Congrats on a great trip! What a variety of fish, and nothing like a nice stream float. Yep, it looks like your son had a good time! Happy to see he had his PFD on.
bob
Yesterday Jacob and I left the house at 4:00am to make a three hour drive to float and fish a new to me creek with my Uncle Dan in NW Arkansas. The 6 hour round trip drive was well worth it. I used my Favorite Jackhammer paired with a Luvias 2000H to fish crawfish and hellgrammite imitations on the bottom and the MC 69T Triple Cross and Luvias 2000S to fish small swimbaits and spinners. I literally caught a 14” smallie on my first cast. About a half mile into the float a feeder creek came in and significantly increased the turbidity of the river. This meant we had to change our tactics. It took us a while to figure out but a black spinner baits and beetle spins were the answer. We needed to be fishing something darker with vibration to get their attention. We all three caught several smallmouth over 14”. My Uncle caught the big fish of the day, a smallmouth just shy of 17”. We also caught several Ozark Bass, a few Longear Sunfish (no pics), a Channel Cat, a White Bass, and a Walleye! Numbers weren’t great but we definitely found some quality smallies. Half way though the float, the pressure changed as thunderstorms were building around us and the fish shut off. We hauled butt back to the takeout and got out of there before the sky opened up. I was very excited to catch some very good fish but was super pumped to see and hear my 10 year old son say that he had such a great time. He said he had caught the biggest stream fish on that day and he couldn’t believe how hard they fought. Made me proud. Hopefully he will be my stream explorer for life. Sorry there are only a few sunfish pics. Too excited, had to share with y’all anyway.
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Matt Schroeder - AGFC - (877)470-3309 - [email protected]
Congrats on a great trip! What a variety of fish, and nothing like a nice stream float. Yep, it looks like your son had a good time! Happy to see he had his PFD on.
bob
D10 LIKED above post
Very cool, I have a nine year old grandson who is into frogs and snakes and such, but not that much into fishing and shooting sports, I don't want to push him so we just look for opportunities. Count that day as a huge blessing. Happy Independence Day.
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D10 LIKED above post
Jacob is very similar. He mainly flips rocks and snorkels when we go fishing in creeks. I let him film with a GoPro and he like that. I always bring him fishing gear just in case he wants to fish. He didn’t decide he wanted to fish until he saw me catch a good one on my first cast. I try not to push him too hard either. I figure that if I keep taking him with me, he will get the bug soon enough.
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Matt Schroeder - AGFC - (877)470-3309 - [email protected]Noodle rod LIKED above post
Great trip! I miss kayak fishing. But my sons have the first 2 kaykas I owned...Jackson Coosa. We had a lot of fun fishing out of those.
Regards
D10 LIKED above post
Cool trip and nice catches. Did a lot of float fishing years ago and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the pics and report.
D10 LIKED above post
My Mom and Dad are 65 and 67 and they still float creeks. In fact, they float more creeks than I get to. Retirement must be nice. Dad just ordered a Discovery 119 Sportsman so that he would have a solo canoe to go with us. This will be his 4th canoe they have at the house. I hope I am still able to do the things he can when I get to his age!
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Matt Schroeder - AGFC - (877)470-3309 - [email protected]