Trout help for Cotter area

Some old high school buddies decided last year we should start getting together once a year since it had been 26years since some of us had seen each other. So we decided on one of our friends parents place right on White River just outside of Cotter. We fish right out in front of their house and I was lost to say the least.

We plan on having some "friendly" contests this year on most fish, biggest fish, etc. I am competitive and hate to lose [emoji23] so I need any tips at all on how to fish. I will only trout fish once a year when we get together so don't want to buy a bunch of new gear but any advice on the types of rigs to use, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

If you are looking to fish with lures, it is hard to beat trout magnets and zig jigs. If you want to use live bait, good old night crawlers will catch some good fish as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Use ultra lite spinning gear and four to six pound line. A good way to rig is use a 4,5,or 7 shot, depending on the river level about eighteen inches above your hook. Then as Matt said either use redworms, corn or different types of power baits. If you fish worms or corn You probably need a color attractant(like colored glow worms) spinners are more trouble but they work at times. Other popular baits are shrimp and Black or white PJs hair jigs. Usually you are looking for a little deeper holes in behind a gravel shoal. When you are drifting down the river and catch some, motor up and re-drift the same spot and be careful not to motor through the spot. That is a beautiful river we have been going there for years. I was raised in Kennett,mo but haven't live there since 1970. Good luck on your White river trips.

I used to trout fish on the Little Red River when I was growing up in Searcy. Back then we consistently caught our bigger trout on crawdads fishing off of the bottom in the deeper holes, usually about 2lb average. But the last time I fished for trout I fished with Jeff Smith (founder of Trout Magnet and Crappie Magnets) on the Little Red and we flat wore them out. I think we caught probably 60 to 70 catch and release, of course they weren't the really big ones like we caught on crawdads, but it was a lot of fun. The way he showed me to fish trout magnets was to find a bend in the river and anchor the boat on the inside of the bend then using 4lb fluorocarbon line with a probably 1/64 oz trout magnet head and whatever color of trout magnet you like, that day it didn't matter what color you used, with a trout magnet strike indicator (tear drop shaped float) big end goes up. Then you would cast it up stream toward the deeper water of the bend, the outside of the bend, and then adjust your float so that the trout magnet is barely off of the bottom while it drifts totally unrestricted, meaning the line is nearly if not slack, it must drift exactly at the the speed of the current, until it reaches the end of your line then reel it in and repeat. You have to watch the float carefully for any indication that they have hit it, it may be very slight like a crappie bite, then set the hook. Just in case you don't know this, here's some very important advise, never ever anchor the back of your boat upstream, if you do when the anchor catches the current will come right over the back of the boat in a flash and sink your boat. I've seen this happen more than once when people are inexperienced on fishing in current, they will be motoring down stream and decide to drop the anchor and fish. Good luck and let us know how you do and how you did it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RLCRAPPIE

Use ultra lite spinning gear and four to six pound line. A good way to rig is use a 4,5,or 7 shot, depending on the river level about eighteen inches above your hook. Then as Matt said either use redworms, corn or different types of power baits. If you fish worms or corn You probably need a color attractant(like colored glow worms) spinners are more trouble but they work at times. Other popular baits are shrimp and Black or white PJs hair jigs. Usually you are looking for a little deeper holes in behind a gravel shoal. When you are drifting down the river and catch some, motor up and re-drift the same spot and be careful not to motor through the spot. That is a beautiful river we have been going there for years. I was raised in Kennett,mo but haven't live there since 1970. Good luck on your White river trips.

---

Thanks....small world....I actually live in Kennett, MO now. Been here 20 years....transplant from Arkansas.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

I fished that area a couple years ago. We hired a guide service and limited out in about 3 hours. All we used was corn and all we caught were 12 inch or slightly larger hatchery fish. It was a family get together and the other 3 people in our party do not fish. The guide put out one pole with something like a 4" chub on it for bigger fish. The fish we were catching were in the middle of the river in slightly deeper water but not that noticeably deeper. The guide chummed with the corn with I assume is illegal. Clearly he was intent on doing everything he could to make sure the other members of the party caught a lot of fish instead of quality fish. He always threw the chub baited line out of the main channel near fallen trees or other cover but we didn't get any bites on that pole.

My wife loves fishing for trout and we added a small Alumacraft to our garage this spring. We have been catching lots of rainbows this spring, up river from Calico Rock. We've been using primarily Powerbait (Sunrise and white). We've also been using Butterworms. Small pieces of raw shrimp work as well. The bigger fish have come on the butterworms. You can't get them locally and I order from a place in Michigan. We just drift and cast up river, with a small splitshot and bait. The attached picture was from 4/22. My stepson is autistic, but enjoys fishing for the rainbows as well. The rains last week have really messed up the fishing on the main river. We've had enough rain!!

Well fishing for us this year was pretty non-existent. Weather was terrible most of the time we were there so we never even bothered putting in the yaks. Fished right out in front of the house on the "gravel bar" and caught 2 fish in two days. Tons of algae floating and constantly balling up on your line/bait. But, still a good trip with friends non the less and we will be back at it next year!

So the contest was cancelled? More time to prepare fo next year.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app