First Float

[Phil Lilley]

Thank you Brian for your comments... always welcome here.  You helped me start this thing.  I think it's still better than any FB group.

What would you do to the river?    
What's your Christmas list?

[Al Agnew]

9 hours ago, MObassin95 said:

Great insight, thank you. Did the flood affect the Smallmouth population like it did the trout? My wife and I saw tonnes of life in and around the river, so that’s a good sign. Maybe some species were less affected by it. 

That same week that I floated in the trout section in May and found water temps as high as the lower 70s, I also floated the upper North Fork and had the best day of smallmouth fishing I'd ever had on the river.  So no, I don't think the smallmouth in the UPPER river were much affected.

 

[MObassin95]

10 minutes ago, Al Agnew said:

That same week that I floated in the trout section in May and found water temps as high as the lower 70s, I also floated the upper North Fork and had the best day of smallmouth fishing I'd ever had on the river.  So no, I don't think the smallmouth in the UPPER river were much affected.

 

Well, I guess I gotta head upstream of Hammond then! 

[fishinwrench]

9 hours ago, Brian Wise said:

The stripers usually move in sometime around Memorial Day and will usually stay until sometime in October.  When they enter the river, they are literally scattered from "The Forks" (the headwater of Norfork Lake, well below Dawt Mill) all the way to the put-in at Hammond......seriously, I saw one in the pool at Hammond which probably means they will go higher than that---I just haven't seen them above that.  They are NOT in the river all year long, period.

There's one....and only ONE.... consistent factor that I have noticed about striper locations on Lake O., and that is "Spring influence". Nearly everywhere that a spring enters the lake (even if it is just a tiny trickle) you'll find White bass, hybrids, and the juvenile stripers.    

After noticing that no water temperature difference was registering on my boat mounted surface temp guage I dropped a probe down.....and sure enough, a band of significantly cooler water maybe a foot or less in thickness can be detected right along the bottom during the hot summer months, and in some cases that narrow band of cooler water runs out for about 100 yards.  During the coldest periods of winter those same areas are EASY to find because the same areas, if they are relatively shallow, will usually be ice free (warmer water rises).      

Back in the 1980's when they actually stocked stripers in Lake O the guides would book trips during the full moon periods of December-January and take their clients to HaHaTonka spring to troll huge Jerkbaits that ran 3-5ft. deep over 10-30 FOW for stripers.....And they caught them like crazy!  You wouldn't catch them anywhere else, or during any other time of the year, not consistently anyway.  But they were active within a mile of that spring during the winter. 

Where I'm going with this is....as a student of striper habits, I'm beginning to see a location pattern of "Spring Influence" of which the upper NFOW is loaded with. So that's probably why those stripers are there throughout the Summer.   

Where else on lake Norfork has substantial spring runoff ?   I don't know that lake at all.   

[Gavin]

FW, they definetly hang in the deep spring fed holes. I hear they eat lots of crayfish.  If it’s slow,, long and over 5-6’  deep, look for stripers. 

[ColdWaterFshr]

NFOW has fished much better the last couple years.  I think it just needs another 3 or 4 years to be back to its former glory, at least for trout.  My theory is that water temps aren't as big a problem as good habitat and cover from the stripers.  And those root wads will wash down eventually from the upper.  

There needs to be a barrier for the stripers.  Let them run up Bryant, but the NFOW needs the defense that Dawt dam offered, in some fashion, IMO.

[netboy]

Sounds like some trout stocking from MDC wouldn't hurt. Also need to get some folks fishing (and keeping) those stripers since they are apparently concentrated in certain areas.

[tjm]

1 hour ago, netboy said:

Sounds like some trout stocking from MDC wouldn't hurt.

I don't think they have the trout to stock, when the stocking in the pay to fish Parks is reduced to 1 1/4 fish per tag sold in previous years, and some of the holes look empty. With winter coming on MDC will need all the available trout and maybe some outside purchases just to do the urban ponds.

They could post a bounty on stripers, per head or per pound of dead striper. The National Park Service did have a $25 bounty on brown trout over 6" taken in the Colorado River, so there is a precedent.

[BilletHead]

51 minutes ago, tjm said:

I don't think they have the trout to stock, when the stocking in the pay to fish Parks is reduced to 1 1/4 fish per tag sold in previous years, and some of the holes look empty. With winter coming on MDC will need all the available trout and maybe some outside purchases just to do the urban ponds.

They could post a bounty on stripers, per head or per pound of dead striper. The National Park Service did have a $25 bounty on brown trout over 6" taken in the Colorado River, so there is a precedent.

            No bounty and no kill unless you catch and utilize it. Both fish in question are non-native. Let it play out. There is each side wanting what they want for themselves. I say as my gym coach in junior high would say before we competed in class. "Let the Gods decide"!

[Gavin]

I don't know anyone who releases stripers down there. You might catch one out of a pod of 50. Taking one out never seems to put a dent in them.