Devan S.

2024: 1. Utah and Wyoming Cutt-slams, complete Montana for WNTC 2. 1 Arkansas master angler fish. I really want this to be Walleye (9lbs) but we will see. 3. 10lb Pyramid lake Cutty.

After Crater lake, we raced back to fish Pyramid before dark. Again nothing. We had 6 hours this morning to fish again. @Prifish had one hookup but the lead to braid knot I tied came loose so he lost his one good shot at Pyramid lake. Overall we had 3 bites at Eagle Lake and landed 1. 3 bites at Pyramid and landed 2. We fished the better part of 25-27 hours. We think the great weather and bluebird skies hurt us. It was a grind and we're both pretty bummed. I've technically finished Nevada and Northern California but not overly excited about the picture of my Pyramid lake fish or my crater lake fish. @Prifish still needs a Lahontan Cut and a Nevada fish.

Unfortunately I don't feel great about checking the boxes the way we did. I feel like I got by Eagle Lake with a technicality and feel like Pyramid lake did not live up. We're really thinking stream Lahontans are going to be an itch to scratch.

Day 3- back to Eagle Lake for what seems like round 7 or 8. We started early but there was already a lot of people fishing from the bank. Right off the bat I hooked up using a roaring river special under a bobber. I had a knot failure as I was bringing the fish in that ended the fight. Shortly there after I broke off another on a hook set. @Prifish then catches a nice Eagle lake rainbow. We commited to bailing Eagle Lake by 9:30am. We wanted to get @Prifish his pryamid lake fish. I had been told of another lake(crater lake,ca) within the Eagle Lake rainbow distribution map. Rumor has that it counts for WNTI but not for the California Heritage Challenge. A nice little lake with eager fish.

@Prifish and I managed to pull off a short notice run to Reno, NV. We had 2 primary goals: Eagle lake rainbows and Lahontan Cuthroats at Pyramid lake. We hoped for a couple side species but really only wanted the 2 species. The weather forecast looked great for fishing but not for catching. 50/60s for highs and lows right at 30 mostly sunny and light winds. The itinerary was to fly in mid-day Friday and then run 2 hours to Eagle Lake. I had some intel where fish were at and catchable from bank. We fished hard from noon until dark and only had one bite. We really hoped to catch our Eagle Lake fish day one but knew we had additional days if needed. Day 2 was guided at Pyramid. We fished hard and did a lot of bobber watching and caught 2 cutts, biggest fish was 3lbs and fished sun up to sun down nonstop. I did not get a picture of the bigger fish. It slipped from my hands and right out of the float tube.

It appears as though we are going to get another shot at Eagle Lake Rainbows. The good news-I am told fall fishing makes it easier, weather looks much better this go around. The goal is Eagle Lake but we have a backup option that counts for our Western Native nearby that I am told is a "slam dunk". Goal is 4 species in 4 days total. More to come.

When they did their study the parker bottoms area was absolutely full of browns. Would be interesting to see the distribution like they use to give by section. I also hope the brown trout study ultimately leads to some regulation changes that produce more larger browns.

We arrived back at the dam way before daylight. Before I left the day before I went down and picked around the flat area while they were running water and hooked and lost a really nice brown on its third jump so our plan was to start here. We caught a bunch of health fighting rainbows but probably lost double what we landed. I did catch the biggest brown of the trip and a nice rainbow that just looked rough. We picked around the fast water on the other side by the boat ramp and caught a couple more nice browns and some rainbows before heading back to Norfork.

After doing some checking around at the white I headed over to the campsite I had at Dam Quarry. Along the way I stopped at the confluence and fished and Ackerman. I did not get a bite at either location but did not fish much and was more exploring options for night time fishing. I fished right below the dam with a jerkbait/jig and caught multiple rainbows prior to dark. Got camp setup and began fishing after dark. Right away I caught another brown. Right as the moon came over the hill I hooked and landed a really nice walleye probably 23". About that time @Prifish tells me he has a fish that is just running and he isn't gaining ground. He fought it for awhile and finally brought a Hybrid to the net. This fish really gave him a good fight. It wasn't but maybe about 5 minutes and I hooked a fish in the upstream pool right below the dam that just ran and I couldn't stop. I kept pressure and finally landed this 8.5lber. At this point we fished a bit more and called it a night to get up early and head back to Bull Shoals.

Decided to head east for a couple days around the full moon to chase giants and check out some new areas. Arrived right below the dam on the west side right at 10am. Stepped out of the truck pulled waders out and they blew the horn. Not knowing what to expect I skipped the waders and just went down to watch. The water came up but seemed to be fishable. Instead of suiting up I hoped downstream to the boat ramp to check out that area figuring I could fish the eddy behind the point. I immediately caught several brookies and a decent brown. I did get checked by AGFC here. The barbless check was just a simple look n see vs. the discussion on cotton ect. He did tell me as they kicked the generators on there was shad coming through and he advised white. I stayed around a bit but it was mid-afternoon and was ready to go check out Norfork TW and some other accesses including White Hole looking for some deeper holes to target bigger fish.

I've noticed at Beaver Tailwaters I loose a lot of the little rainbow "nippers" when I am barbless vs. barbed. To me that is a positive less risk to me. Big fish usually get it firmly enough it doesn't matter.

