking at and is there a way to know about how many generators are actually running? Thanks!

Hey All, I was talking to one of my friends who I often accompany to Truman in the summer. One idea we had for the summer was to take a kayak from an access point and paddle out to an island, probably KK island, maybe the larger one near Fairfield, and spend a night there camping, fishing and letting our inner child out in the vein of exploration. My question is if this is even legal, or if anybody has done it before... I know it's Corps Land, but I don't know all the regulations on stuff like that. Sounds like a blast to me... Thanks

Accessing the Everglades at Everglades city is definitely is doable from a Kayak or Canoe, but it is a maze of canals and bays, so bring a GPS if you venture a long ways from the boat ramp thee. Also, Hopedale LA about 40 - 60 minutes from New Orleans is DIYable, thinking about doing it myself.

I've only been up to Busch a few days this winter, mostly around Christmas time before everything froze up. Fishing has been about the same as usual, at least for crappie. I haven't really tried for other species much. You can catch little ones, with occasional eaters at lake 33 off the dam. Jigs under a float, usually 1-5 feet deep. Other lakes have generally bigger fish, but you'll have to work for them. My best luck is at smaller lakes with south facing dams. There are brush piles off the dams of most of those lakes and that is generally in the deepest water. Clearer lakes they tend to be deeper. It looks like you can launch private boats up here now. I had not noticed this before, and maybe it had been like this for some time, but certain lakes you are allowed to put your kayak or canoe on. I'm excited to bring my kayak up there and be able to fish those lakes from a boat in the winter time.

- 5 lb Largemouth - Be able to catch a Walleye while targeting them. - Have a 20+ fish Smallmouth day on one of my Ozark stream trips planned. - Get a kayak. - Catch some big flatheads. - Fulfill my guide trip plans on the Gasconade and White River… probably will also look into a Walleye guide..

March is just about the worst month other than the depths of winter to try to wade fish Ozark streams. Typically even the normal water flow in March is as high as it will get, which means strong current and a lot of water that's just too deep for safe wading. Couple that with the fact that March is a transition month where the fish are moving from winter holes to spawning banks. If you find them, they are easy to catch, but finding them is hit or miss. You'd be much better off to wait until May for good wade fishing. If the weather has been warmer than normal, a lot of fish will have moved up into tributary streams by late March, and some of those will be more wadeable. However, the thing you have to keep in mind is that streams in MO that are too small to float in a canoe or kayak are basically private. All of us who creek fish know places where we can get on the water because the landowner doesn't care. But you won't find many people sharing those spots, nor should they, because the more people that go to them, the more likely some pinheads will tick off the landowner and ruin it for everybody. The safest wading is on the upper reaches of the streams you'll find in the Paddler's Guide that TJM talked about. Find the highest possible put-in and go check it out...it might be wadeable.

It definitely looked like a slough before. They did remove a lot of trees. Looks like they cleared the bank back about 20 or 30 feet of trees and brush. Being a swamp paddler, I have had the idea to float that stretch in my kayak between Aquilla and the bridge at AB for some time now, but it just looked too wooly with a lot of down trees I'm sure. But now... looks much better. You can even see a little current. My idea is to get my daughter, her friends, and my nephews to organize that trip. We would call it the Aquilla Flotilla.....

Something like 12 years ago, I came upon an elderly lady clinging to pole timber in the water. A kayak was overturned and some feet away. When I got closer I could see she was in a nightgown. A pontoon boat with a family came over as well. Among us we were able to get her out of the water. I took her to the marina. The Holiday Island fire and rescue arrived moments later and took over. Evidently, she got in her grandchildren's kayak, paddled across the lake and tipped the kayak over in an attempted suicide. Reflex kicked in and she grabbed a tree. All the way back to the marina, she scolded me, saying we should just have let her drown.

101) Black Crappie I had planned on getting a Black Crappie on fly at Bull Shoals or Norfork, but I found out about a hot bite at Lake Atkins. I made the long drive this morning to kayak fish in the face of a pretty steady cold North wind. The cold front did not help the bite. Lots of disappointed anglers leaving as I showed up. I only needed one Black Crappie of any size on fly. Tons of threadfin Shad in the cove I fished. Water was cloudy, but not muddy. Water was fairly shallow. I played with indicator settings a bunch. The bite was terribly light. I was really focused on the indicator and sone bites were not detectible. I lost the first two black crappie I hooked. I didn’t get a black crappie until my 7th fish, but 7,8,9 and 10 were black crappie. I wanted to pound numbers, so I stayed even though it was a grind. I gave up with 38 fish to hand. I couldn’t feel my hands or feet any more. I was really struggling to straighten out the inevitable tangles. Happy to add another for the year.

