Baron Fork: Thomas Bamberger WMA at Proctor to Eldon on Highway 51 (Follow up)

 Baron Fork: Thomas Bamberger WMA at Proctor to Eldon on Highway 51

    For this "follow up" post, I wanted to briefly outline and highlight what made our latest float trip on this stretch an unmitigated success. 

    Dad and I have really struggled to catch fish in Ozark streams this time of year in the past. But the opportunity to float a beautiful river with very ideal conditions was too enticing to pass up on.  I also wanted to use this platform as a means of posting my first ever GoPro video. Although I only managed to catch one fish while the camera was rolling, I still think the footage was very cool and features me getting EXTREMELY excited.

   Our group was composed of four of people, my dad and I as well as our friends, Max and Chaney. Dad was paired with Max and I with Chaney in canoes. Predictably, the fishing was slow to start out. I hardly casted at all through the first few hours but Chaney was fishing to no avail while dad and Max hadn't caught anything either. At about 12:00, we decided to pause for lunch which was a good decision because we were making really good time and didn't want the trip to end too fast. This was because the water was flowing at a clip of about 500 cfs, a fast pace for a stream whose base flow is a little under 200 cfs. So, after lunch we made an effort to fish harder in the afternoon. This decision proved crucial to our fishing success. 

    With the high temperature around 60 degrees and no cloud cover to block out sunlight, there was a perfect fishing window around 2:00. The 2:00 - 3:00 PM time frame seems to be the magical time for bass fishing in Ozark streams this time of year and we just so happened to stumble across the perfect backwater during that time.   

    In a previous post where I discuss my lure preferences, I mentioned some lures I wanted to try. Both of these lures were exactly what the bass wanted on this lovely day in early January.

 The two lures that caught fish for Chaney and I were:

- 3.25 inch Rage Swimmer in Green Pumpkin and Pearl belly with a 3/8 oz jig head 

- 3.75" Hi-Def Golden Craw paired with a Stealth HD Finesse Jig in 5/16 oz GP Magic Craw Frog Hair from Tackle HD

The two lures that caught fish for Dad and Max were:  

- Rage Menace Grub in Green Pumpkin Purple Swirl with a 1/8 oz jig head

- 2.5" YUM crawbug in Crawdad color

    Now enjoy this short movie I made!

    We ultimately caught seven fish between the four of us which was not bad considering the discharge of the stream as well as the time of year cause fish to be less active. All bass caught were in a large backwater, leading us to believe that bass must of been sheltering from the higher flows there. This information will surely be useful for us in the future.

 

Also, here's a little bonus picture of a surprise Northern Hogsucker I managed to snag!

 I hope this was an enjoyable post, now get to fishing!