O A F Winter White River Trip 2013

[Ham]

A few more comments about the fishing. I'm so glad that everyone caught fish so well. I want everyone to be successful and I want to do everything I can to help people fishing with me catch more fish.

I'm always trying to be the best angler I can be. I try to catch every fish I can. I do get upset with myself if everybody else is catching them and I can't, BUT I don't have to catch the most fish or the biggest fish to be happy. I apologize if when I get upset about a missed fish or list fish comes across as me being overly competitive. I'm just crazy about fishing and love to catch fish.

Doing long floats with a shuttle certainly saves gas and let's you cover a lot more water, but I don't know that it always the most productive way to fish. There are fish all up and down the river, but certainly some spots and lots better than others. I have certain things I look for that I feel set up well for me to catch fish, but I don't think it's accurate to say there are areas that hold "very few".

Traditionally , I do find areas that are holding a bunch of fish and motor back up to refish those areas. We did very little of that this trip.

I think our numbers could have been better IF we had done more of that. Water becoming off colored because of rain runoff and snowmelt hurt us a little be too. We had a fair bite. I caught around 10 fish an hour. A good bite is catching around 20 fish an hour.

A great bite is catching more than 30 fish an hour.

I don't agree that jigs are the best winter time trout lure, I think jigs are the best trout lure year round. There are brief periods during any year where the fish are keyed in on Caddis or Hoppers or midges and the jig might not be the best lure. A jig still produces, but it might be a little slower than usual. I'll fish a Caddis dry fly any chance I get. I'll fish hoppers when I can also, but limit me to one lure and it will absolutely be a Zig Jig.

I appreciate all the compliments from the guys on my fishing. Nothing I'm doing is really all that difficult. Good fishermen pick it up pretty quickly, but I do get to practice doing it more than most. I am glad that I was at the very least able to show that I'm not just blowing smoke when I talk about catching trout on a Zig Jig. I would have felt pretty bad IF I had struggled to catch fish.

I sure hope we're able to fish together again soon ; you guys are awesome.

[gotmuddy]

Not a whole lot to report today. We got to the river about 7:30, with no water running. No water ran all day, contrary to the schedule if you can believe that! We made lemonade out of lemons and fished to the top of mclelans(sp?) shoal. We caught probably 25 fish, Hoglaw caught a real nice rainbow(best of the weekend) and I caught a good brown that was about the same size. One thing we noticed was the fish on norfork were much healthier and thicker than fish on the white.

[Quillback]

Not a whole lot to report today. We got to the river about 7:30, with no water running. No water ran all day, contrary to the schedule if you can believe that! We made lemonade out of lemons and fished to the top of mclelans(sp?) shoal. We caught probably 25 fish, Hoglaw caught a real nice rainbow(best of the weekend) and I caught a good brown that was about the same size. One thing we noticed was the fish on norfork were much healthier and thicker than fish on the white.

You guys done good!

[LittleRedFisherman]

Not a whole lot to report today. We got to the river about 7:30, with no water running. No water ran all day, contrary to the schedule if you can believe that! We made lemonade out of lemons and fished to the top of mclelans(sp?) shoal. We caught probably 25 fish, Hoglaw caught a real nice rainbow(best of the weekend) and I caught a good brown that was about the same size. One thing we noticed was the fish on norfork were much healthier and thicker than fish on the white.

Sounds good to me. You called it on the generation schedule..lol

[gotmuddy]

the weather was much better even though it was colder.

[hoglaw]

I'll echo everyone's comments here. It was great to meet everyone. Very glad Phil could make it down to join us. The one comment that kept echoing was how we need to make this an annual deal. I completely agree. Someone posted earlier about the advisability of planning a fishing trip during a blizzard or something like that. This trip was planned a long time ago. Everyone could have made the decision to back out on account of the weather, but we all made an informed decision to head out there and I feel like we were well prepared for the conditions we faced, and we didn't push the safety envelope at any time aside perhaps from the drive down the hill into rim shoals. That was a little hairy, but we could have bailed out into the grass on the uphill side at any time if it got too bad. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone as safety-conscious as I am when operating a boat. As everyone who rode with me can attest, I don't come close to pushing my jet to its capabilities when I have other souls on board. On Sunday Muddy convinced me to push a little harder and we ran through some shallow water on the Norfork at full plane.

We did not see a single angler on the White River the entire trip. I believe we have the weather to thank for that. It's extremely rare when you can float 25 miles of the White and not see another fisherman. This was one of my favorite trips I've taken over there and I really appreciate everyone who made it. There's no doubt in my mind that we'll make this an annual deal. A couple of weekends before Christmas really seems to work well with everyone's schedule. I really feel like you catch more quality fish in the winter months and you're likely to encounter higher flows which I really enjoy fishing. We didn't get any high flows this weekend, just moderate generation that I think was ideal for the float-fishing we did.

