2-8-14 White River

[Ham]

I am sick and tired of being cold. I can hardly stand it any more, but I am not going to let it keep me from fishing.

Trout gnat and I met at Bull Shoals dam yesterday morning @ 0800. It was 19 degrees and cloudy. Wind was minimal which was nice. They were running about 7000 CFS when we got there.

It's not a secret that the area below the dam is HOT for a while after it is re-opened to fishing on Feb 1 every year. It seems that the weather is almost always terrible also. In a way, the more miserable the better because you want a minimal amount of company.

We were one of the first three boats there. Hot Dawg was there for a little while. He left before I could say hello. A drift boat launched a little before us, but they were all but out of sight when we started.

It won't surprise anyone that I threw Zig Jigs. Troutgnat likes to hand tie custom colors on trout his worked great as well.

We whacked em. Lots of fish. Lots of BIG fish. I had three quarters of a slam. Troutgnat had a real nice Rainbow. We released it after a quick pic. Somewhere in the 20 inch range. We had lots of solid bows that that was the largest. We had a very large number of > 16 inch Brown trout. I lost two really BIg Browns.

As the morning moved along, more and more boats piled in the area. It's clear that the extra boats shut the fish down. I've seen it on multiple ocassions now. I know it's just something you have to deal with, but I would have loved another hour to ourselves.

Water dropped to around 3000 CFS and navigation became riskier. I made the call to relocate to Cotter to show Troutgnat some stuff in that area. We caught them, but not as well. We caught several more real nice Browns and a bunch or good thick Bows. The wind picked up and clouds moved in. It really got to be a grind, but we fished as long as we dared. It was a comparative grind though.

I believe we caught over 200. I know I caught 100. Troutgnat has the pics. He may post them here if he chooses to do so. The White is so amazingly good.

[Quillback]

Dang that sounds like an awesome trip. Any estimate on the really big browns that got off?

[Ham]

24-26 inches is my guess, but it's just a guess. We caught a lot of Browns 15-20 inches and these two looked huge in comparison to those.

[Quillback]

Those are big ones!

[LittleRedFisherman]

Great trip!!

[Ham]

One of my best trips for numebrs and size of Browns. Really good color on the Rainbows and Browns (and my one Cutthroat).

I went yesterday with Godfrey for about three hours down river. I caught 37 and he was catching them as well or better than I was. We had over a dozen Browns and at least eight pretty decent ones. These fish are 15-18 ionches long and fight hard. I'm not measuring them. I get them boatside and reach over and slip the hook out of their mouth. I don't need to know how long they are bad enough to stress them even a little bit more than necessary.

[joeD]

Good times!

Where are those pictures bro? A trip that epic has to have pictures right homes? Yo, you put a number out like 200 bro, you must have pictures, right holmes?

Dude, everyone has a camera these days! Show your big fish homey!

I was down there too bra! It wasn't epic homey.

[joeD]

Good times!

Where are those pictures bro? A trip that epic has to have pictures right homes? Yo, you put a number out like 200 bro, you must have pictures, right holmes?

Dude, everyone has a camera these days! Show your big fish homey!

I was down there too bra! It wasn't epic homey.

[joeD]

This was last week.

We saw boats all over, No one was catching 200 fish. When they reduce generation, fishing slows down considerably.

Go to Jimmy Ts website. Look at the fish his client caught. They'll dine out on that for weeks. We were right next to him.

Doesn't compare to (some of) ours.

But that is not my point.

You catch 200 fish, you catch big fish, then, you post pictures.

Otherwise, well, you may as well be, a, a, a, well, a, a , ,, well a fisherman.

In our media age, there is no excuse for not having pictures and or video of our fishing exploits and catches. Stories without media proof are just that...stories.

[Terrierman]

This was last week.

We saw boats all over, No one was catching 200 fish. When they reduce generation, fishing slows down considerably.

Go to Jimmy Ts website. Look at the fish his client caught. They'll dine out on that for weeks. We were right next to him.

Doesn't compare to (some of) ours.

But that is not my point.

You catch 200 fish, you catch big fish, then, you post pictures.

Otherwise, well, you may as well be, a, a, a, well, a, a , ,, well a fisherman.

In our media age, there is no excuse for not having pictures and or video of our fishing exploits and catches. Stories without media proof are just that...stories.

Ham don't need to tell stories. If he says he caught 100, he caught 100. Counts them on a clicker. And if he says he caught big ones, well then he caught big ones. And that's just all there is to it.