I recently bought a used kayak, and have found a crack in it, is there anyplace that does repairs? is it possible to buy the stuff to repair myself?

The recently passed John Gierach had a quote I really liked in one of his books. I'll probably butcher it, but it's basically this: whenever you have a problem, the solution is to go fishing, and the worse the problem the longer the trip should be. Life hasn't been easy of late. In the span of less than two weeks, both of my remaining grandparents passed. In neither case was it unexpected or tragic, but it's an awful lot for a very short period of time. The chaos having just ended, I really, really needed to go fishing, and it needed to be something slightly more adventurous than the little 2 acre pond a mile down the road. Right now I'm sitting beside what you could accurately describe as one of the more "remote" lakes in the state of Missouri. Now, anyone out west would laugh at that; all I really mean is you can't drive to it, and the couple mile hike to reach it isn't particularly easy. For that reason, while I know I'm not the only one who fishes it, I've never actually seen anyone else here. Naturally, there is no way in heck I'm telling you where it is. It's really pretty, but the fishing isn't special. There are a bunch of little tiny bass-again, basically no fishing pressure-and an assortment of panfish, which admittedly do run a fair bit larger than average. Objectively, it's not worth the hike from a pure fishing perspective; I can think of no fewer than 15 better places to fish you can drive right to within 20-25 miles. But the hike in is the main point. It's also a little tricky to fish. It's very shallow along the banks, so I packed in my waders. A rare sight on stillwater in Missouri, and this lake is the only time I've used them that way east of Denver. But unless you're a really excellent fly caster, or carry a kayak in with you, there is no other way to get an olive woolly bugger to where the fish are holding in November. And it is November. It's been a warm fall, but I wouldn't describe the fish as actively feeding. More, if you put something that looks like food in front of their face, they'll probably still hold up their end of the deal. I caught two little bass and a few panfish today; every time, the fight would start off sluggish, and then heat up when they registered what was happening. A staple of warm-water fishing in chilly water. I'm taking a short break to down a couple cliff bars and drink some water. I've not yet decided if I'll keep fishing or hike on down the trail a little further and see what's there. I'm leaning towards the latter. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to catch anything more impressive than I have already, and at a certain point I wonder what point I'm trying to prove by catching a couple more 10 inch bass. And before too awful long I'll want to get out of here to beat the worst or the rain forecast for this afternoon. Nonetheless, this little lake always fulfills it's role. My legs are tired, my brain is happy, and there's just something special about catching what are probably the last few bass of the year before I transition to chasing trout pretty much exclusively for the next few months. I guess my point is, find an inconvenient, hard to get to fishing spot of you haven't. Sometimes they're exactly what you need.

