White River Trip Report 2-27-14

[Ham]

It was my pleasure to make a trip with Richard Cross and Brett LRF. We used Brett's Supreme today. It's a nice boat. The 48 inch hull makes a difference and I like his Merc Jet. I ran the boat all day which made me pretty nervous.

We started up at the dam. The bloom is off that rose a bit. We caught them OK, butt not great.

We broke for lunch at 1 PM.

Richard was very gracious and picked up the tab at KT's. Good freaking eats boys.

We fished out our afternoon at Buffalo City. We caught them a little better down there. ( I actually caught almost the same exact number of fish both places). I know it was kind to Brett and Richard.

I think we caught fish on like 9 different colors of Zig Jigs. We had plenty of fat and happy Rainbows.

Late in the day, karma rewarded Richard with a very nice 23 plus inch Brown he caught in High current. There's not only photos but also video.

We shot a lot of video today. It will be edited down into a show one of these days. Brett will put up a link when that's available.

Brett ran cameras all day, but still managed to catch some good fish. No doubt that hurt his numbers some.

Richard's the man. He clearly caught the most fish and had big fish of the day.

I ended up with 39. The bite was only fair. I think I caught a few more that I forgot to click, but I stand by the number that actually got documented.

I had so much fun today and learned a little more about Zig Jigs and fished some water more thoroughly than I ever had before. It was a beautiful day especially with what's coming tomorrow. Gosh, I'm going to sleep well tonight.

[Quillback]

Sounds like a great day!

[BFTMASTER]

Thanks for the report Ham, we are going to give it a go this weekend. we will stay from the dam to cane island so I hope that we find some fish...but we always seem to do fine...high or low

You say the bloom, you mean moss, slimy stuff, etc.?

what was your favorite color this day?

[LittleRedFisherman]

Hard to add to Hams report, it was just a great day to be on the water. Ham "the jig master" and Richard "the jig maker" as I called them today have this thing down pat. Got some awesome footage I hope to share here sometime. Thanks to Richard for Lunch, that was some awesome pulled pork. Ham you ran the boat great, and thanks for doing that, I've been looking at footage and it's good, sound was awesome to, couldn't of done that without you running the ship!! Zig Jigs Rock, and yes this picture here shows that they catch BIG Fish as well!!

[Greasy B]

Beautiful fish. I love that spot.

[duckydoty]

Great report!

[Quillback]

That is a beautiful brown!

[Ham]

I've just gotta so spoiled by Zig Jigs. The boat caught over 100 fish and yet the fishing seemed much slower than usual, BFT, there is a brief window of time were the bite is exceptional between the dam and the upper edge of the State Park. The large numbers of trout that have had three months to get fat, dunb, and happy w/o being harassed by fishermen are in that upper section get tired of boat traffic and being caught.

We had 6500 CFS dropping to 2000 CFS. I would have loved 10000 CFS dropping to 6000 CFS. We caught fish above the park, but caught as many or more between the Park and Gaston's. Don't rule out trying that area.

[CartneyAccess]

Ham Im curious about colors also, I just bought my first order of Zigs and bought mostly ginger and ginger/ olive.

What is your most consistant color, And a general guideline of your go to colors.

And if your a guy who thinks its a big secret, I apoligize in advance.

[Ham]

If it is sunny, I always reach for Olive/Ginger first UNLESS I'm fishing a shad kill below a dam. I'll always reach for White first when fishing immediately below the dam when a shad kill is happening or might have been happening soon.

I use Triple Olive a lot. I probably start with it first if it is cloudy.

I also use a lot of Brown/Orange in the fall.

I tend to reach for straight Ginger if there is a lot of loose algae blowing down the river like after a big increase in generation.

Color matters when it matters. Some days its huge and some days they bite all the colors about the same. I think you bought two good colors.

Talking with Richard, he says different guys have all sorts of different colors they swear by. I think he said he offers them in 47 colors or something like that. I'm trying real hard not to carry all 47 colors. I talk pretty openly about trout fishing. I'm not saying anything to the general public about my river smallie fishing and I don't give up my crappie spots either.