Got the drift boat out and floated (for fun, not guiding) the trophy area fishing my way down with my friends Mike, from West Plains, and Justin, who has an
outfit on the North Fork (Sunburst Ranch). The water is up about 10 inches high and stained so getting deep quickly was key. We caught fish on Stoneflies,
Don's Crawdads and 1/16oz marabou jigs(fly rods) with the jigs producing the most. We paddled quickly down almost a mile before we started fishing and
Justin and Mike started picking up fish here and there while I rowed. It wasn't fast and furious, but a few fish none the less. At the first stop, I got a
17 inch wild 'bow on a jig. Big Bluff down to Mary Decker produced best. MIke lost a real nice one at big bluff and I lost a real nice one at the shoal
before Mary Decker. Justin got four smallmouth including two 14 inchers and a fat, fat 15 incher at Little Hurricane shoal. Justin caught all the smallies. We
all caught trout with plenty of wild ones in the mix with stockers. The numbers were not out of this world, but the quality was good and we caught enough to
keep us interested all day. It was fun to get out on the water.
