Nighthawk

My son, Rusty Doughty, (Troutdoorsman) took me for a float down the river on Tuesday. We put in at Kellys and floated to ROLF. We prolly landed 10 fish including a nice 17" brown that was my last fish of the day. He had a guide trip earlier that day and we had leftover chicken n dumplings for supper. We saw a bald eagle, an otter and a doe and her fawn. I am constantly amazed at what a fantastic trout stream that river is. Also very proud of my son!

What a great ambassador and river keeper, always enjoyed stopping to chat. He will be sorely missed.

tell ducky I said Hi.

you're an artist!

WOZ I'm fishing for trout with my spey.

Jeff, this sounds like the little flies I saw you catching big rainbows on at Montauk years ago. Long time no see. Russ Doughty

I use a 7/8 weight spey on sections of the North Fork of the White River near Dora, Mo. do you need a rod like that around here?, maybe not, but a hell of a lot of fun to fish. you could also throw that rod on some of the big tailwaters in Mo. and Ark. to strip streamers.

the Troutdoorsman is my son; I'm very proud of him!

wait till you guys become grandparents! if you think being a parent is neat. my son is teaching both his boys to fish and I'm a part of it, thank God.

A fishing pal and I ran into some grad students from MSU who have a license to collect snakes from Crane and they said the water mocassin is the most common snake out there. They had one they had caught that day in a sack. I always thought reports of them were a myth, but apparently not. The creek is very high and fast.

can the white be waded at 50 mw?

done. thanks duckster!

I can't remember when I started fishing, but I was just old enough to walk. We fished a small community lake near Chaffee, Mo called Tywapity for bass and bluegill. I began to notice guys fly fishing from boats and casting popping bugs to bluegill near the shore. They would deliver a cast pop the bug a few times and catch a fish, or failing that, just pick up the bug and recast. Pretty neat, I thought. Soon Dad and i were looking for a fly rod for me and we found at a place called The Sale Barn south of Cape Girardeau, Mo. It was a bamboo rod, complete with reel, line, leader, and flies; all for $9.95. I taught myself to cast and was soon catching blue and bass on poppers. Then it happened; we went to Montauk State Park, near Salem, Mo. and I caught my first trout on my fly rod. I was hooked for life. That was in August of 1961. Fiberglass rods followed and fly fishing became my passion. Then, when I was in high school in the 60s we were at Montauk and were camped near an old woman with only one arm who was tying flies by the light of a Coleman lantern at her camp table. I was enthralled and figured out that if she could do that with one arm, I could do it with two. I dealt with a company in Cincinnati called Finnysports and my fly tying career took off. Since then, I have fished in the west, Belize and Alaska.I have abandoned spinning and baitcasting and now fish exclusively with the flyrod. I taught my son well and now he is a guide on the NFOW near Dora, Mo.He is now teaching his boys, and it has come full circle.

Congrats, Phil. We have been blessed with 5;all healthy and beautiful. Russ

I found a 6" dead lamprey eel on the North Fork of the White years ago. I could just picture it attached to a trout.

start 'em young!

I hit the river at about 9:30 am on Saturday and fished until i was too sore to cast anymore at about 3:30 pm. I quit with 50 rainbows and no browns. The river was full of blue herons, black vultures and seagulls. Every fish came on a green butt soft hackle. When they wouldn't hit it on the swing, I would retrieve it in short strips. Broke off several fish on the strike.

Just tried it. No good.

years b4 I could drive, Mom and Dad would take us kids to a lake or stream and drop us off to camp and fish for the weekend. things were sure a lot different back then. sometimes we didn't even take a tent, just slept on the ground.

My son, Rusty Doughty, also guides out of ROLF. He provides home cooked pot roast or chicken n dumplings for shore lunches:)

Two buddies and I went to Mtn. Home to represent Project Healing Waters at the Sowbug Roundup from 3-14 through 3-16. After the event each day we fished the White at the state park. I caught 85 trout in those 3 days, and my friends did just as well. We got most of them on midges, olive wooly buggers, and green butt soft hackles. I also caught 2 brookies on the Norfork Sat, both on a Harvester midge, my first Ark. brookies. More and more we realize what a fantastic fishery this river is. We started fishing the White at Sowbug last year and have learned more and more about it over the year. We come from a background of fishing Taneycomo, and the White is so much more like a real trout stream. By the way, I am the program leader for Project Healing Waters in Springfield, Mo., so if anyone knows of a disabled vet who needs to get back into the mainstream of life please PM me and I will get in touch with them, if they are in my area.

I highly recommend them. the good ones duplicate the timing required to cast a fly rod. I think it would be a fun way to pass the time and good practice.

A fishing pal and I hit the lake at about 12:30 on Sunday with an upstream breeze blowing and the air temperature in the 50's. We started at the riffle above KOA and fished within 50 yards of there until about 3:30 pm. We quit with about 25 fish each. Most of my buddy's fish came on an olive #12 wooly bugger. I caught almost all of mine on midges of various colors. I just prefer to fish indicators. It reminds me of my days as a small child when we would fish with bobbers and bait for bluegills, crappies and bass. The chop on the water Sunday gave the flies all the action they needed beneath the indicator. When you can see that indicator bobbing on the waves, you can envision what the fly is doing below. The hardest part for me is being able to throw an upstream mend after a long cast. Part of that is the fact that my fly line will not float like I want it to. Time for a new one as my old one will not even respond to frequent dressings during the day. I needed a good trip on Taney as we had become spoiled by fishing the White every chance we got and were beginning to treat Taney like a stepchild. Russ

A friend of mine who is a custom rod builder has a Winston B11-MX 9 1/2" 7 wt. for sale. He took it in on trade for a custom rod. It is brand new, never been fished. Asking $450.00 firm, over $700 new. PM me if interested.

check out the Mineral Fork around Potosi, too. good smallmouth stream.