My first year of fishing NWA . . . wow!

[FoxMan2099]

That's what I suspected about catfish in the streams, glad to hear it confirmed.

And a big yessir about putting the smallies back---the only black bass I keep are spotted bass, and then only on the rare occasion that we're keeping a mess of fish for a fish fry.

Most of these mountain streams have good populations of channel cats (and some flatheads) that not many people fish for. Use some of those sunfish for cut bait. Let the smallmouth go to fight again. Oh, and great pics -- always good to see the youngsters being brought up to appreciate our rivers and streams.

[drew03cmc]

These fish are all from within a half hour of Fayetteville. Most are from creeks that feed the Illinois River or in that area, OR creeks closer to the West Fork of the White River area.

The first time I caught a smallmouth up here I was skeptical that it was one . . . I had never seen one so bronze and so lacking in dark vertical stripes. Of course, I had only caught a few in my entire life before moving up here, so there's that!

Those are Northern Smallmouth then and are just fine with me!

[FoxMan2099]

Ah, I forgot something important!

I caught my first ever Freshwater Drum at a nearby muddy pond. Man that thing was ugly. It was about the size of a nice white crappie, different shaped body of course. But on our light tackle I had to take my time with it lol.

Geez those fish are ugly. But it was cool to catch my first one and mark it off the list in the back of my mind. I've done that twice now up here in NWA, caught that ugly Drum and caught an awesome little Ozark Bass, which I had never seen before (even had to look it up).