Fishing Report From The Weekend Of 3/7/2014

[Clay Goforth]

First off, let me say this will in no way be anything like Mr. Berry's report. His is much more thorough. I will be very brief with mine.

Friday, my dad and I fished the State Park area of the river. We had two units of water and put in at 8am. We fished from 8am until about 12:30pm and boated 78 fish. A black 1/16oz PJs maribou jig on 3lb test line was the hottest setup. We also located a few browns using a white 3/32oz PJs jig fished a little deeper and slower. We stopped for lunch and put back in on the water at about 2:00pm and fished until 5:00, boating an additional 34 fish, still using the black PJs jigs.

Saturday, we fished the Shawnee/Supreme Tournament. Unfortunately, we only had minimum flow so the pattern from the day before had to be tweaked. We put in at Cotter and motored up to Wildcat Shoals and fished our way back. Again, the hot color was black but in a 1/32oz size fished very slowly. We boated 63 fish over the course of the tournament and finished tied for 3rd.

Sunday, we only had a couple of hours to fish before needing to head home so we ran down to Ranchette and fished our way down to Rough Hole. Minimum flow at Rough Hole turned out to be quite the combination, as we boated 37 fish from 10am (got a really late start with the time change) until we took off the water at 12:45pm. Again, black PJs in a 1/32oz seemed to be the ticket.

I do have to give a shout out to Mr.Dietl (sp?) and SwingOil baits. They are more levered toward bass fishing but they do produce some jigs and I borrowed one from a friend on the river who was raving about them. I plan to order some in the near future. They seem to hold their feathers a lot better than some other jigs and take the abuse of catching lots of fish.

On Friday, I set up a GoPro on my net to test the POV and cut together a short video of some of the fish we boated. I think the perspective turned out pretty cool and the video showcases the beautiful coloration on the browns we caught. They were so bright this trip with lots of seemingly glowing red accents. Make sure the settings on the YouTube player are up to 720p so you can see the fish in higher definition.

All in all, it was an excellent trip with good fishing. Again, all black was the hot color and I would imagine it to remain that way for the next few weeks at least.

[Phil Lilley]

Love the video... nice trout.

[Ham]

Good Job Clay!

[Clay Goforth]

Good Job Clay!

Thanks Ham! We should get together and fish sometime. I think, with our jig fishing powers combined, we could boat 300 fish in a day. I learned jig fishing 20 years ago from some of the first jiggers on the river (Jerry Dudley and Jim Hall) and have spent the last 20 years patterning fish and learning the bite. I love when people accuse you of lying when you talk about 100+ fish days...If people would just listen and learn, they would be opened up to a whole new world of trout fishing. I try not to burst peoples' bubbles when talking about trout fishing because I have a lot of friends who are fly fishermen. They talk about having "unbelievable" days on the water where they caught 10-15 trout and a "big fish" that was 16 inches. All I usually say is, "Yeah, that's a good day and that is a big fish...you should let me take you over there some time." The last time I did that, I took a couple of fly fishermen with me and they started out fly fishing and I was jigging. It wasn't long and they were borrowing equipment and asking questions. I even landed a 28" brown that weighed just under 10lbs that day. Their minds were blown.

[Ham]

That'd be great! I'm still learning. Drilling down deeper into the details and nit picky aspects of it. You've probably forgotten more about jig fishing for trout than I'll ever know.

I like to fly fish as well, but I know going in that it is rarely the most productive numbers wise. It isn't always about numbers.

300 trout in a day for two anglers is definitely possible. 10 fish an hour per person is an OK bite, 20 fish an hour per person is a good bite, and beyond 20 fish an hour per person is a great bite. These are landed fish. Not strikes. Not fish you hooked and lost.

I haven't caught 200 in a day by myself, but I think I could.

I banged out 52 fish in a little under 4 hours yesterday at Rim Shoals. Low water kept me from fishing my best spots, but I found a couple of places with some biters. I wasn't all that mad at em yesterday. I went home early to have a nice supper with my wife.

I caught a big ole carp that made my day. 26 inches long and tubby. Think Arkansas's football coach with fins.

[BFTMASTER]

The fly fishers have "sow bug".

We should have a gathering for "Jig Fest"

The nay Sayers could come put there money where there mouth is

[Clay Goforth]

That'd be great! I'm still learning. Drilling down deeper into the details and nit picky aspects of it. You've probably forgotten more about jig fishing for trout than I'll ever know.

I like to fly fish as well, but I know going in that it is rarely the most productive numbers wise. It isn't always about numbers.

300 trout in a day for two anglers is definitely possible. 10 fish an hour per person is an OK bite, 20 fish an hour per person is a good bite, and beyond 20 fish an hour per person is a great bite. These are landed fish. Not strikes. Not fish you hooked and lost.

I haven't caught 200 in a day by myself, but I think I could.

I banged out 52 fish in a little under 4 hours yesterday at Rim Shoals. Low water kept me from fishing my best spots, but I found a couple of places with some biters. I wasn't all that mad at em yesterday. I went home early to have a nice supper with my wife.

I caught a big ole carp that made my day. 26 inches long and tubby. Think Arkansas's football coach with fins.

Careful with the compliments, Ham. I don't mean to go too existential on you, but we are all students of the game...or rather, should be. The day I catch every fish in the river is the day I hope to be done learning. I still definitely have days where the fish win, but those days are just becoming fewer.

And know I don't have anything against fly fishermen...well, maybe I do have a little something against the pretentious purists. I fly fish, myself, and understand that it is not all about the numbers. I just think it humorous when you run into the guys that ONLY fly fish and look down their nose at spin fisherman or the folks that throw rapalas and crankbaits like they aren't true fishermen. These are the guys that will talk about the "incredible" days on the water where they caught 12 fish over the course of 8 hours. You know, the type that stand in the deepest channel of the shoal and refuse to move as you are trying to make it up river in your boat. You know, the ones where I fill their waders with water from my jet as I pass by.

Anywho, I really think we should try to get together. I'd love to see what you do while jig fishing and try to learn some new elements to include in the technique arsenal.

I think BFT might be on to something with a "Jig Fest." I propose we call it "Jiggers Anonymous."

I laughed out loud at your football coach with fins line, by the way.

[Ham]

We had that winter get together last December that turned into Jig Fest. We all had a big time and there is serious talk about it being an annual event. Keep an ear to the ground about October. I imagine the planning will start about then.

[Clay Goforth]

Another short video with some footage from the weekend.

[Phil Lilley]

From this week too. Another group...