Crooked Creek report from 5/19

[kkparks_3]

Well, it took me almost a week to get over it and get around to posting my report from last weekend.

Me and a buddy fished from the slab down to Yellville. Using our float tubes, it was kind of chilly at sunrise so we fished around the take-out point for a while before we went to the slab. Within a few minutes my buddy hooks a 15" plus and I catch a spunky 12". So, at that point we are thinking this is going to be a good day. However, we were wrong. The creek put a spanking on us. We caught a total of 10 on the trip with none being larger than the two we caught that morning. Our last trip netted over 120 between us and my buddy's teenage boys, so needless to say, we were disappointed.

Along the way, another canoe passed us (saw more traffic on this trip than ever before and there were people all over the slab) and informed us they were doing well on minnows. Being an artificial fisherman and not having a dip net anyway, we fished on.

We go back to the slab and decide to fish a little longer being that we had driven two hours and figured they were bound to get a couple of bites at the slab before we made the long trip back. When we get there, a couple standing on the little point in the middle of the creek that the flow is split by after it goes through the slab is absolutely tearing 'em up on split shotted live minnows they are catching with a dip net. At the same time, we are continuing to not get bit with just about everything we have in our tackle bags. Not that watching them tear it up hurt our feelings enough, but even worse they were keeping them (puke!!!, they so need to do something with the limit sizes). They had their limit of four 14 -16"ers caught in about 20-30 minutes of sitting there watching them, with several small fish also being caught in this timespan. If this practice is very common, and I'm afraid it is, surely it has to have a big effect on the quality smallie population.

There were smallies busting everywhere on minnows in the really swift current. So, kind of copying their rig, I split-shotted a fluke. First, I tried white with no success. Second, I tried watermelon red, hoping it would king of match the dark-backed minnows. Within 15 minutes of doing this, standing on the slab, and just tight-lining the fluke in the swift current, I caught two fish around 14".

But, unfortunately it was time to go home and a large group of kids from something going on at the conservation center came down to the slab anyway, so we called it quits.

I guess I'll just have to chalk this up as a learning experience. Have any of you guys ever had an experience where it seemed like only live bait would work? What other tactics could I try when they aren't going for crankbaits or bottom bouncing plastics? I've read some of Al Agnew's posts about his special spinnerbait, so maybe I need to try a spinnerbait.

The main thing I'm concerned about is I don't know if the poor fishing was because of all the meat hunters, just a bad day, or we're just bad fisherman. I really hope it was bad fishermen, not a depleted smallie population from meat-hunters.

As a side note, I was suprised to see how much the gravel had been washed around and huge laydown trees were gone at various spots on the creek. You guys must have really got more significant rain than I thought up there earlier in the year.

Anyway, I'll stop my rambling for now and go to bed.

Kevin

[Ham]

So Kevin did you see the thread on River Smallies where folks disagreed about live bait for smallies being easier that artificals?

I hate fishing behind folks using live bait for smallies.

SOrry you had a tough trip. It does sound like you had some success just not as much as you hoped for on the trip.

[Danoinark]

And the sad thing is its catch and release only at Kelly's Slab.....

Dano

[kkparks_3]

So Kevin did you see the thread on River Smallies where folks disagreed about live bait for smallies being easier that artificals?

I hate fishing behind folks using live bait for smallies.

SOrry you had a tough trip. It does sound like you had some success just not as much as you hoped for on the trip.

Yeah, I read that thread and those guys are either crazy or a heck of a lot better fisherman than I am to say that live bait isn't easier than artificial.

And the sad thing is its catch and release only at Kelly's Slab.....

Dano

Yeah that's what I thought too, but the game warden I stopped said the catch and release immediately area stops at the slab. Anything after the slab downstream to the Hwy. 101 bridge is a limit of two at least 14" long. That's too bad because every Tom, Dick, and Harry that fishes, fishes off of the downstream side of the slab.

Taxidermist said he heard a rumor that they were changing the limit to one fish 18" long next year. I sincerely hope he is right. At least that would be a step in the right direction anyway.

Kevin