White River Arkansas trout trip.

bluebasser86 · 03-17-12, 02:41 AM

After months of planning and a couple more months of waiting my friend Jon, his son Chris, and I finally got a chance to hit the White River in an attempt to catch a brown trout. I've had more luck catching muskie than I have brown trout up to this point. We were supposed to meet a guide but we had a couple hours to kill beforehand so we put the boat in the water at Whitehole and started messing around. The water wasn't hardly moving so I was tossing a small 65 pointer when less than 30 minutes into the trip I got what I'd been looking for, my first brown trout! It's not a giant in size but it was a huge feeling of accomplisment for me!

A few casts later I got another one on the same bait.

By the time our guide got there it had been raining pretty steady for about an hour, it didn't stop until almost 6pm and it rained really hard most of the day. The fishing was tough and I caught the only brown trout while we were fishing with the guide, it was also the only brown we caught that didn't hit a jerkbait.

Now for the crazy part. We are a couple miles downstream from the boat ramp when our guide tells us that we are going to motor back up by the ramp and try a deeper hole. As we motor though a fairly deep hole (for the white river anyways, maybe 5 feet) the motor hits a rock, jumps off the back of the boat and sinks! I managed to grab the fuel line and by some miracle it stayed connected and I was able to haul the motor off the bottom of the river and help the guide lift it back into the boat. Our guide was an older gentleman, probably around 70 and he was really concerned at how we were going to get back at this point, since the motor was obviously not an option anymore. Thankfully Jon and I had our waders on so we waited to drift to a shallower spot and hopped in and started walking and dragging. What felt like 10 miles was probably only 2 miles before we reached water deep enough that I could get my boat to the guides boat and haul him the rest of the way in.
After that little adventure we decided to head to the cabin and put dry clothes on before hitting the river again. Chris opted to stay because he was tired of being wet, can't say I blamed him. So Jon and I headed back out. It wasn't long after we got back on the water before Jon finally connected with his first ever brown trout. The picture is a little blurry and yes we are as tired as we look, we'd both been up for almost 2 days at this point in the trip.

As it was getting dark I had a flurry of browns on a 97 slender pointer.

.
The next day was much nicer weather and I got to work quickly, catching a small brown on the slender pointer.

Chris caught the biggest rainbow of the trip on a 78 pointer, he never did get a brown though.

Then I caught what I thought was another rainbow until I looked closer. Then I saw that I had just caught my first ever cutthroat trout.

They were generating a lot more this day so we went upriver a bit to where we could see some laydowns to toss our baits at them. One of the first logjams, my Erratic shad got slammed and I catch the biggest brown of the trip, a beautiful 18.5" fish. It made me regret leaving the bait in for the picture, right after it was taken it flopped and jammed a hook into the side of my ring finger. Thankfully it was shallow and when it flopped again it ripped right back out.

I'm getting a replica of this one made as it was one of the prettiest freshwater fish I've ever seen.
This trip was a wonderful time and some of the best scenery I've ever seen. If you've never been I'd highly suggest going sometime!

bamabassman · 03-17-12, 10:04 AM

lol, sounds like ya'll had the best and worst of what nature had to give ya buddy. but you seemed to have enjoyed it nonetheless. so i say congrats to all of ya'll. your a great sport and i'm happy ot read about your trip.

bassfisher · 03-17-12, 10:19 AM

Wow, at least you still had a great trip, and caught some nice trout.

Bassboss · 03-17-12, 10:44 AM

Nice fish! Things are perdy as anything too!

joedog · 03-19-12, 01:24 PM

Great pics but Chris doesn't look very happy with his catch.

Thanks for the share.

