Another Fish Story From Arkansas...

This is the best time for trout fishing in Arkansas, when temperatures plummet and ice forms on your ferrules between casts. A fellow from Kansas found that out today, when he landed the third biggest German brown trout in Arkansas history, weighing in at 38.7 pounds.

Your buddies who fish out west or in the northeast will tell you that must be a typo, but they grow big in Arkansas. We had the world record German Brown (40+ pounds) until a monster was hauled in down in New Zealand a couple of years ago.

If someone can tell me how to post a picture bigger than a postage stamp, I'll show you what these look like. (The largest I ever caught was 22 1/2 inches long, but it was on a fly rod with a 2 lb. leader and a #22 fly, so it took me about 45 minutes.)

[swampdragon]

I have no idea what you are talking about! I guess I must be one of those blue state intellectual northeast liberals that you hear about.

Actually a 40 pound trout sounds 38 pound trout sounds huge. Can you eat them?

[Kevin Seitzer]

I hate it when I get ice on my ferrules. Brrr!

If you want to post a full-size image from your computer, upload it to imgur.com or a similar free image host. Then click on the Insert Image icon above (like I presume you have done previously) click on "from URL" and paste in the URL to the file on imgur.com, and uncheck the box to retrive the remote file and reference locally.

[Papa Deuce]

If you can email me the picture, I can handle it. I will PM you my address.

[onejayhawk]

I wish I could find the picture. A few years back a man landed a catfish his daughter hooked using a pink barbie pole. The fish was longer than the pole and almost as long as the girl.

J

[Lucky]

Cutthroat and brooks don't grow too big here, either, but our state record for rainbow is a little over 19 pounds.

Obviously, German Browns aren't indigenous to Arkansas, and marine biologists didn't think they would even survive here. It wasn't supposed to be possible for them to reproduce, based upon what the biologists knew about spawning habits. Not only did the fish figure out a way to spawn (crazy kids), but they grew at prodigious rates. It's fun, just before spawning time, to go up there and watch them. They won't bite a fly, but it is amazing to watch them staging there in the river like a giant squadron of submarines. These are fish 30 to 35 inches long, holding station in the current, six or eight across, in two feet of water. It is a sight.

[Lucky]

images.jpg


That is me and my little girl. Where did you find that?

(not really...thought that would get a rise out of onejay)

[Papa Deuce]

Since ElD showed a catfish, I will tell a fast story about a catfishing trip my brother and I went on in SC.

We took a night trip in the Santee Cooper reservoir. We caught 8 catfish, with the smallest being 17 pounds. I caught the biggest at just over 30 pounds. We had to keep them all because the boat owner would beat them in the head with a bat before trying to take the hook out. So, we didn't need all of these fish as we were on vacation. On the way back to the condo we rented, we stopped at a supermarket that was about 5 - 10 minutes from where we caught the fish. It was 1 AM, and we were in the parking lot trying to give away 6 of the fish. People did not believe that we caught them in the reservoir because they were so large..... But the record is 109 pounds, and our guide said that almost every trip he would catch one that was at least 40 pounds, and 60 pound catfish were somewhat routine.

[Lucky]

Since ElD showed a catfish, I will tell a fast story about a catfishing trip my brother and I went on in SC.

We took a night trip in the Santee Cooper reservoir. We caught 8 catfish, with the smallest being 17 pounds. I caught the biggest at just over 30 pounds. We had to keep them all because the boat owner would beat them in the head with a bat before trying to take the hook out. So, we didn't need all of these fish as we were on vacation. On the way back to the condo we rented, we stopped at a supermarket that was about 5 - 10 minutes from where we caught the fish. It was 1 AM, and we were in the parking lot trying to give away 6 of the fish. People did not believe that we caught them in the reservoir because they were so large..... But the record is 109 pounds, and our guide said that almost every trip he would catch one that was at least 40 pounds, and 60 pound catfish were somewhat routine.

Wow. Catfishing can be fun. I used to go fishing with a guy who approached it just like bass fishing, big bass boat and all, except we would use really heavy rods and reels and throw lures loaded with the stinkiest homeade concoction I ever smelled. It was a hoot. The lure was on a foot long leader connected by a snap swivel. When you caught one, you'd just disconnect the leader, throw it in the live well, and put another leader on. When we finished, we dropped the whole catch at a guy's house, who cleaned them for him in return for half the fish. Catch fish, drink beer, no hooks to remove, no fish to clean, lots of meat at the end of the day. Fishing nirvana.

Hey, deuce, where's my picture?

[heyelander]

here's a picture of it from a news story.

http://www.myarklamiss.com/story/d/story/kansas-man-catches-3rd-largest-brown-trout-in-arka/28674/JHoO8eeLDU-s59ASYybXAg

[heyelander]

I dove in the Cooper river in SC. visibility was about 2 inches at 10 feet. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face unless it was touching your mask. Only time I'e ever really freaked out diving was at about 15 feet and I couldn't see a thing except brown soup. You didn't know which was way up or down and I though, "I have to get the hell out of here!" I stopped floated, pulled my shit together and finished my descendent to about 30 feet where I hit the bottom. Once there, the river bed gave me my bearings and it was all better... So the purpose of these dives is to look for shark's teeth. You weigh yourself down, sink to the bottom, turn on your light and start searching for teeth. You swish your hand around in front of you, stir up all the silt, the current carries it away and you look at the rocks in front of you for teeth. You usually see one or two small ones (tiny, 1/4 inch) or broken ones. You pick through, put what you like in your bag and then push up, the current carries you a few feet down river and you start over again. The goal is 4-5 inch Megladon teeth.



I'm pretty sure that's a child's hand there, so that's sort of cheating, but that one says it measured just short of 5 inches.

I didn't find anything that big, but I did find a 1.5-2 inch one that was in really nice condition, whole with no chips. I think I found probably 20 teeth total that I brought up. At one point something big bumped into me and I nearly shit myself thinking it was an alligator, but it was another diver. Visibility sucked, but it was a fun dive.

[Lucky]

Diving for Megladon teeth. I think that is amazingly cool.

I have been diving in a lake to shoot fish (where the vis was about 3 feet), but that wasn't nearly as cool, and we ate everything we brought up.

[Lucky]

here's a picture of it from a news story.



http://www.myarklamiss.com/story/d/s...DU-s59ASYybXAg

There is a lot about Arkansas I miss. Not so much the people, but its natural wonders. It is an amazing state of great diversity. Once again, not the people.

[Papa Deuce]

There is a lot about Arkansas I miss. Not so much the people, but its natural wonders. It is an amazing state of great diversity. Once again, not the people.

I was in the Mountain Home area of AR looking for investment property about 7 years ago.... I have never been treated better in my life. It was just crazy how nice folks were.

[Lucky]

I was in the Mountain Home area of AR looking for investment property about 7 years ago.... I have never been treated better in my life. It was just crazy how nice folks were.

I really like it up there. I used to camp and fish up there every chance I got, and if I were going to retire to Arkansas, that is where it would be. We're talking about the mountains. Not big mountains, but they can seem big if you are from the flatlands. You can still get land cheap, even on the water. There are freestone rivers and deep water lakes. Trout, bass, lake trout, walleye, striper, etc. It's primitive for the most part, and bad winter weather can strand you for a while, but if you can live with that it's a nice place to be.

If any of you buy a vacation property, and need a crusty but benign old caretaker, you know who to call.

And the people up there are great. There is nothing in that whole part of the state except beautiful land and not many people.