The White River again

[jimh]

well i'm just a little over a month away from yet another anual "Retreat". we'll be headed down to Gaston's on the White River for a few days of fishing for trout. the last couple years have been a bit un-eventfull in terms of trophey size fish but that does not diminish the quality of time we still have while we're down there. ;D
last years flood had the dam running full tilt the entire summer so i do not expect fishing to be as good as even last year, with last year being only marginal at best. none the less, a few days of fishing, eating and drinking will do this poor soul some good. ;D
my biggest fear though is this economy could railroad my trip, if we get side tract on one more project start up i may have to fore go my deposit and just stay home. actualy had i not had money down on all this i would already look to back out this year but it is already half paid for from back this past summer.

[klsm54]

It's snowing an inch per hour right now. Might be up to our crotches by late tonight. Fishing is the farthest thing from my mind....

[jimh]

well just a bit over 3 weeks away! i'm looking forward to it especialy after the snow we had last night. by the time i head down there temps are usualy starting to turn a bit and it means spring is just around the corner for us. usualy about 10 deg warmer down there although one year we only had highs of 20's during th eday. made for a cold boat ride you can be sure.
www.gastons.com/

[Bill]

I have had a number of guys ask me if I want to go fishing lately. ICE fishing. I keep telling them that I don't know how to clean an ICE cube and eat it. What........... They think I'm not cold enough already

[jimh]

funny you should say that Bill (the ice fishing thing) i wanted to get up to Donnies last year between Christmass and New Years to take thekids ice fishing one day and a day of Sking.
the oldest kid was ok with the sking but looked at me like i was an idiot when i talked about ice fishing. anyway schedules did not alow for the trip.

[bullseye]

Because April - October is spent fishing I have many ask me if I ice fish. My reply....The only ice fishing I do is to respear the olive that fell of the stick in my mixed drink!!!

[jimh]

if i could nab something like that one i would be just tickled to death. truth be told anything close to half that would give me a pretty good woody! ;D

[Purebred Redneck]

Gaston's

Jim, where have I heard of that name before?
I think it's a fly shop down at Bennet
Same outfit

Are you fishing down by "Mountain Home" or "Mountain Something"? They have a Silver Dollar City without the rides or music Basically they have recreated a town as it would have appeared 150 years ago.
Dad and I used to go on the Little Red River quite a bit and on the way back one time we stopped by some resorts on the White just to pick up brochures. I'm wondering if I was in the same area.

[jimh]

the place down by bennet springs is Readings fly shop (Charlie Reading) there was a camp site/trailer park before bennet that was called something similar to gastons and maybe that's what you're thinking about. yes we do go through mountain home. Gastons is down stream from the dam of bull sholes, about 1/2 mile or mile down from the dam. we rent this big house, 4 bedrooms, 8 beds, two baths, full kitchen and large livingroom. the trip leaves on early thurs mornign and retunrs that sun afternoon. cost for food, lodging, guide, licsens will run 300.00 -400.00 depending on how stupid we get with drinking and buying tackle we never end up useing anyway but ya have to have. throw in a couple sweat shirts and hats for the kids.

[jimh]

no wait a minute, it's flipp'n arkansaw, or is it? all i know is go to the damn dam and then go down stream about 1/2 mi.!

[Purebred Redneck]

Jan 28, 2009 23:04:43 GMT -5 jimh said:

cost for food, lodging, guide, licsens will run 300.00 -400.00 depending on how stupid we get with drinking and buying tackle we never end up useing anyway but ya have to have.

Tackle? What's to buy

I could fish a week on a couple packs of 1/8oz sinkers, a couple packs of golden salmon egg hooks, a couple jars of PowerEggs, and a half dozen Little Cleo's with a blue stripe of course.

What time have they been running water and how many are open (they have 6 don't they)?

[jimh]

hell Red i can everything i need but when you get to a resort like that there's always something you decide you have to have, and then never use. yep little Cleo's although i prefer the all silver, especialy when the shad kill in Bull shoals is great and they come through the tubes on a daily schedule. depends on the rain and snow for th eyear on how long they rn the tubes, we've had years where they shut down by lunch, but last year they ran 6 all day long and later in the spring they open the gates on top too the whole time all summer because the water was so high. there is either 6 or 7 gates i thought on the bottom.

[Purebred Redneck]

How do you guys fish there?

Go up 1/2 mile from the resort and float on down 1/2 mile past it...then do it all over again...

[jimh]

go up to the face of dam for most part and float on down, if there's stretches where action is especialy good we'll go back up and drift it again. but we do like to hit the banks from the boat for the browns, just like fishing for bass. if water is way up it's bad, if it is too low just as bad as you are limited to how far you want to let the boat get down stream. a couple of tubes running is perfect.

[jimh]

well i've been sick as a dog now for the last week but i'm headed out tomorrow morning (5:00 ish) down to the White. you guys keep Red in line while i'm down there attempting to catch fish. ;D