03-17-12, 02:41 AM	#1
bluebasser86 BassFishin.Com Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Gardner, KS Posts: 605	White River Arkansas trout trip. After months of planning and a couple more months of waiting my friend Jon, his son Chris, and I finally got a chance to hit the White River in an attempt to catch a brown trout. I've had more luck catching muskie than I have brown trout up to this point. We were supposed to meet a guide but we had a couple hours to kill beforehand so we put the boat in the water at Whitehole and started messing around. The water wasn't hardly moving so I was tossing a small 65 pointer when less than 30 minutes into the trip I got what I'd been looking for, my first brown trout! It's not a giant in size but it was a huge feeling of accomplisment for me! A few casts later I got another one on the same bait. By the time our guide got there it had been raining pretty steady for about an hour, it didn't stop until almost 6pm and it rained really hard most of the day. The fishing was tough and I caught the only brown trout while we were fishing with the guide, it was also the only brown we caught that didn't hit a jerkbait. Now for the crazy part. We are a couple miles downstream from the boat ramp when our guide tells us that we are going to motor back up by the ramp and try a deeper hole. As we motor though a fairly deep hole (for the white river anyways, maybe 5 feet) the motor hits a rock, jumps off the back of the boat and sinks! I managed to grab the fuel line and by some miracle it stayed connected and I was able to haul the motor off the bottom of the river and help the guide lift it back into the boat. Our guide was an older gentleman, probably around 70 and he was really concerned at how we were going to get back at this point, since the motor was obviously not an option anymore. Thankfully Jon and I had our waders on so we waited to drift to a shallower spot and hopped in and started walking and dragging. What felt like 10 miles was probably only 2 miles before we reached water deep enough that I could get my boat to the guides boat and haul him the rest of the way in. After that little adventure we decided to head to the cabin and put dry clothes on before hitting the river again. Chris opted to stay because he was tired of being wet, can't say I blamed him. So Jon and I headed back out. It wasn't long after we got back on the water before Jon finally connected with his first ever brown trout. The picture is a little blurry and yes we are as tired as we look, we'd both been up for almost 2 days at this point in the trip. As it was getting dark I had a flurry of browns on a 97 slender pointer. . The next day was much nicer weather and I got to work quickly, catching a small brown on the slender pointer. Chris caught the biggest rainbow of the trip on a 78 pointer, he never did get a brown though. Then I caught what I thought was another rainbow until I looked closer. Then I saw that I had just caught my first ever cutthroat trout. They were generating a lot more this day so we went upriver a bit to where we could see some laydowns to toss our baits at them. One of the first logjams, my Erratic shad got slammed and I catch the biggest brown of the trip, a beautiful 18.5" fish. It made me regret leaving the bait in for the picture, right after it was taken it flopped and jammed a hook into the side of my ring finger. Thankfully it was shallow and when it flopped again it ripped right back out. I'm getting a replica of this one made as it was one of the prettiest freshwater fish I've ever seen. This trip was a wonderful time and some of the best scenery I've ever seen. If you've never been I'd highly suggest going sometime! Last edited by bluebasser86; 03-17-12 at 02:55 PM.

03-17-12, 10:04 AM	#2
bamabassman BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: cedar bluff, alabama Posts: 15,292	lol, sounds like ya'll had the best and worst of what nature had to give ya buddy. but you seemed to have enjoyed it nonetheless. so i say congrats to all of ya'll. your a great sport and i'm happy ot read about your trip. __________________ so many lures, so little time.

03-17-12, 10:44 AM	#4
Bassboss BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Shawano, WI Posts: 7,761	Nice fish! Things are perdy as anything too! __________________ If you can't fix it with heavy squats or fish oil, you're probably going to die.

03-19-12, 01:24 PM	#5
joedog BassFishin.Com Super Veteran Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: JANESVILLE,WI. 53545 Posts: 3,415	Great pics but Chris doesn't look very happy with his catch. Thanks for the share. __________________ "Fishing isn't life or death... it's more important than that."

03-17-12, 10:19 AM	#3
bassfisher BassFishin.Com Active Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Nicholasville Ky Posts: 275	Wow, at least you still had a great trip, and caught some nice trout.

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