Wild Cat Shoals Public Access

[Goggle-Eyed]

First, thanks for any information... I have planned a trip the first weekend in May for my Dad's Birthday... I have a gathered his group of friends and booked a rental house next door to Wild Cat Shoals public access. We are planning on renting a 4 person and 3 person boat from Rainbow Drive Resort on Friday and Saturday... Unfortunately, I am not an avid Trout fisherman but know that Dad has been to Cotter and "loved it"... I just found out today they were "drifting power bait".... I am not so much a bait fisherman, so..... I am looking for any jig suggestions or fishing suggestions based on the Rainbow drive resort area.... I know I will eventually be throwing jerk baits, any color information would be great.....

Any other fishing information would be great. First Time in this area and can't imagine 6 pissed guys my dad's age (under 70- barely)

As most of you know, I post real reports when I fish LOZ or Niangua River, hoping for the same, or at least a PM or Ten!

Thanks,

Joe

[Ham]

Zig Jig's. They are almost all I fish with for trout anymore. I buy mine by the dozen off the website, but they are sold in 3 packs at Harps in Mtn Home. There are lots of jiigs that work well. Lots of ppl like the PJ's jigs. I think the Zig Jig is better, but that's just me.

I haven't been on the White in a while, but they eat Zig Jigs in almost all conditions. I shy away from jigs when they are running > 20,000 CFS. It's also tough to catch them when the water is muddy or trashy with loose bits of algae.

I've posted lots of trip reports and detailed sizes and colors of jigs I use and when and where. I hate to keep reposting the same stuff. I've caught literally hundreds and hundreds of trout out of Cotter. It's a nice area and fishes well from 800-8000 CFS. I'll fish from the first big river bend above the 62 Bridge down to the water treatment plant downsriver from Roundhouse Shoals out of the Cotter ramp. IF I want to be further downriver, I launch at Rim Shoals.

I also carry inline spinners (Rooster Tails) and spoons (Thomas Bouyant) for folks that can't get the feel of the jig at least a little bit. Most ppl can catch at least a few fish on the Zig Jig. The first few are the hardest to catch. It gets much easier after the first few fish.

Look at the Zig Jig website as well. Richard fishes the jig differently than I do and He catches the fire out of them. He has a pretty detailed break down on how to fish them. You do want a quality 4-6 lb line and a decent rod/reel combo.

Lots of jerkbaits work, but you need some flow. I tend to use F7's and F9's in minimal flow and CD7's or CD9's in higher flow on spinning or Rogues nad McSticks on baitcasting. I do a much more subdued jerkbait retrieve for trout than I do for warm water species, but play with retrieves. What the trout want varies day to day.

edited because I'm a knucklehead

[Goggle-Eyed]

Thanks Ham... I will look up the zig jig

[Greasy B]

PM sent. Let me know if you have a problem printing the map.

[hoglaw]

It's not rocket science once you get out there. Fishing jigs is a sure fire way to put a bunch of fish in the boat. You can also catch them on jerkbaits, but for the big jerkbaits you really need higher flows or weird conditions for the bigger fish to get after them. Smaller jerkbaits like Rapala X-Raps in the ~3 inch size are great on light tackle, as are in line spinners and rebel crawfish type lures. There are lots of great holes all over the river. You can catch fish in the holes, in the shoals, and even in the slack water. You will have no problem getting all of those guys on lots of fish. If for some reason you're really struggling, you can always drift with power bait or night crawlers. But there should be no problems catching rainbows on the lures mentioned above until you get tired of catching them.

I'd reccommend just carrying spinning rods and 4lb line. That way you can throw everything at them.

[Yakfly]

Everything said above is good advice. I'd just emphasize the almighty SPOON. Thomas buoyants are great, personally I like the plain old gold Little Cleo. 1/4 oz fished on 4 lb line will catch all day.

Be cautious running through Wildcat shoals on low water. Very tough to get back upstream if they run 1 or less units, I've seen some experienced river men get stuck there.

[Clay Goforth]

My dad and a group of his friends fished Wildcat with jigs last weekend. Here is my dad's first cast of the day.

We use PJs primarily, but it is moreso because of the cause behind their products, not because they work any better than a ZigJig. Ham is right that the ZigJigs are probably a better product overall, but a black PJs vs. a black Zig is basically the same thing.

[Ham]

If the Zig Jig's go away, I'll be buying PJ's in a heartbeat. The PJ's are a very nice product.