RiverRunner

After hearing that the Generators at Greers Ferry were to be shut off today, I grabbed the waders and rod and headed for JFK park this morning for my first trip in many months and the first trip of the year. I got there and got geared up and saw that the water was still falling out from the days of non-stop generation. However, as I was unhooking fish # 3 after about an hour of fishing, the horn sounded and generation resumed. Oh well, at least I got to go fishing. I caught 2 on a midge and another on a soft hackle. I was the only one in the park fishing and I was constantly removing ice from my guides. I've got to go back to work tommorow but I may be back at the park on Saturday if SWPA cooperates.

Sounds like a good plan to me!

There is walk-in access at Quarry Park just below the Dam and at the Handicap Access about 3 miles downriver from the dam. The old access at McClellans is now closed.

The reason that we have the Asian carp down here in AR is because they escaped from a fish farm and are prolific breeders that have no known natural predators. They eat the plankton that the shad eat and destroy the population of forage that the sportfish depend on. The water quality in the lakes affected is pretty good, so I am pretty sure that had nothing to do with it. Lakes that were good for bass and crappie last year have been totally taken over by the carp this year and very few sportfish can be found. Of course, these Asian carp are different than the ones they pursue in Europe. They are very similar to Gizzard or Threadfin Shad when young, but grow to huge sizes. If these things get into your favorite body of water, the fishery will be destroyed, end of story.

They need to bring a ship load of carp enthusiasts over here and require them to take at least 500 lbs each back home. The Asian carp have quickly destroyed all sport fishing in any lake connected to the Mississippi River down here and I'm sure its only a matter of time before they make their way up the tribs and mess them up too. Its a good thing that the White River has those three old dams above Batesville and the Little Red has the small dam here at Searcy. If those barriers did not exist, there would be nothing to stop the carp from destroying the trout fisheries on those rivers. I do worry that they will make it up the White and Black Rivers to the Current and Eleven Point, because I don't think there is anything to stop them.

I've been on the river the last two weekends. I crossed the river here in Searcy this evening and it is blown out muddy, probably from Wilburn Creek (Cow Shoals) and down is unfishable at present due to 5" rain this weekend near the dam. If it stops raining, it should be OK by the weekend. Fishing has been pretty tough for me. Fish are scattered and spooky. Fishing should pick up this month as some of the browns start to go through some of the pre-spawn motions and the numbers of fair weather fishermen start to decline. I've been catching them on soft hackles and zebra midges with long leaders and 7X tippett. The new regs may be helping because the average size has increased. I can't help you with the restaurants and other attractions, I always come straight home from fishing.

I've been a huge racing fan for many years. At last count, I've attended 18 cup races (17 at Talladega, 1 at Michigan) and numerous Busch and ARCA races as well. I've been fortunate enough to see some great races and victories by Mark Martin and the great Dale Earnhardt. I have to agree with CC that Nascar has just about been ruined. IMO, its just never been the same since Earnhardt got killed. Its nothing but young guys that no one in the stands can identify with behind the wheel these days. The glory days of Nascar are over, they ended on February 18, 2001 in turn 4 at Daytona. They have forsaken all of their traditonal fans in order to become " the next big thing". It was a major insult when Brian France killed the Southern 500 so that he could move the race to California. That was nothing more than a slap in the face to all of the fans that built Nascar into a major sport. I'll continue to go to my one race a year because its so much of a tradition for me, but its going down the tubes. Big corporate money has taken over and the days of guys like Earnhardt, Alan Kulwicki, and Richard Petty clawing their way to the top from the short tracks is over. Nascar is becoming just like all of the other "major league" sports with obnoxious drivers who get in trouble with drugs and the law and who want to be movie stars. If you want to see good racing, watch open-wheel racing. If the two sides in the IndyCar debacle would ever get back together, Indy Car racing would return to its place as the premier motor sport in this country. I like F1, but I do think that big automakers owning their own teams will be a problem in the future, and I don't think anyone has filled the void that Michael Shumacher left when he retired. Of course, I could just say the heck with it and just go fishing.

Made another trip to the Little Red on Sunday. We managed to get the canoe that we bought from Duckydoty back in the winter into the water for the first time for us. We floated from JFK park to Swinging Bridge in an effort to see some new water. Managed to catch a decent 16" brown near Beech Island early, but it was slow going after that. We managed to catch some fish here and there when we could find some active fish midging. Caught all fish using a soft hackle with a zebra midge dropper. I figure we ended up with about 12 between us, which is slow for us on this river. We were not impressed with this stretch, way to much slow flat water and not enough shoals and faster water. With the 100 degree weather, it was a hot, long trip down the river. I did see a bona-fide 30" brown though. September and cooler weather cannot get here soon enough! We were very happy with the performance of the canoe.

