Nasty Moss Report 4-21 thru 4-24

[BFTMASTER]

We camped at the very clean campgrounds at the state park. Good job Arkansas!! Take note Missouri #%@#$.  Honestly, the restrooms at the State park have always been clean every time we have ever stayed there. Lots of hot water and clean toilets.  Back to the fishing.  Water did not run over 2 units all three days, but we at least had a unit on at all times, which if you know the channels, you can go almost anywhere. At the beginning of each day we would run up to the dam for catch and release action.  The moss is ridiculous right now, I have never seen it this bad.. Not only is it covering the river bottom, but when they change the water level it breaks free and is impossible to fish any kind of bait without getting constantly cleaning your line and bait.   I mainly fish jigs and I like to bounce them as close to the bottom as I can get. Not this time.  Areas that are usually gravel were covered for the most part. We managed to scratch out some fish, but it was far from the usual "smack down" that we come Bull Shoals for. We fished from the dam all the way down past Sportsmans. One of our best areas for clean bottom was above Stetsons down past Sportsmans. Also, the weather was too perfect. I don't like bluebird days for fishing. Sunburn was very hard to avoid. I did see lots of bigger rainbows holding here and there, and most of our fish were above average size. Only caught 1 brown trout this time probably about 17 inches or 1 1/2 lbs.

Lures: Jigs colors had to be changed often to keep the fish interested. Brown/Orange Jig Zig was top. Ginger was good when there was junk in the water. Sculpin and Ginger was fairly consistent too. 1/6 ounce Colorado spoons swam just above the moss had fair results as well.

Hopefully, they will generate some water since the BASS Masters is over, and wash this moss on down.

[Ham]

The river looks lovely from the highway or from the back deck of my cabin, but the lake fishing is too good.

However, Richard Cross has loaned me a couple of two piece jig rods to test drive and give him my opinion on. I'll have to go try those out soon.