Awesome. I have been tempted to book with Cranor's looking for a 30+ and get some intel vs. flying blind solo. I really like you put a length with your pictures...much better perspective on just how big they are. I think were gonna go down on Sept. 29 and spend a few days out of the kayaks and wading at night and see what happens.

Those guys/gals are insane. Some of them are running 4 or 5 - 100mile races a year.

I've been thinking this for a good 24 hours. Lots of jobs out there that check the boxes here on what is "tough".

Well with the cooler mornings I decided to get back into the swing of hunting for a tailwater slob. Did not find the one this morning but I caught a bunch of super nice fish for Beaver. 1 Brown, 12-ish rainbows, and 3 borderline keeper walleyes. Felt good to be back.

I had a couple hours to burn between landing in San Antonio and driving to the border. Burn I did....car said it was 106. Rio Cichlids-my first fish was the brute and I was about 8ft above him on a vertical wall along the river. Had to pull him about 100 yards to find a spot I could drop down onto a inlet pipe to net him. They are not as aggressive in this spot like I thought they would be although they are plentiful. I might have caught 10 total. A bunch of bluegill and the river has lots of fish in it. The Rio's stick out like a sore thumb. You can see some of the stuff I was fishing. I had hoped to find some red breast and I caught a bunch of sunfish but nothing that I was just positive it was a red breast. I saw several tilapia and at one time think I had a really nice one hooked but he came off in the weeds. I went down river to another park area. No shade but I quickly got to work. I caught 2 of these. I'm not an expert and I really want them to be Guadalupe bass but I'm not sure.

Nice!

I have 2 non-fishing trips coming up that I at least plan to drag along a fly rod for. Any help/tips ideas someone can give would be greatly appreciated. Trip one is a quick Friday through Monday trip the first week of August to Destin/Ft. Walton with the family. My only plan currently is to take my 9wt and strip clousers through the surf early in the mornings. I wont have a ton of time but nearly every potential species I catch will be "new" to me. Anyone have any tips/tricks? I assume ladyfish is my most likely target. The second trip I have a bit more flexibility and a target during mid-August. Work will see me heading to San Antonio and then a drive to Eagle Pass and crossing the border daily for work. I will have time to burn Monday after landing in San Antonio and plan on chasing Rio Cichlids before driving to Eagle Pass. This is a trip I have made multiple times but never drug a fly rod along( I suspect Ill make many more trips). I am hoping to maybe go back in winter when I can chase some trout on the Guadalupe just to check the state off for trout. Guadalupe bass seems intriguing as well as Redbreast sunfish. All should be in the area but I haven't done a bunch of research yet. Any tips or locations someone might target or avoid? Any other species to target?

The article I read on Crooked river said something like 5-8,000 trout per mile, and 30-40,000 whitefish per mile. It referenced locals who blamed the whitefish for a decline in trout and they throw them on the bank. Said some people target them and catch easy 100/day. Said they also get up to 2-4lbs. no clue.....we spent the better part of 4 hours there without catching one unless they look like trout. I'm silently hoping at Pyramid lake or Eagle lake part 2, I can catch a Tui Chub.

For me: I had 4 fish/states off the western native trout challenge. Originally I had planned on UT/WY/MT/ID. However it ended up with WA/CA/ID/OR no slams per se but state complete and fish caught. I also hoped for 2 more Arkansas Master Anglers. I caught a white bass at Beaver TW that went 3.54lbs which was master angler. I caught a crappie that went 2.36 which is dangerously close. Ill take 1 of 2 at the midway point.

Now that we are home here are my post trip feelings. Overall it was a good trip. Wayyyyy too many miles. I think we were nearing 23-2400 miles from Wednesday till Monday. Far more driving than fishing. Outside of Bulls it was 1-3 fish per stop. This is the first big miss on a species trip but it works out in the end I think. It was aggressive but if I would have just combined pyramid lake and eagle lake to begin with I would have likely never got McCloud river and Goose lake redbands. Oregon feels huge and empty. Portland is literally a cess pool of homeless camps. If I had to do over again I might fly into say Redmond, Bend, or Eugene and stay in that general vicinity. I feel like we fished Washington but also feel there is more there to explore especially with Puget sound and the peninsula. Idaho is the same way....I may go back someday to "chase" bulls there but it sounds like Canada is really the place to go so who knows. From a species standpoint the only thing that stands out is the bulls. Coastals and the redbands check a box but honestly I can get that similar fix elsewhere. Bulls-So incredibly aggressive. That one pool yielded 5-6 bulls to hand and multiple times we had chasers slashing 3/4 times at our lures. Toss right back in and they kept going even with us standing right there in the water and totally visible. Big line too 6-8lb test so not line shy in the least. The Bull @Prifish caught at the Met chased me casting and him prior to finally hooking up. We didn't jack with getting good pictures and other than my bull at the Met our Bull pictures don't show the fish well. Its unfortunate but really no regrets there. Its the memory that counts. I would have really liked to fish our first location for Bulls more but it was just too hot. Its definitely the kind of place you could spend multiple days packing around or as I have seen on some blogs pack in and float out. Another note: I didn't see a single firework tent out west.

The best part is we still found bulls. and even a nice redband.