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Posted

Made it out to the 220 bridge on Lee Creek for an hour of fishing Saturday afternoon. Had a one-year-old in a backpack so left the camera in the truck.

Waded upstream a few hundred yards to the next run above the big swimming hole. Water was still a little on the cloudy side, but managed a couple of 11- or 12-inch brownies and maybe a half a dozen little longears.

Lost my last black woolly bugger, then switched to olive, which actually seemed to outfish the black. Bass were right in tight to root-wads in deep water along cut banks. Finally got my sink-tip line last week, which helped a lot. Just used 3 feet of straight 8-pound fluoro as a leader.

And by the way, wet-wading (comfortably) in November!?

Couple questions:

Will these stream and river bass keep biting, at least slowly, throughout the winter? Or do they just shut down when it gets cold enough?

I'm thinking of doing the Buffalo with the pontoon in a couple-three weeks when I'm up visiting the in-laws in Searcy County. Tyler Bend to Gilbert and Gilbert to Maumee are the most convenient stretches for me, shuttle-wise, but are they decent stretches for fishing?

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Posted

Sounds like you had a good time. That's a pretty creek.

The smallmouth will keep biting all winter, but they'll slow down a lot when it gets good and cold. During the occasional warm spells when it heats up for a few days like it does, they'll pick up a little bit, but it'll be generally pretty slow untill late March/early April. Use that sink tip and those Wooly Buggers or similar wet flies in the deeper pools. Slow, deep, repetitive presentations. People don't realize it much, but the fishing can be surprisingly good through the winter. Just don't fall in!!

I'm planning a float for the week of Thanksgiving. I hope it stays nice through then. I want to get my daughter into her first smallmouth and rock bass!

Silence is golden.

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Posted

That's good to hear. As long as I can reasonably believe there's a chance I'll catch a fish, I'm good. Looks like I'll be on the Buffalo the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Good luck getting your daughter into a fish. Mine's too young to actually fish, but he sure loves to ride around in the backpack while I wade. I've got a little mirror on a string set up so I can see him back there, and he's just looking around wide-eyed and fascinated the whole time.

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Posted

Mine has caught quite a few brem out of our pond and Lake Atalanta, and even a little bass or two. I want to get to the river and maybe into some smallmouth or a school or rock bass though. If it is nice enough we'll do a 5 mile float pretty slowly and stop in the middle for a sanbar lunch. Should be a good time.

Silence is golden.

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