Jigfest - The Dirt!

[Phil Lilley]

http://www.ozarkanglers.com/white-river/2016/12/04/jigfest-2016/

The official report - more details.

[LittleRedFisherman]

Today was another great day in the river, although be it colder and wetter. I had the pleasure of fishing with N9Bow (Eric) and Woundedone.  We threw jigs consistent all day with just a shirt break to eat a sandwich.  Eric nailed them all day including 3 smallmouth which will post pics later if them, they are in a video camera!   I had pretty good luck on a olive and ginger jig, Eric and Woundedone had a great day with a ginger!  We put in at Reds landing and there was a stretch 2 years ago I had some magic with a jerkbait. Yesterday had a little magic for an hour with my mega bass so throughly worked that stretch this time at Reds with only one good hit, but it was a 18.5 inch feisty brown!! The rain picked up and started to get colder but we stayed the day finishing strong on another stretch downstream.  We left them biting catching one nearly every other cast!  Just a great day and great fellowship!  Jig fest was so much fun with a great bunch of guys, it was truly a blessing!  

I have a lot of video that I took to air on a local outdoor show here at home of this event and the fishing!  I'm planning on it putting something together to share here first!  

Bret

[Ham]

I've caught 136 fish so far and I have pictures of 2 of them. Lol

[BilletHead]

    Ham that is what you get for running the boat so well. .

Enjoying the reports you all have. If I wasn't so busy hunting birds I would join you gentlemen sometime. Again thanks for all that have been posting,

BilletHead

[snagged in outlet 3]

I fished with Eric Thursday afternoon and friday.  Thursday we met at The Buffalo ramp headed upstream where Eric already had caught 10 -12 before I got there.  We picked right up where he left off.  My first fish was a brown and we caught them consistently until the plug of dirty water showed up.  Hot color was olive and ginger.

 

Friday we went  to Red's and fished downstream for quite a ways catching fish steadily on ginger jigs.  We ran up to Steamboat and only had marginal luck.  On the way up we saw a bunch of dear crossing the river.  We ended our day with 20 a piece and Eric added a chub.  I caught browns, rainbows and one small cutt.  As usual the Brook trout keeps me from another slam.  We had a grew time but I had to leave for work.  Overall another great time.

 

[Ham]

6 hours ago, BilletHead said:

    Ham that is what you get for running the boat so well. .

Enjoying the reports you all have. If I wasn't so busy hunting birds I would join you gentlemen sometime. Again thanks for all that have been posting,

BilletHead

well Marty, I don't know about that. I try to keep everybody alive. I really want everybody to catch fish as well. Everybody lived and everybody caught fish. 

 

[Ham]

Jig fest 2016 was a great success. I had a great time and got to make so new fishing buddies. The food was outstanding and more than plentiful.

i always want the White to be at its very best for the crew to enjoy. The rivers were certainly good, but issues with water releases ( or the lack there of) and at times trashy water made fishing at times a bit of a grind.

I know I have been spoiled by Zig Jig fishing. I honestly consider anything less than 10 fish an hour to be kinda slow. There was lots of times I felt like the fishing was slow.

the good news is that I fished with Eric P this morning and we caught them good. We fished less than 3 hours and together put 95 fish in the boat. I love Jigfest because it keeps me humble. Good bunch of guys that are a good fishermen to boot. I was able to keep up with Phil and DD. Kris and I were exactly equal in number of fish caught. Johnsfolly caught the fish real good including his first Cuttthroat ever and Eris was a very quick study indeed. He's got it figured out.

I catch a ton of trout on Zig Jigs, but that's because I live close and fish a lot. All the guys really catch them on Zig Jigs. I'm pretty good, but I'm not really better than other guys. 

 

[Guest]

I had a good time at Jig Fest.  The food, company,and fishing was great!  Thanks again to Ham for taking me out on his boat and putting me on fish.  Also, thanks to Richard Cross for the free Zig Jig hat and shirts.

[duckydoty]

I too had a great time at Jig Fest.  I want to thank Ham again for taking Phil and I out on Thursday. That was a beautiful part of the river. I picked up on a technique he was using that was very productive and tried it myself several times during the trip with good results. Yup, Ham, I was watching....LOL!  Enjoyed fishing with Les also on the second day.  The food, companionship and stories were incredible.  Looking forward to next year already!

[grizwilson]

Another Jigfest, Another Great time, Great People, Great food, Great fishing.  We ate like kings, from Phil's smoked chicken and grilled salmon, Duane's Walleye, Brett's flathead, Ham's smoked ribs, Rick's fried hen of the woods and apple crisp in the dutch oven. Michael s smoked salami and cheese etc and so on.  The fishing was good.  Phil and Duane are VERY good fishermen, and a pleasure to fish with.  Hopefully Duane will not bill me for the clinic he put on Friday afternoon.  I once again had the pleasure of fishing with my friend Terrierman, Thursday afternoon along with Woundedone, Saturday we fished until about 1230 when it started raining we went to town for a pizza, watch football and a nap.  Sunday was likely our shortest but best day.  Not sure of a total number but we had three doubles, and my best run were fish on 5 straight cast. Our best colors were tri olive, olive/ginger, brown orange, I threw in a few on pink chartreuse, and Terrierman on the olive/ginger with gold head (Getto jig) we used 1/16 due to low water flow.    Looking forward to next year with a great group of fishermen. Here is a picture of Terrierman with the Buffalo City bluff in the background.