So I'll be honest...I do a lot of fly fishing out here in Montana, but I STILL don't love fly fishing as much as I do fishing for stream bass with a good baitcasting rod and reel. When I'm in Missouri, I very seldom use a fly rod. I find the worship of fly fishing that is characteristic of so many fly fishermen slightly amusing. But when in Rome do as the Romans do. When in Montana, you have to fly fish. I'll also be the first to admit that I'm not as good with a fly rod as I am with a baitcast rod. I'm good enough to hold my own with most anglers, but I have friends out here who are considerably better than I am at casting, handling complex currents and getting good drifts, fine-tuning presentations. Maybe that's why I don't love it as much...I still have plenty of improvement to accomplish, and I'm just not into it enough to put in the effort to get a lot better than I am. So I'm happy to catch enough trout to feel like I'm doing it more or less right. All of this is leading up to the reason why, this afternoon, I gathered up one of the two baitcast outfits I keep out here, and found a couple Lucky Craft Pointer jerkbaits, and carried them down to the Yellowstone at the house along with a couple fly rods and my little Water Master raft. I'd been swearing to try this for years, but again being honest, I was afraid I'd feel a little embarrassed if some of the guides I know and their clients came by and saw me chucking hardware. It's about 3.5 miles from our house to the next access on the Yellowstone, and I got on the water about 2 PM. It was a gorgeous day, as almost all of September and October so far has been out here. Usually we get one good snow in September. This fall, so far, we've had NO precipitation, just mostly sunny, sometimes smoky, days with highs in the 70s and low 80s and lows in the 40s--we've only had two days where there was frost on the grass. When I put the little raft in, it was 83 degrees on the temperature sensor in the house, and--a little unusual--no wind. Not exactly weather conducive to catching trout, however. There were two boats with guides and their clients within sight as I pushed off, and I have to admit that I didn't immediately pick up the baitcaster. I stopped at the first decent "riffle corner", what we call the eddylines at the bottom of riffles, and started drifting my go-to nymph setup, a simple size 14 bead head hare's ear and a small soft hackle on the dropper. And immediately caught a 12 inch and then a 17 inch rainbow. The guides passed me, but I kept fishing the nymphs because they were working, though the next couple fish I caught were big whitefish. But once they were out of sight, and I had drifted down into slower, deeper water along some rip rap banks, I started casting the Pointer. Took quite a few casts, but then I hooked a good fish, a 19 inch brown. And then a 17 inch cutthroat. And a 16 inch rainbow. I was drifting along, just fishing deep banks like I would smallmouth fishing. There was a side channel swinging off to the right, with a long rip rap bank along it, barely enough water to float over the riffle entering it. A guy in a whitewater kayak towing a big dry bag behind it on a tether (a seriously weird setup) had just passed me and gone down that side channel, but I decided that since he wasn't fishing he wouldn't bother the fish much, and on a river that gets as much pounding as the Yellowstone, taking the "road" less traveled often pays off. So I took the channel. And that was exactly when the first gust of wind hit. The wind just came up all of a sudden, and it was instantly blowing 20 miles an hour. I was drifting down the rip rap, slow current, fishing just as I would for smallmouth, casting the jerkbait, reeling it a couple cranks, pausing it, reeling another couple cranks, casting at about a 45 degree angle in front of me, controlling the Water Master in the wind, which was quartering at my back, with my swim fins. And the fish took it just like a smallmouth. But I saw it turn its side, and it was considerably longer than any smallmouth. (And by the way, there have been a couple smallmouth caught in this section of the Yellowstone in recent years, and the fish and game people are scared to death of smallmouth in trout water and have put on a mandatory kill regulation on smallmouth here.) In fact, the fish looked so long that at first I thought, "geez, could it be a pike?" Pike have been caught in trout water in Montana now and then. Heck, if there were any bull trout in the Yellowstone I would have jumped to that conclusion. Nope, it was a HUGE rainbow! I battled that fish for a good five minutes, maybe more, working myself over to the gravelly bank on the other side, getting the net ready, pumping the rod to get the fish close enough, the trout rolling on the surface and then making runs back toward deeper water. And JUST as it was within reach of the net (which I'm not sure it would have fit into), it gave one more head shake, and the hooks pulled out. I think I've caught enough big trout to be able to make a decent guess as to size of that fish, and I certainly got some good looks at it. I also think the largest trout I've ever caught on the Yellowstone was 24 inches. This fish was easily 28 inches, and I'm pretty sure it would have made 30 inches. I've never seen a trout this big on the Yellowstone. It was definitely significantly bigger than any trout I'd ever hooked anywhere but up in Alaska. It had a big hooked jaw that was open as wide as my hand is long. It was just a fish that I simply never expected to hook, and especially not in that particular spot, small side channel, very sluggish current, right up against that rip rap. I fished the jerkbait a while longer, but Mary was scheduled to come pick me up at 5:30, and I still had two miles to go, and the wind was really aggravating. So I stopped in one more good riffle corner and caught several 10-14 inch rainbows and a couple more whitefish on the nymphs, and then rowed the rest of the way to the take-out. To heck with the looks I'll get...I'm gonna fish that baitcaster some more!

Well Tourist are here seems everyone has a Kayak anymore. This will hurt our Float business. Me I always liked Jon's. oneshot

I lucked into a kayak a few weeks back and would like to get it setup very basic for fishing the James this fall. Its a little 10 foot Ascend sit in style that has nothing on it except front and rear drag handles and some cargo strings across the back end.. I plan on getting it setup with the following, anything else you guys would recommend? 1. Milk crate with 3 rod holders 2. Stand assist/drag rope 3. Anchor (might add a simple trolley) Excited to access so much new water!

It was a great float and time. I'm full too and we stopped at Casey's on the way home and Pat and I split a pint of ice cream. Since I was driving she had to feed me. 😁. Only four of us fishing and floating. I only landed a green sunfish, one small mouth and four Ozark bass. Missed other fish. Lots of casting practice. I can say I think I got first place for the flyfishing category. That is because I was the only person flyfishing. Pretty section of the James River. Not busy either for a weekend. Two others kayak fishing was all we seen.