Buzzin, Crankin and Nedin

[fishinwrench]

3 hours ago, top_dollar said:

, just as they aren't allowed on the Buffalo

From what I hear the fishing on the Buffalo isn't worth the gas anyway.    

Why is that, I wonder?  

[MObassin95]

2 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

From what I hear the fishing on the Buffalo isn't worth the gas anyway.    

Why is that, I wonder?  

From my understanding it’s a quantity over quality river. A lot of 8-12 inchers. 

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, MObassin95 said:

From my understanding it’s a quantity over quality river. A lot of 8-12 inchers. 

My daughter and her friends hit the Buffalo 3-4 times per year.   I'm always on her about the fishing, and while they love to float & camp on it she says it seems to be "void of life" compared to the other rivers she is used to fishing.   

She's no slouch either.....if the fish are there she'll catch some. 👍 

Personally I haven't been on it in probably 30 years, but the fishing was less than spectacular then as well.    🤷‍♂️

[Al Agnew]

It's not a big fish river, though I've caught a 20 and a couple 18s on it in a dozen or so trips.  I've had one trip where the numbers were terrific and the fish were decent.  That trip the water was air clear, it was hot weather, and the fish were slamming buzzbaits in a way I've seldom seen.  It was like they saw the bait coming in midair and positioned themselves under it like a center fielder.  Soon as it hit the water they'd slam it.  Just one of those days when the fish go nuts.

[MObassin95]

2 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

My daughter and her friends hit the Buffalo 3-4 times per year.   I'm always on her about the fishing, and while they love to float & camp on it she says it seems to be "void of life" compared to the other rivers she is used to fishing.   

She's no slouch either.....if the fish are there she'll catch some. 👍 

Personally I haven't been on it in probably 30 years, but the fishing was less than spectacular then as well.    🤷‍♂️

I would definitely not call it “void of life.” I see hundreds of fish whenever I’m on it. Although the sizable smallmouth are lacking. 
 

My brother in law is from Norway and he’s not used to lure fishing. He stood in one spot and caught almost a dozen small smallies using a rainbow trout colored jerkbait, lol. The fish are there. 

[MObassin95]

2 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

It's not a big fish river, though I've caught a 20 and a couple 18s on it in a dozen or so trips.  I've had one trip where the numbers were terrific and the fish were decent.  That trip the water was air clear, it was hot weather, and the fish were slamming buzzbaits in a way I've seldom seen.  It was like they saw the bait coming in midair and positioned themselves under it like a center fielder.  Soon as it hit the water they'd slam it.  Just one of those days when the fish go nuts.

That’s awesome! I think Buffalo River smallmouth live an exceptionally hard life. The floods, and droughts and otters and people make it tough. But they survive. 

[Mitch f]

 Not sure if this is the best thread to post this on, but I saw something very strange the other day while fishing the Big Bass Bash. My fishing partner for the bash was my buddy Nick who lives down at the lake. Nick fished a practice day before I got there and noticed a totally weird phenomenon. He actually saw and caught bass on beds in October. Not joking…the opening day of the bash, we saw a 3 1/2 pound bass on a bed with a bloodied up tail in less than 2 feet of water. The fish had cleaned out a bed with his tail. We got close to the fish before we figured out what was going on, and the fish got spooked and went away.. we came back about 15 minutes later to see if we could catch the fish… Nick threw his bait in there (a small jig) and immediately caught the fish that weighed 3 1/2 pounds and we weighed it in.

It was almost like a fake spawn. I told this to another guy and she said that a guy weighed a really big bass in at Bull shoals or maybe Beaver last week that was about 6 1/2 pounds and he noticed that when the guy held up the fish for the picture it had a bloody tail…strange but true. 

[ColdWaterFshr]

2 hours ago, MObassin95 said:

That’s awesome! I think Buffalo River smallmouth live an exceptionally hard life. The floods, and droughts and otters and people make it tough. But they survive. 

Thats my theory.  The spring floods and wild changes in flow, make the spawn a crap shoot even on a good year.   Lacks of cold-water springs to keep a somewhat center-normalized flow and temperature that smallmouth need for a consistent spawn.

Its either 12 feet high and risin', or..... bathtub warm in need of rain.  Usually more of the latter, at least for the upper sections, even in early spring/early summer.  Hard to even float it unless you get lucky with the right amount of rain in recent days.

[MObassin95]

1 hour ago, Mitch f said:

 Not sure if this is the best thread to post this on, but I saw something very strange the other day while fishing the Big Bass Bash. My fishing partner for the bash was my buddy Nick who lives down at the lake. Nick fished a practice day before I got there and noticed a totally weird phenomenon. He actually saw and caught bass on beds in October. Not joking…the opening day of the bash, we saw a 3 1/2 pound bass on a bed with a bloodied up tail in less than 2 feet of water. The fish had cleaned out a bed with his tail. We got close to the fish before we figured out what was going on, and the fish got spooked and went away.. we came back about 15 minutes later to see if we could catch the fish… Nick threw his bait in there (a small jig) and immediately caught the fish that weighed 3 1/2 pounds and we weighed it in.

It was almost like a fake spawn. I told this to another guy and she said that a guy weighed a really big bass in at Bull shoals or maybe Beaver last week that was about 6 1/2 pounds and he noticed that when the guy held up the fish for the picture it had a bloody tail…strange but true. 

Fascinating! Those fish didn’t take the COVID vaccine did they? 

[MObassin95]

16 minutes ago, ColdWaterFshr said:

Thats my theory.  The spring floods and wild changes in flow, make the spawn a crap shoot even on a good year.   Lacks of cold-water springs to keep a somewhat center-normalized flow and temperature that smallmouth need for a consistent spawn.

Its either 12 feet high and risin', or..... bathtub warm in need of rain.  Usually more of the latter, at least for the upper sections, even in early spring/early summer.  Hard to even float it unless you get lucky with the right amount of rain in recent days.

I agree 100%. It’s hard to even classify it as a river, imo.  It is super wild though. Its nature is of extremes. I don’t think it’s ever been the best producer of big Smallmouth because of that.  
 

I do think the lower thirty miles or so is your best bet for quality Smallmouth. But the “problem” is that it’s all wilderness with no access. The water levels are way more consistent and I think the river is more fertile the lower you go. I talked to a guy in Mountain Home Arkansas who says he catches big smallies where the Buffalo meets the White.