Floating This Weekend

[Buzz]

I started off last Sunday fishing the ned rig and couldn't keep the fish off of it. I caught one of my better brownies on it. A little later I hung it up and broke it off. Wouldn't you know it, I left all of the components at home. It's a good setup for the creeks. I guess it didn't really matter, the fish hit everything we threw at them. The 17" largemouth and a majority of my fish were caught on a War Eagle spinnerbait. A lot of fun, for sure.

[Guest]

IMG_1229.JPGWell, we ended up putting in at Deep Ford. Shady Beach was very concerned about safety and reluctantly took us up there. The fishing was phenomenal as far as I am concerned. We caught'em on all kinds of stuff, threw the Ned rig only a couple casts. They were hitting small tubes tubes and olive or brown wooly buggers so well it was a no brainer. Cast behind you, quarter downstream, fish a hole behind a root wad, just keep your fly/lure in the water and you get a fish pretty much. I will say the the Elk was a huge slow moving pool that was not near as fun or productive as the Big Sugar. The water levels/cfs/structure are just plain fun right now. We didn't catch anything huge but man we had fun. We're probably going back this weekend too but doing Cyclone to Sugar Island this time.

What was the big concern about safety at Deep Ford?

[marcusearlt]

Shady Beach's concern level was high due to the fact that this was only their third time to go up on the Big Sugar this year. After the high water I guess they assumed the the river would be filled with obstructions and was too fast to be safe. And, they hadn't heard of anyone being up there so they had no info to go on. I knew it was navigable thanks to the fisherman on this forum.

About the Ned rig- Can the PJ jig heads be bought locally? Southtown maybe? Funny thing, my brother actually met one of their jig tiers a couple months ago, a young woman who is not a fisherman. What are some good colors: pb&j, green pumpkin? Should the jig head match the plastic?

[Guest]

Shady Beach's concern level was high due to the fact that this was only their third time to go up on the Big Sugar this year. After the high water I guess they assumed the the river would be filled with obstructions and was too fast to be safe. And, they hadn't heard of anyone being up there so they had no info to go on. I knew it was navigable thanks to the fisherman on this forum.

About the Ned rig- Can the PJ jig heads be bought locally? Southtown maybe? Funny thing, my brother actually met one of their jig tiers a couple months ago, a young woman who is not a fisherman. What are some good colors: pb&j, green pumpkin? Should the jig head match the plastic?

yep, southtown has the jigheads.

1/16oz with sinlge wire weedguard.

I carry a waterproof plano box filled with pre-rigged Zinkers.

pb&j, green pumpkin/red, & green pumpkin/orange.

dont worry too much with the color of the jighead.

I only use the 1/8oz in real fast water or deep water, so stick to the 1/16.

My wife and I are floating that stretch on sunday afternoon.

When are yall going back?

[marcusearlt]

Thanks for the info.

Well, I live about 5 minutes from Southtown so I'll stop by there on my way in to town here shortly. All I got left are black/blue and these weird green/silver senko's leftover from a big kit so I'll pick up some of those too.

We we're contemplating another trip this weekend, leaning towards Saturday but it could go either way. First day of class is on Monday so we didn't want to get too crazy on Sunday. Staying on the Big Sugar where there is wayyy less paddling and more fish is the best deal for me right now, hands down. I'm in pretty good shape but all that paddling on the Elk just wore me out. Sugar Island will do a 10 mile from Cyclone down for only 30 bucks, that's a good deal.

[ollie]

Now remember, the Elk has gone down a lot and it might be worth checking into. Just another option for you. It shouldn't be a slow moving creek now.

[Guest]

We might float from deep ford to 71B

I like to fish every square foot of the creek.

SLOW is my game.

Ollie's right, the Elk should be getting right

[bfishn]

And it should be righteously restocked with largemouth, courtesy the floods & Bella Vista.

[marcusearlt]

DF to 71B is prime time slime right now, every stretch around every corner with every point bar, cut bank, root ball, wash out, etc make for some quality floating, low on the paddling and high on the fishing. So, I was on the Elk on the 20th. I have been keeping track of the USGS water gauges and for me I'd like to wait until the Elk dropped out a bit more before I go back. I run out of tactics (and energy) for bigger open water like that, I guess I'm more of spot to spot, get out and wade kinda guy and the Big Sugar has got much more of that right now. This is the first year I've ever even went for river smallies btw so I'm working with limited experience here. Crooked Creek turned me into a smallmouth fan back in the Spring. I have been fishing for 5 years now and I must say that the pleasure and adventure you get from fishing out of a canoe on an Ozark stream is hard to beat. I would have never known had we not moved to NWA. I'd still just be a deep reservoir and tailwater kind of guy.

I do pick apart some stretches. Others we just float through and talk about all the bugs, birds, trees and rocks. The slow game is a must for hot sunny days like last tuesday, especially with clear water, gotta go finesse.

We saw decent numbers of largemouth, particularly in sunny backfills with little or no current where the bottom was not muddy. Spotted several that probably were 2-2.5 range, only got one little one to bite though.

[Quillback]

And it should be righteously restocked with largemouth, courtesy the floods & Bella Vista.

I saw a couple of cars parked by the confluence of Tanyard and Little Sugar, that would be a good place to start to target some of those escaping LM's.