I decided to make the short (20 mile) drive to the river at Lobo Landing yesterday before I headed back to work today. SWPA has been turning on 2 units about 3:00 pm each day, so I figured that I had plenty of low water time before the water arrived. I was WRONG, SWPA decided to turn on two units at 11:00 am, which arrived as soon as I arrived at Mossy Shoals. I don't think I've ever seen that river rise so fast. Needless to say, I got skunked. Hopefully the water will cooperate better this weekend. The water did feel good in the 100 degree temps though.

That is good news Terry. Getting in something Medical is pretty good job security I would think. At least they can't ship those jobs off to China or India.

It's a sad state of affairs when we have to talk about carrying firearms because of all of the "winners" we run into when trying to enjoy time off fishing. I'm not a real confrontational person, but I'm glad you said something to that guy. The fact that no one had told him that it was wrong or made an effort to stop him made his illegal activities "legitimate" in his mind.

I've caught hundreds of gar, and yes, the meat is good, almost like lobster. The problem is cutting through their skin, which is almost like armor. If you can ever get a hole punched in the skin, you can take tin snips and cut it. The hard part is getting a hole punched. You might try a drill. That was a great picture to say the least.

The "wall of shame" is a good idea. Just remember, all of us own the rivers. When someone poaches, they are stealing from all of us who follow the law and only take what we can use.

I think its safe to say that there is a significant poaching problem on Arkansas trout streams that is affecting the quality of the fishing. I had an interesting conversation with the game warden the last time I was checked (in a C&R area). I asked if their had been a lot of tickets written, and she said there had been. She also mentioned that they (the AGFC) hated to write people tickets because they ruined peoples vacations and fishing trips. I told her that I thought that most people deserved the tickets they got because they were breaking the law and stealing from me and everyone else that followed the law. She also said that she had chased down several poachers who had attempted to outrun her jet powered boat when she appeared (they were caught). I almost feel that poaching, especially in the C&R areas is so bad that an officer needs to work each area every day. Also, there is a small minority of bait guides who do not follow the law and will do anything to get a bigger tip. Several were busted in an AGFC sting operation a few years back, but local political pressure got the charges thrown out of court. Arkansas does need stronger regulations on guides. I really think that there are a lot of guides out there now that now how to drink beer and drive a boat and not much else, which I think hurts the profession of guiding as a whole. I also think that we need better signage to say the least. The signs stating the regulations are too few in number and too vague for the average tourist to understand. Also, there needs to be signs in large letters at every public access that state POACHERS WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW!!! John, what did the people at Rim say when you told them about the regulations, did they plead ignorance?

I got out of a workshop at school a little bit early, so I headed to Pangburn bridge to fish for about 30 minutes before heading home. I managed to catch one little rainbow and hang another one. Caught fish on #10 Brown woolly. I should have gone on up to Libby or Swinging Bridge, but time was a factor. Hopefully I can get finished moving in and get my boat out on the river to hit my favorite spots in a few days (or weeks!) I hadn't picked up my rod in about 2 months, so my casting was scary to say the least. At least I've got a yard to practice in now.

I think that looking at the big picture puts things into perspective somewhat. I would say that approx 4% of the trout water in Arkansas is C&R. That leaves 96% open to any type of fishing. Even if you doubled the amount of water that was C&R you would have 92% as "anything goes", which is still most of the river. Another thing that these areas do is allow fish to remain in the river longer before being harvested. If we took away C&R regulations today, I would bet that the larger fish in those areas would be harvested very quickly and those areas would be comprised mainly of freshly stocked fish. As far as spin fishing in C&R areas with large numbers of fly fisherman, if you're following the law, I wouldn't worry about it. You've got just as much right to be there as they do! I imagine that these are the same people that give me a dirty look when I tell them I'm catching fish on wooly buggers, microjigs, or egg patterns. I would agree that there are way too many people out there who are striving for a career as a model for Orvis and Cabelas who really just get in in the way and don't know a thing about these rivers or fishing in general. At least you can get some good deals when they give up and sell their stuff on ebay. I'm not one to take a bunch of trash talk when I'm fishing from people who don't know what there talking about. On the other side though, I get some dirty looks from people when I walk into the river carrying my fly rod, and I've had plenty of corn and powerbait land at my feet as well. The "war" between bait fisherman and fly fishermen has been going on a long time and I doubt it will end any time soon. This is unfortunate, because most fly fishermen and bait fishermen want the same thing, a quality fishing experience with a chance at good sized fish. I think that increased fishing pressure has forced us to look at options for preserving our trout fisheries, and I think C&R areas are a good answer to preserve and grow them. And yes, there is a difference between chunking corn and serious bait fishing with sculpins, crawfish, and crickets. It takes considerable skill and knowledge of the river to use those techniques with success. The only problems is that the majority of people who are trout fishing are using powerbait, corn etc and not the above techniques. If the regulations were changed and "live" baits were allowed in C&R areas, we would then be on a real slippery slope when people demanded power baits be allowed in C&R areas. This has been an interesting conversation to say the least. Its always amazing where some of these threads go.