It's neat to get to meet folks with such varied backgrounds and experiences, but it's a real tribute to this forum and community that folks who've never met eachother before can get together and share a cabin and boats and have a great time like we'd known eachother all of our lives. Can't wait to do it again and I hope some more of our community can join us.

Muddy - I'm trying to send your fish pics but can't get them to attach on my phone. I'll try to get it figured out at some point today.

[gotmuddy]

I'll echo everyone's comments here. It was great to meet everyone. Very glad Phil could make it down to join us. The one comment that kept echoing was how we need to make this an annual deal. I completely agree. Someone posted earlier about the advisability of planning a fishing trip during a blizzard or something like that. This trip was planned a long time ago. Everyone could have made the decision to back out on account of the weather, but we all made an informed decision to head out there and I feel like we were well prepared for the conditions we faced, and we didn't push the safety envelope at any time aside perhaps from the drive down the hill into rim shoals. That was a little hairy, but we could have bailed out into the grass on the uphill side at any time if it got too bad. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone as safety-conscious as I am when operating a boat. As everyone who rode with me can attest, I don't come close to pushing my jet to its capabilities when I have other souls on board. On Sunday Muddy convinced me to push a little harder and we ran through some shallow water on the Norfork at full plane.

We did not see a single angler on the White River the entire trip. I believe we have the weather to thank for that. It's extremely rare when you can float 25 miles of the White and not see another fisherman. This was one of my favorite trips I've taken over there and I really appreciate everyone who made it. There's no doubt in my mind that we'll make this an annual deal. A couple of weekends before Christmas really seems to work well with everyone's schedule. I really feel like you catch more quality fish in the winter months and you're likely to encounter higher flows which I really enjoy fishing. We didn't get any high flows this weekend, just moderate generation that I think was ideal for the float-fishing we did.

It's neat to get to meet folks with such varied backgrounds and experiences, but it's a real tribute to this forum and community that folks who've never met eachother before can get together and share a cabin and boats and have a great time like we'd known eachother all of our lives. Can't wait to do it again and I hope some more of our community can join us.

Muddy - I'm trying to send your fish pics but can't get them to attach on my phone. I'll try to get it figured out at some point today.

email them to me gotmuddy@gmail.com

Thanks to all the fishermen who posted reports on the trip. I'm sure there are many others who have enjoyed this tread as much as I have.

The strange weather and water compllications made for interesting reading. Ham's report about "sliding down the hill in 4 low" points out the risk of planning a fishing trip in the middle of a blizard. The thought of sliding down a steep wooded hillside with a 21 foot fiberglass boat following is scary. Someone must have thought "what are we doing" at some point.

I gather two things from reading the posts. First, that jigs are the best winter trout lure, and second, that some river sections hold lots of fish and others very few. I assume many of the fish were caught with a flot and motor back routine in areas where you found fish. From my limited time on the White it appears that is the standard approach.

Reading all this makes me want to order some of those zigjigs and consider winter trout fishing. The picture of three men standing in a narrow boat on a swift river is a little scary however.

Congrats on a successful trip. Thanks for sharing.

Joe

we all had our big boy panties on. When the weather gets bad you separate the men from the keyboard jockeys

[Ham]

It was a significant weather system that made any travel somewhat risky. I fully understand making the decision that it wasn't safe enough to travel long distances to sit in a boat in cold weather to chase trout with people you don't know. No fish is worth dying for. Let's all try to live to fish another day.

Big ups to my new homeys.

[Terrierman]

What you talkin' about Willis?

It's no wonder my wife was giving me the business Saturday morning about 5:00.

It was a significant weather system that made any travel somewhat risky. I fully understand making the decision that it wasn't safe enough to travel long distances to sit in a boat in cold weather to chase trout with people you don't know. No fish is worth dying for. Let's all try to live to fish another day.

Big ups to my new homeys.

Muddys BOat Id Iced In, so Gonna Go Ahead And Bring mine

Somebody needs to call me or PM or something. The weather forecast for driving is not good but I do not quit on a forecast. Somehow I need to let you guys know in the AM if I am going to be there on time or if the roads are bad and I will be late or if really bad not make it. Right now it's not doing anything so I'm guessing I'll be there on time. But it's only 7:30 so who knows for sure.

FWIW, you might plan on a 45 minute shuttle. It took me quite a while thru the ice and downpour last night. Big ole snowflakes last night (closer to morning), but I doubt there was any accumulation.

we all had our big boy panties on. When the weather gets bad you separate the men from the keyboard jockeys

[raise the motor]

Sorry if I offended anyone, it was an attempt at humor.

I have ridden the waves on Bull Shoals when a seat belt was needed to stay in the boat "because the fish are biting".

From the results it is clear you are a group of experienced boatmen and anglers. I would never question your judgment.

Joe