O A F Winter White River Trip 2013

[Ham]

I'm planning on being at the ramp (some ramp) 8 ish on Friday, but I can wait a while if that helps.

[hoglaw]

I may be flying solo all weekend. Fiancee can't go and my buddy that I thought would come with me is out as well. I'm still planning on leaving Fayetteville around 5 or 6 on Friday morning, so I will be there early Friday. I'd like to catch that first rise and ride it down quite a ways. I'd like to team up with someone so we can have a shuttle, but I don't mind running back upstream. My jet will go around 30mph I think. It looks like LR, Ham, and Muddy are going to be there early-ish on Friday. I think that makes 4 of us that will be there early.

So why don't we do this? We'll look at water conditions more closely on Thursday evening when they post predicted generation for Friday. I think Friday is shaping up to be the banner fishing day - heavy with a front moving in, not a lot of wind, and rain in the afternoon. To me that sounds like a good recipe for a long float. We could put in at the dam and take out at Denton Ferry or Cotter, which would be about a 15 mile trip. If four generators are on during the morning which appears to have been the pattern lately, that float wouldn't take but four or five hours to do. We could shorten it by taking out at wild cat then go down-river to our place and fish some more that afternoon, but I think we should try to maximize time on the upper river on Friday morning. That would also mean no long upstream runs in heavier current. Something to think about. I'm sure we could make some kind of game out of it. To do that, we'd all meet at the put-in and drop off boats, then run trailers downstream.

Obviously water conditions are subject to change, but the weather is consistent enough that the generation pattern should remain pretty close to the same - heavier water in the early morning and early evening. Flows may be more moderate on Saturday as it has been my experience that they tend to cut back on the weekends a little. Saturday will also be windy I think.

[Ham]

I must be the only knucklehead that prefers sunshine, < 2 units of water, and wind under 5 mph. I can absolutely knock em dead when I find those conditions. I still catch em other times too.

[gotmuddy]

I am game for whatever yall want to do. I can leave my boat at the rileys and run shuttle.

[Old plug]

WIVES AL-------they can really be party poopers about some things.i will be married 50 yrs next year and wanted to take a 10 day river boat trip through Europe. She flat refuses to get on a airplane. Been this way our entire married life. Even with the kids after her she will not do it.

[gotmuddy]

ham where you want to fish at? We are staying at my MIL's house (201 and Coley dr)

[Terrierman]

You guys fishing Friday be sure and wear your Gore Tex. See you Saturday AM. Looking forward to this one.

[hoglaw]

I must be the only knucklehead that prefers sunshine, < 2 units of water, and wind under 5 mph. I can absolutely knock em dead when I find those conditions. I still catch em other times too.

Ham, you're not alone. I've always enjoyed lower water jig fishing in pleasant conditions. It just seems that some of my better big fish days have been in eerie conditions, particularly when higher flows collide with an approaching front. I love watching them eat the jig in low clear water. But I really love seeing a big flash on a fast moving jerk bait.

[gotmuddy]

the best day I had jig fishing I had 45 minutes to fish and we at the confluence of CC and my wife and I caught 20 nice trout in the hole

[Al Agnew]

WIVES AL-------they can really be party poopers about some things.i will be married 50 yrs next year and wanted to take a 10 day river boat trip through Europe. She flat refuses to get on a airplane. Been this way our entire married life. Even with the kids after her she will not do it.

Yeah, but in this case I had to put myself in her shoes, so to speak. She would have been worried sick for five hours about me driving in possibly dangerous conditions, and there's no sense in putting her through that. I'm still watching the forecasts, and if things look better by tomorrow evening I might still come down Friday afternoon.