Home Waters

[walleyehunter]

I have three lakes that I rotate too when I get tired of fishing one.

1.....Greers Ferry

2.....Bull shoals

3.....Lake Norfork

[joefish]

I live in nw mo so home water for me is Lake Viking, Grand River, and smaller lakes in the area.

[cotterboy2007]

White River, Rim Shoals Area.

Can't beleive there are only three that say it is home water.

Lilley, I think we have a mutual friend, Steve Brigman

I am a jig man for trout as well.

Nice site and I hope to contribute some good info

White River, Rim Shoals Area.

Can't beleive there are only three that say it is home water.

Lilley, I think we have a mutual friend, Steve Brigman

I am a jig man for trout as well.

Nice site and I hope to contribute some good info

[Danoinark]

Glad to have you Cotterboy. Thanks for registering.

[brownieman]

I grew up on the big Piney which is where i learned to fish. The past 40 years I have mainly fished small private lakes and the Current.

The current has declined so much in recent years it's disappointing. The trophy waters need help...the new regs have done little imo except piss the locals off...money seems to take presidence over the fishery.

If a tree falls in the river which would help create good habitat it is cut out to cater to the canoe traffic...seems as if the almighty buck always wins out. The mdc does their own sampling and draws their own results, don't fool yourself if anyone thinks they are going to gig themselves or stick a feather in their hat, think again.

The fishery should be the main concern not whether a few drunken canoes turn over...the Current has turned into a complete freak parade during the summer months, just a big party for most with little regard for anything to do with the health of the river.

With the low water level in recent years the upper strech is so small i would like to see canoes, at least rentals, not allowed on that strech. Keeping the rental canoes off would cut the amount of traffic down dramatically but we are talking big money to a few influental interests.

There is plenty of river from Cedar Grove down and there are no longer any rentals close to the upper strech...imo this would help the fishery tremendously but I just don't see it happening.

The hatchery on the headwaters does enouph damage itself by flushing the raceways directly into the river and the campground septic pool has a pipe that drains straight into the river just below the park.

This is supposed to be monitored by water samples, whether you disagree or not I will never think this can be good for the water quality...far too much fertility which would not exist if this were not the case. The hatchery used to pump the raceways out instead of flushing them into the river...this method was abandoned years ago and needs to be implemented again.

I would say few have spent more time on the Current than myself with the exception of the last 4 or 5 years...these are just observations and my opinion for whatever it's worth.

bm

[cotterboy2007]

Excellent post, brownie. Dude, I believe ya. Hopefully those with the power will actually listen to folks like you.

[RiverRunner]

I guess I would say my home waters are the Little Red River, since it runs through Searcy and I can be on world class trout waters in 20 minutes. But I do fish the White River almost as much as I do the Red, at one time the White was my home river. I also fish the Eleven Point River in Randolph Co. AR quite a bit for smallmouth.

Brownieman: What's happened to the smallmouth fishing on the current? Is it gigging, tournaments, or something else. We had a very good year last year for smallmouth on the Eleven Point, I'd hate to see anything happen to it.

Cotterboy, good to see another jig fan on here, I'm a fan of the zig jig myself, its amazing that more people don't fish jigs on the White, IMO, they will outproduce any bait or lure that you can use.

[brownieman]

River Runner,

Smallie fishing has never been real good on the upper streches of the Current for me anyway. In years past I have had some outstanding smallie trips from Round Springs down. IMO the water temps play a big part in where the smallies live.

We used to float from round springs down to Doniphan and catch good numbers of smallies and some real quality fish. Two Rivers is the confluence of the Jacks Fork and Current...seems that strech has always been good due to the warmer water temps...not that I have not caught a good one here and there on the upper parts just not very many.

We always used jigs we made with jig hooks and a 4 1/2 inch purple creme worm and gitzits...we literally caught the tar out of them. I have not fished the lower streches for several years now but friends tell me it's still decent.

I would have to say some of my very best smallie trips have been on Sinkin Creek in years past, dumps in the Current just above round springs. A guy used to be able to put in at the sinks and float down to the bridge next to the current but now the private landowners do their best to keep anyone run out of there. I have caught amazing numbers of huge smallies on sinkin in years past...can't even tell you how many 4 lbers we have caught and some larger...we caught a few i know would push 6 lbs, amazing trips...bar none the best i've ever had.

I have never seen this but I hear from the locals that alot of smallies fall to guys using spearguns on the sinkin...pisses me off to no end, if thats considered fishing by some give me a break...about as unethical as it gets...there are far too many stricktly out for meat these days by whatever method it takes.

smallies have such a slow growth rate I guess some don't realize and some just don't care. As I've said before smallies are pretty much on their own, to my knowledge no hatcheries in the state make any attempts to raise smallies, someone correct me if i'm wrong.

To me pound for pound they are the hardest fighting fish there is in Mo. anyway...don't get much better than having a nice one on and 2 or 3 more come up with the one you have hooked, talk about a pump...don't get no better in my book.

If more ethics were shown by fisherman and catch and release practiced by more would help more than anything instead of catch and eat...oh well, all I can do is my part and only hope the smallie population can sustain themselves.

bm

[RiverRunner]

It's unfortunate that people have this idea that smallmouth are like trout, that is easily replaced by stocking, which they are not. I tend to think of smallmouth like some fly fisherman do wild trout in high mountain streams. They are the most sporting native fish we have and we need to do everything possible to protect them. We have good regulations here in AR and in MO, we just need to make sure that their enforced. I do think that it would be a good start to ban gigging and spearfishing in any stream with special smallmouth regulations.

[kelly]

Neosho river, I yer white jigs ain't brown you ain't fishing