Slicks

[bryantsmallie28]

Hey if you go look in the creeks for slicks, and find some, the way I get mine is those wire minnow traps. I have the best luck finding holes that have them, and also have some current. Then bait your trap with bread or dogfood or both. the bread seems to work well it just doesnt last long in the current, the dogfood has a lot of oil on it that draws them and stays in the trap better, but the bread breaking up in the water seems to lure them too , so i use both at the same time. Then take your trap with a string on it, and what you want to do is set it so that the trap is parallel with the current and you have one opening facing upstream and one downstream. I really think that is my key to trapping them. It seems like they really ball up behind the trap not only to eat but to get out of the current and then they have to go into the trap to eat.

[Al Agnew]

Good tip on how to set the trap, Bryantsmallie. You HAVE to set it that way to have any success.

I can pretty much guarantee that there are stonerollers in any creek that has permanent flow that runs into Norfork.

[SgtChuck64]

Thanks bryantsmallie and again to you Al. I have glass minnow traps that are very good for chubs up north, but I did not have much success using them where the Norfork meets the White. I got about a dozen minnows, but they were some type of river shiner. I used cracker crumbs as bait. I think this year I will use dog food and see what happens. This would all be a moot point if I could just learn how to throw a cast net properly. My guide took me out with him to catch bait last year and I just couldnt get the hang of it. If any of you are familiar with smelt fishing, I do have a boom net that I am going to attempt to use to get shad this year. We have been doing very good on artificials though, so I am not too worried about it. It just seems we get the bigger stripers using live bait. Going to Greers Ferry in 3 weeks and then Norfork a month after that, I cant wait, I just love it down there. I am going to try that with my traps, I had them both facing the same way.

[hoglaw]

There's a relatively cheap net sold at walmart that has a metal ring built into it. You can throw it like an upside down frisbee. It's not a very nice net, and it doesn't have the radius of a traditional net, but you can throw the thing a mile and it opens up well once you get the hang of it. It's a decent option if you can't throw a normal one very well.

[bryantsmallie28]

Yeah I have one of those too, and they work great if you are wanting to use the minnows that day. It seems to me though that pulling them out of the net and having them stuck in it some, and all the handling stresses them and removes a lot of the slime and they don't live as long. I have a washer tub tank in a pond and trap enough for a couple of trips in the winter and I think they live a lot longer after being trapped because they arent stressed quite as bad. But thats just my opinion on it.