Thread: Ross Barnett is Serving Humble Pie

Well, I set the camper up and launched the boat before noon Tuesday at Hwy 43. I almost exclusively fish Hwy 43 and above so this report applies only at the Top of The Rez. The wind never stopped blowing against the water flow for 3 days making it choppy to fish in open water. Water was flowing a bit sandy colored before I got to the VFW, making dingy water downriver. I don't know how much flow went thru since May but there are trees where there was none before. All my profitable recruitment spots didn't produce till Friday and then few fish of any quality. Interesting thing, jigs tipped with shiners only caught Catfish. I did better in areas off the river but the only quality fish I caught was in the main river right off the channel. Not many local Crappie guys till Friday so I'm assuming they knew something I didn't know. We looked at the weather forecast from 3 different sources, they didn't come close to what we had. If you're going to fish the Rez head to the bottom and work to fish your way from there as it's Slim Pickings up top. Temps were 79-82 degrees and most of my fish came from 10-11ft in 15-20ft of water. With all the rain Northeast of the 43 Bridge the forecast rise at Ratliff's Ferry is to 302ft from 297ft meaning a slug of water is on the way down from the Philadelphia area.

Originally Posted by Crsearcy

Just a tip for the Rez when the water is muddy/current. May want to steer away from north of 43. they are there but it’s hard to find fishable water. Usually when we have the big rains like this even the backwaters and smaller creeks are churned up with flow. Try from midway of lake south on the west side by the trace. The whites usually will run out to 6-10’ flats several hundred yards off river channel in theses conditions. Livescope and spider rigging/slow trolling works well for these. The specs will hug the timber and stumps around the old oxbows. The new influx of water will disrupt and change the thermocline so it’s kind of a crap shoot at what depths they will be

Thanks for the tips. I hang up towards the top since my wife is in the Campground without transportation. I will go a little below the S-Curves if reasonable calm, which was not this trip. The wind never let up even at night. As posted earlier this is unusual conditions. I follow the Hydrology website daily for what's happening here more than Ross Barnett. When we headed up the flow was forecast to slow and only 17-20% chance of rain (weather.com). Well they didn't have a clue.