FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

“SAVE OUR WATERS”

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The Wade Right Fishing Belt

Brought to you by

The Best Wading System on the  Planet.

As I have said repeatedly, if possible on a fishing trip fish at least 3 days, and this trip is a perfect example of why.  It gives you a chance to work things out and maybe actually figure out what you should be doing and where, and we managed to do just that.

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 It has arrived!  Get the new Knockin’ Tail, it catches fish!  

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Thursday

The plan was to re-fish the areas where we had our bites yesterday in Float Creek, then meet Clyde and go from there.  Well folks, it was tough, not even a touch on any of those banks.  I kept after the louslures custom jerk bait and finally had a couple of bites and did manage to put one nice one in the boat.

The size just not the numbers.

Around noon Clyde called and asked if I wanted to go striper fishing that night so I put it back on the trailer and headed to his house to pick him up.  We planned on launching down lake near the right area.  There were storms in the area so we ended up waiting them out, even got the boat off, and then put it back on the trailer and waited.  Luckily it went around us, as some areas had hail and high winds.

We decided to fish deep with the Knockin’ Tail and we managed to put a few nice ones in the boat before it got dark.

At this point what else can I say, the Knockin’ Tail catches anything that swims.

    A nice smallmouth on one of the last Knockin’ Tail prototypes.

These came off a sloping mainlake bank.  It was in the area where the stripers hang out and I boated the one above in the same place these smallmouth came from.  The wind was up making it tough to find a place to striper fish, but in the back end of Diamond Bay there was a protected bank where we have caught them in the past.  As we approached a flat point we heard the occasional blow up and Clyde had one smoke it and miss.  Then it was my turn.  Slowly reeling a Husky Jerk right below the surface one just blasted it and wallowed like a hog.  Great bite.

My first bite on the Husky Jerk.  Nothing like that bite!

Then an hour late another one jumped on it.

I have caught hundreds of stripers but each one is as exciting as the first one.  You slow reel a minnow bait at night, either right below the surface, or on it making a wake.  It is pitch black and then WHAM, they kill it and the fight is on.  The second one had the 7″ Husky Jerk clear down in his throat and is headed to Texas as the guest of honor at a fish fry.  And when they quit, it was over, so we called it a night.  Boy I love catching these great fish.  Unfortunately the weather is not going to cooperate for another night of  chasing them.

Friday

We talked about it and I decided to head up lake to a couple of areas where we historically do ok in the spring.  With it being so slow down lake in the clear stuff time to head to Twin Coves up the river.  Every once in a while you make that right decision, and boy did I get it right.

The water temp was in the mid 50’s and much more off color up lake.  In the highland lakes of North Arkansas and Missouri that means one thing – Crankbait.  I decided to start on the main lake point going into the big cove, and 3 hours later there I was, same cove and had still not fished it all.

The Bomber Model A was the ticket.

In lakes like this we tend to parallel the bank with the crankbait, and you want it banging off the bottom.  Often erratically but this morning they wanted a nice steady moderate retrieve.  After catching one on my third cast I knew it was game on.

Largemouth, Kentucky, and smallmouth were all having at it.

Some jumped it hard, some just eased on, and a couple did my favorite bite – Just reeling along and your line would go completely slack.  So for 3 hours it was fish after fish.

When it is like this it is just a pleasure to be fishing!

So after a couple of days of somewhat slow fishing the reward came.  I did not even start the big motor until I went to pick up Clyde around 1:00.  I just kept the trolling motor down and paralleled steep banks with the chunk rock scattered along gravel and some clay being the best.  But the bite was on.  Really the only surprise is I did not catch a really nice one.  It is impossible to guess how many I caught but it was something.

They were on like Donkey Kong.

Right before I headed to pick him up a cold front blew in, though it was cold as you can see from how I have been dressed.  It was subtle but the wind shifted from the north.  So I picked up Clyde we went to another big cove farther up river and he caught 5 or 6 right off the bat, but they were small.  So we decided to head back to the place I caught them, and though it was not quite as good, we caught another 20 plus.  Clyde noticed one of the Kentucky’s he caught was puking up crawdads that were green and bright red so out came  a red Wiggle Wart and they really liked that.  As we were going to our buddy John’s for his fabulous Mexican Chicken we took out at 5:15 and left them biting.

So much more to say but the heavy rains are letting up and we are headed to the lake.  It is 41 degrees but will hit 50, if we are lucky.  At least it is just a drizzle.  But time to get after them again, we shall just have to see how the day goes.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines

Note:  I poured today and did not get above 40 degrees but we put on our big  boy pants and fished most of the day until we were soaked, but the bite is on.  More on that later.