Bassmasters

[HungoverHog]

I spent yesterday following a few of the anglers at this weekend's Bassmasters Elite tournament on the Arkansas River. It was a great time and the anglers were all very polite and seemingly glad to have spectators as long as we kept our distance. These guys are serious fishermen. With 95+ temps, really high humidity, and really tough fishing conditions they were like machines going non stop. I gained a whole new respect for them.

[Mud Mechanik]

Most of them are very nice folks, I met Woo Daves a few years ago and he talked to me like he was my best friend, I then had a new favorite pro.

[ArkyJ]

The river is still way to high.
Can't even catch bluegills in the back waters, cause there ain't no
backwaters yet.
ArkyJ

[Prairiepiss]

Where were the fishing the Arkansas at? Up at Russellville or down at Maumelle? I worked with a guy down there that was a semipro. We worked midnights. He would get off a 7 am and have his boat hooked up to his truck in the parkinglot. He would go fishing every day till around 3ish then go home and sleep. There are a lot of pros down there. There are so many good lakes down there to fish. I miss Arkansas. I so want to move back. I miss fly fishing the white just below the dam at greers ferry. It was 10 minutes from my house. So relaxing.

[HungoverHog]

They were fishing pools 4,5,6,7,8 that is Pine Bluff up river to about Morrilton I think. The tournament was won out of the harbor in Pine Bluff. Weigh in was at Riverfront Park in Little Rock.

ArkyJ The water here is back to normal. As a matter of fact we pretty much ran out of current by Sunday.

Most of the guys were just regular ol' country boys and chatted it up a lot of the time. I have never been much of a finesse fisherman but after seeing these guys throwing shaky heads and drop shotting I will be giving it a go. My favorite pro since I was a kid, Denny Brauer, won throwing a jig like I do every time out. Though, he seems to do it a bit better than me.

Prairiepiss You mean the White below Bull Shoals or the Little Red below Greers Ferry? Both are great trout fisheries.

[Prairiepiss]

It's been 12 years now. It was the little red. Been on the white once. But we always hit the little red. Memory isn't what it once was. We lived in Romance at the time. Would love to move back there.

[ammo man]

The good news for me is that I live on the south end of Toledo Bend Reservoir. I have water front with my own launch place and a boat house that is in bad shape but usable. My boat is a G3, perfect for me. The bad news is that the water level is so low I cannot launch my boat here, and cannot use my boat house because of low water. It is also too hot for this old poot to get out except early in the morning, or very late, or at night. Temps have been averaging in the high 90's.

I do have my boat in the water now, and plan on doing some trot line cat fishing as soon as I can get my nephew to help me set out another one. I am just too damn old to set it out by myself. The technique we use is to anchor the line to two cider blocks tied to a 1/4 inch rope for weights, one on each end to tie the trot line. Milk jugs or clorox bottles are used to hold up the cinder block ropes. I can't handle the weights without a great amount umph. Most of the time we use light weights to pull the line down from usually 10 to 20 feet. We catch a lot of high fin blues, channel cats, and sometimes a flat head.

Oh well. In years past I have caught my share of black bass, crappie, and cat fish here so I am not crying too much.

Bert

[HungoverHog]

ammo man I would love to fish Toledo Bend someday. I have heard good things about the lake. I haven't run trot lines in years. It does sound like a good time though. I may have to dig out my old lines.