I'm guessing the bow was 20 - 21" and a little shy of 3 lbs.

I really didn't measure or weigh it, I barely got the picture off because my fingers were so cold at that point.

I have notches carved in my net at 15 and 20 inches. When I laid it out next to the net it was about 1.5 short of 20 so I'm guessing about 18 inches.

Penns Creek and the Little Juniata are the only 2 places that I've ever landed anything that size in PA. Pleasent surprise.

:D

That size fish is fairly "common" in our tailwaters, and I've still only caught a few that large and a very, very few larger than that (22" brown is still my best). Definitely something to be proud of. What did you get it on?

Like that hat, too. I could go for a Yeungling...too bad we can't get it in Arkansas.

Caught it on a size 18 flashback pheasent tail with about eraser size peice of indicator puddy about 4 1/2 up the tippet.

What streams do you fish down that way for trout?

Yuengling: nectar of the gods.

:toast:

Although it's shooting fish out of a barrel, I like Bennett Spring. Caught a 4.5 lb/19.5 in. Rainbow a few years ago off Whistle Bridge before they ruined it by widening it and installing the rails. Didn't keep it. Just wanted the lunker patch.

Black and yellow maribou jig first thing in the morning in zone 2 will get you your limit, if you want the Readers Digest version.......

Bennett Springs is fun. My dad and I used to go there when I was a grade schooler, though we started go’n to Roaring Rivers instead ‘cause he had polio as a kid and a bad left leg from it that doesn’t go well with waders.
Still, I miss our yearly trips to Mizzu (Bennett Springs or Roaring Rivers) and hope we can go some time this summer.

My favorite at either is dry fly fish’n. I make a mosquito nymph that, although hard to keep dry, seems irresistible to rainbows.
I used to make a black and yellow marabou for dad that he could really work and literally pull fish out of holes with. We even expanded this technique to crappie, white bass and some smaller big mouths also. It’s fun catch’n just ‘bout anything on a fly rod.

Arkansas is home to the White River system, which consists of a few tailwaters.

The Little Red River is toward the center of the state, and close to my hometown. It's the place where the aforementioned and pictures world record came from.

The Norfork and White are in the North Central part of the state.
The Norfork holds beauties like this:
http://www.mcflyshop.com/images/repo...Brown2_web.JPG
and this:
http://www.mcflyshop.com/images/repo..._Brown_web.jpg

While the White holds these:
http://www.mcflyshop.com/images/reports/DSC002542.jpg

We also have Beaver tailwaters which is the closest, but not nearly as good as the others. Roaring River trout park in Missouri is also pretty close.

Damn, I may have to start heading south for a couple goes with the ol' fly rod.

Nice, very nice.

Fishing bloopers

more fishing bloopers


A co-worker of mine sent this to me, i am sure that some of you have seen this, but it is good.

Arkansas and Missouri are blessed with some absolutely exceptional fishing. I'd still love to have a traditional Catskill style stream or western freestone stream with smaller water and fish that readily take dries on a consistent basis somewhere nearby. I love fishing here, but I'd also like some trout streams that have a "wild" feel to them. That's the reason that so many fly anglers here are into smallmouth fishing as well, because they're native to the state and exist in some of the wilder, prettier locales.

I got a fishing story for ya.
I went bass fishing on a small lake one night 2 hours before dusk. The only people on the water were myself, one other boat and a fly fisherman that put in the same time I did. He was fly fishing for bass with a mouse fly in a float tube around the pads. After an hour I worked my way down the outside of the pads around half the small lake while the fly fisherman moved out into deeper water crossing in front of me to hit the other shore. He was casting while he was crossing the lake. It was right at dusk when on his back cast his fly hit the water and BAM he hooked one behind him. As he reeled in excited as hell he started screaming at the top of his lungs. Flailing around, smacking his rod in the water and totally flippin out.
He caught a BAT on the back cast!!! It swooped down and snatched it out of the air.
I was laughin my ass off.
Then as I was going into the ramp the other boat that was on the water said that they spotted a 7lber next to the ramp. The fly guy was right next to me as I was loading up so he decided to cast up on the ramp and drag that mouse down into the water where they said that bass was at. On his third cast he threw the damn mouse 15 feet up the ramp and worked it down and before that mouse hit the water a damn racoon came out of the trees down to the bank and ran off into the woods with it. I started crying I was laughing so hard!!
God that was the funniest thing I ever saw.

ROFL

That's awesome. Bats are a well-known hazard while you're fly fishing. The flyline absolutely freaks them out when you're casting. I think there's a video out there of a guy catching a bat while casting. Here's a parody of it:
http://www.getlostmagazine.com/featu...fish/bats.html

brown raoches work really good too just up stream from whistle bridge, at the hatchery outlet, and around the bend a ways up at the CCC bridge.

Edit: love bennet spring, been going there as long as i can remember. but the one thing that always pisses me off, is the big one that always swims through your legs, but can never catch.

It was NewChief, it really was awesome.
I have had some good stories noodling for flats and catching gar on rope but that time was hilarious.
I'll tell ya the easiest bass I ever caught was a 5 lber I hooked on a jig and pig in the middle of a thick brush pile. I got over the top of it and tried to pull it straight up. When I got it up it shot straight out of the water, threw my lure, flipping in the air, came right back down and gored itself on a sharp stick in the middle of the brush pile just like a marshmallow.

two wildlife, on the same trip? man thats some luck. i'd be freakin out. closest i ever came to something like that, was fishin on the lake i grew up on. a mink or muskrat, got me cornered on a dock. they crawled up through the cat walk while i was out on it fishin. now understand, my parents, for some reason, had instilled a morbid fear of these things in me. not so much with any other hazard that comes with a lake such as water moccasins, or drowning. so i bout shit my pants, yelled at my brother, who was just up the sea wall, and that noise scared them away. i can remember thinking, "that wasn't so bad."