2-8-14 White River

[BFTMASTER]

One question Ham:

What is your highest producing jig color for trout?

[Ham]

I've tried really hard to keep my jig colors as simple as possible. Zig Jigs are offered in a lot of colors and they all have guys that buy them by the dozen, but I'm trying to keep it to 6 colors in my box.

If I am fishing Low water especially with sun,I'm always going to reach for Olive/ Ginger first. Overcast skies generally make me pull out triple olive. October thru April, I'll throw Brown and Orange if the other two don't produce like I want them to..

I want some version of black. Maybe black/olive, black/red, or just black.

You really do NEED white in springtime if you're fishing below the dams. It does work year round, but I start with it early spring below the Dams.

I've started trying Ginger when I'm faced with a lot of algae and trash in the water. It seems to stand out from the trash better than an olive based color.

I've had some missteps. Colors I was sure were gonna be great that have not worked for me. For trout, I can't recommend purple, brown/ginger, or olive/orange. They will catch fish, but slower than the others.

I made three trips in a row where I had the same two individual jigs tied on. Olive /Ginger and Triple Olive. While it was unusual that those two jigs both survived three trips in a row, it's not surprising that I was using those two colors.

I have started a trip with my buddy Godfrey where I was trying something different while he was throwing Olive and Ginger. He caught eight fish before I had a bite. I changed to olive/ ginger and caught a fish on the first cast. so color can matter a lot.

[Guest]

deleted

[Mitch f]

No, there is more to it.

1. Who the f*** carries a clicker?

2. And why?

Basically, no, I don't believe Ham. Because it is at odds with what I have observed on the White in the last couple weeks. Especially when it comes to browns. The fishing this winter has been sporadic at best, and claims of 200 fish days and more I meet with a healthy dose of skepticism. (which is where a cameraphone comes in handy huh).

Then again, I have been wrong so many times in my life...

Joe, you look like you were hanging out at the White Castle on Big Bend trying to steal the girls away from the CBC boys.

Love the mullet, or as its also been called.... The El Camino, Kentucky Waterfall, or my personal favorite; Business in front, party in rear!

[blue79]

I agree that is a nice mullet.I was gonna post a pic of my mullet cause it was pretty funny lookin.But what is really funny is if you get on google images and look up mullet,there is a pic of JoeD.Looks like a young Billy Ray Cyrus.I think i will keep mine to myself now.

[joeD]

You guys are correct. I am jealous. I have personal problems. I have much to learn and am petty and frivolous. Plus, most importantly, there are WAY better fishermen than me out there.

Math time.

200 fish a day is:

1. Awesome

2. Who counted to 200? Really. Count to 200 yourself.

3. That is 20 fish per hour for 10 hours straight. Without fail.

4. A fish every 3 minutes. For 10 hours. Without fail.

5. Nevermind.

You win.

I am an angry and frustrated fatso who fishes and pukes negativity out of his piehole. I'll stop now.

[Ham]

Well then, I guess you wouldn't believe I caught 136 in 5 hours by myself then either. Bummer.

[joeD]

You should get together with Al Agnew. Numbers might top 300.

Sorry. I'll stop now.

Serious.

What time is it?

OK. One more.

[LittleRedFisherman]

Lol, how did I miss this thread. Terrierman said it right, that really is all there is to it with Ham. I to fished with him on the first day of the OA trip. I'm telling you, he really does do this, I've seen him land 3 to 4 fish in 5 minutes a couple times that day. He wasted little time, and fishes with barbless jigs, so he has quick releases without ever touching the fish, that alone could get him a dozen extra plus fish a day. He has this jig method down, proof is in the pudding as they say, and I've seen all I needed to see. I never doubted him, but after witnessing it, I believe any report he puts out.

The best part of fishing with Ham that day, he took time to teach me his favorite knots for tying leaders, and loop knots for his jigs, and sharping hooks. Better than any guide I've been with.

[Jahan Abdoveis]

I read this deal this morning and my first reaction was to giggle about it and walk away. I appreciate all the folks I know that have piped up and vouched for me . I do ACTUALLY fish. I don't just blow smoke online.

Way back when I started fishing Ozark creeks for smallmouth bass I quickly realized that we were catching so many fish in a day that I couldn't keep straight how many I caught. I was used to going and fishing hard all day and catching maybe a dozen fish or on a huge day maybe 25 or 30, but on a creek BIG numbers were easier to catch than keep straight in my head . I got tired of saying "I'm sure we caught at least 40" or "it had to be at least 50". I wanted to be as honest as I could be so I bought a clicker. I decided for me to consider a fish caught I had to touch it. And I started keeping close tabs on what I caught.

JoeD man I'm sorry you have trust issues. I'm sorry you refuse to believe that someone else could catch more fish than you did. I'm sure you have mad skillz and all, but you have to understand that every dog has his day. Did you also have trouble believing me when I went to Bull Shoals the other day and fished for hours and never had a bite? Other guys caught fish that day and some good ones too. I freely acknowledged that I stunk it up and I was proud of them for doing a lot better than me.

The White River is fantastic and jig fishing for trout certainly seems to be the best way to put big numbers up. Your photos show trout caught on jerkbaits. That's a great way to get a GREAT BIG Brown, but not a great way to catch a bunch of fish in a day. UNLESS FLOW IS REAL HIGH, I think a jig will usually out number a jerkbait. I carry a lot of jerkbaits in my trout bag, but I rarely tie one on because 1) I catch more on a jig and 2) treble hooks injure the trout more. 6 to 9 hook points do more harm than 1 barbless point.

A lot of photos were taken that day. Way more photos than I usually bother with. They are on my buddy Darren's camera. He uploaded them to Facebook. IF we were friends on Facebook, you would have seen them already as several folks on here have. I sort of suspect that if I posted 10 photos, you'd want 20. I don't take the photos to prove anything to anybody. I don't post reports to prove anything to anybody. You aren't likely to believe me anyway and I don't really feel any obligation to prove anything to you. I don't much care for being called a liar though. That part bothers me a little bit.

The numbers thing is a game I play to motivate myself to fish hard and to fish as often as possible. I'm not in competition with anyone other than myself. For me, it is FUN to fish hard all day and try to catch every fish in the lake or river. Oddly enough, many of the fish that I or my friends catch make really vivid memories.

Since my 100 fish trip on 2-8-14 caused such butt hurt for you. I'll put out all of 2013's numbers for you to hate on and disbelieve.

I made a total of 87 fishing trips.

I had 8 trips where I caught over 100 fish and I had a total of 22 trips were I caught at least 50 fish. (8 + 14).

March of 2013 was terrible for me. I only caught 45 fish for the entire month. July was pretty freaking great though. I caught 619 fish that month.

I fished with 23 different people of the course of the year. More than half of which I had never fished with before. That was real cool.

By coincidence, I caught 23 species of fish last year. I'm really gonna have to step things up in different species this year.

I can tell you every day I fished. I can tell you how many days were in my Bass Cat, my canoe, my trout boat, my kayak, wade trips, or a guest in someone else's boat.

I know how many trips I took each month and how many fish I caught each month.

How about fish totals by year then?. I moved up in 2007. New job, new house, new routines. Not much fishing.

So Let's look at 2008 thru 2013

2008 = 1078

2009 = 2201

2010= 2433

2011 = 2356

2012 = 2365

2013 = 3174

I'll keep up with overall numbers in 2014, but the only number I really care about is the 52 species goal. I'll post photos on that deal as the year rolls along. I'm headed down to Louisiana tomorrow to try and fish with my Dad as his health allows. Hopefully, I'll add 6 or more species to the 8 species I've caught so far this year.