I would disagree with the generalization that C&R areas are for flyfishers only. Before I took up the long rod, the C&R areas were the areas that I spent the majority of my fishing time. I probably caught more fish when my primary trout fishing tackle was an ultralight spinning rod and a maribou jig. For me, you can catch more fish on artificials than you can by fishing bait just because of the time factor involved with baiting up and retying due to swallowed hooks. Also, you will catch larger fish on artificials because most artificial lures resmeble some type of bait fish or forage, as opposed to corn or power bait which resembles nothing that occurs naturally in the stream. It is possible to use bait and not kill many fish if one knows what they're doing and is careful. I've caught many trout on bait in years past and I would say that 98% of the fish I caught survived with little trauma. However, I was careful and I rarely took the fish out of the water and would always cut the line on the few fish that swallowed the hook. Unfortunatley, most of the bait fishing angling public that only fishes a few times a year is not so careful. I see a lot of them using towels to handle fish and most let them flop around in the boat. Also, most people will kill a fish to get the 2 cent hook out of its gut. As far as fly fisherman all being elitist snobs, I used to have that opinion until I investigated further and decided to take it up as a new challenge. Yes, its true that a lot of doctors and lawyers like to fly fish, and you can spend a lot of money to get geared up. But, most of the people I've found who enjoy this sport are simply sportsmen. The fly club I'm in has some doctors and lawyers, but I would say that most are working people like me. I would also venture to say that fly fishing is a real bargain compared to tournament bass fishing, when you look at the cost of a huge bass boat and gear. You can spend $60,000 to start fishing tournaments. I think I spent $300.00 to start fly fishing and you can spend a whole lot less than that and still be in good shape. I think the debate is not bait fisherman vs fly fisherman, but meat hunters vs sportsmen. You don't have to fly fish to be a sportsman.

Its really sad how the Spring River is treated by the majority of people who use it. I would say that 98% of people who fish that river keep their full limit each time they reach it and plenty of others see no problem keeping every trout they catch no matter how many it is. I've seen people going from place to place picking up stringers they had stashed so that they could take as many fish home as possible. I think that I can say with a great deal of accuracy that most fisherman in Arkansas are meat hunters. For a lot of people, catching a big fish just means more meat. There are plenty of people out there that would think nothing of eating a 10 lbs bass or 10 lbs trout. Its just the difference between "meat" fishing and "sport" fishing. Before anyone jumps my case, I do keep a few fish, esp Crappie and Sauger, but it always gets eaten and I never fill a freezer up. From what I've seen, most of the trout that go home and get frozen usually end up with freezer burn and get thrown out. It seems to me that people don't realize how nasty stocker trout really taste until they cook them. I think eventually the AGFC will have to decide if it wants to continue to simply dump fish into the Spring so that the locals can take them right back out. Anyone who has been around there very much knows that the crowd that utilizes the Spring for the most part is local and is fishing for meat and does not bring anything into the community. The big argument against any C&R regs would be that people in the area depend on the river for food. In my opinion, depending on trout stocked into the river by the state for food is nothing more than welfare. I would like to see C&R somewhere on the Spring, but considering AGFC doesn't enforce the laws that are on the books now, it would be futile. RANT OVER!!!

In some years, especially dry ones, I've seen a lot of squirrels swimming the White River. I usually see the most in early fall. I've been told that they will cross it when their food supply runs out. Its always an interesting site to see those bushy tails swimming the river.

I don't know why anyone would think I was kidding. Anyone who has spent any time fishing the Norfork would know what beautiful fish it produces. For me, its one of the reasons I like to go there. I have caught some prettier than usual fish out of the White this year though. I've always wondered what makes the fish in the Norfork so pretty, maybe the forage base? My new home waters, the Little Red, does have some fish that rival the Norfork, but they are darker (because of the moss and the diet of sowbugs I guess). I'd put any trout caught in the Norfork up against any trout, any where when it comes to beauty.

Sounds like a good trip, I've got to get on the river as soon as moving and unpacking are over!!!

Greers Ferry Lake is located in North Central Arkansas in Cleburne and Van Buren Counties near the towns of Heber Springs, Greers Ferry, & Fairfield Bay. It is an impoundment of the Little Red River. It is about 65 miles North-Northeast of Little Rock. It is a typical deep & clear Ozarks Reservior with quite a bit of standing timber. It is best known for its Walleye and Hybrid fishing, but it can be a good bass lake at times.

Walleyehunter, Were you above or below the Narrows? Greers sure is a pretty lake.

Good luck! I've been on enough interviews lately to last a lifetime, hopefully this will be your last one!

It looks like I am going to be making another move. After many months of job-hunting and 11 interviews, I've been hired to teach High School History in White County, AR, near Searcy and only 30 short minutes from the Little Red River. I will be moving in July or early August to Searcy, Pangburn, Batesville, or Heber Springs. This opportunity proves that God does answer prayers and that He has a plan for each of us if we will see fit to follow it. The time I have to spend on this board will probably be limited for the next couple of months, but I will try to keep tabs on everything that is going on over here. Hopefully by the fall I can post some good reports on the Little Red.