3/11/18 Fishing Report

The Tragical History Tour continues. 

I committed to working a 1/2 day on Sunday to help my coworkers out, but wanted to fish in the afternoon. I knew Saturday was going to be the better weather, but I wanted to spend the day with my Wife on Saturday. 

So, I looked at my Sunday options. Beaver Creek, Swan Creek, NFOW for White Bass or Norfork River for trout. 

Given the predicted wind, I opted for trout boat over yak and decided on Tecumseh. I like that area and I reasoned that it would fish smaller and I could find the fish easier.

somewhere in all this I touched base with Les and he decided to join me. I’m sure that seemed like a good idea to him at the time. 

Best laid plans and all that. The park at Tecumseh is heavily damaged. The road to the ramp and the boat ramp itself are destroyed. Toast. Gone. Maybe I knew that and forgot, but regardless now I’m scrambling to find another boat ramp and communicate the new rally point to Les. 

We ended up getting boat in the water at Liner Creek Off Hwy T. Ok for smaller boats, but I’m not launching my BassCat there ever. Also, it is low ground. Look carefully at Norfork water level. I’d bet the ramp area is under water at 554 maybe less. 

So, I caught small LMB casting from shore while waiting for Les. Really small fish, but encouraging none the less. 

That part of the lake is wide open ground and was very wind swept. I really enjoyed running into the teeth of the wind and bouncing across white caps in the Supreme. The windswept boat spray was very refreshing. 

We hop scotched our way up towards the Hwy 160 Bridge, but due to time and fuel concerns (unwarentted) I shut the boat down about a mile downstream from bridge. 

Les had caught a few smaller bass on Ned on the way up. I had caught a few more on small swimbaits, but the search for white bass was still continuing. 

Wind really limited the touchy, feely options. I have no clue how Les felt anything on Ned. I was cycling through my preferred White Bass options, but kept coming back to the swimbait. I missed several jarring strikes on a Road Runner that I know were White Bass, but I never caught a fish on anything except small swimbaits. 

We finally started catching a few White Bass. They wanted the bait very close to bottom in fairly shallow water, but we never caught a sow so maybe the females were being closed mouthed in deeper water. We did Fish deeper with a variety of baits and never got a bite. 

We did see ppl trolling crankbaits catchingrd a few fish in the channel swing pools. Those fish did not seem to be better than what we caught and well I mean, it’s trolling. 

I did get a bonus walleye on the swimbait. 17 7/8 inches long. First Wally of the year for me. 

The catching continued. We found a stretch that was relatively “loaded” with fish and fished that hard until we had to scoot for the ramp to beat darkness.

I had been uncomfortably cold for hours. Les never complained. I whined. A lot. 

 I wish I had taken pictures of Les and myself. We looked like Eastern European hobos with all the layering of cold weather gear. I appreciate Les going with me, but it does make me question his judgement. 

I finished up with 29 Fish brought to hand. Spring is coming along.