marcusearlt

The current list: Buffalo, any part, my brother has never been any where on except for the time his car got stuck in it!, I have done a couple stretches... North Fork of the White, last time I was there my brother got the flu and we had to leave early, that place owes me some fish.... Spavinaw- Ya, I'm probably going to go ahead and pay the rod fee... I know, I know... White River- way down HWY 16/295 area... Mulberry- might get a Arkansas River striper if I am lucky... Illinois: down there by AR 59, maybe they will have the kayak park up and running by then....

Cool website, I just spent an hour cruising around. It really blows my mind to think of all those streams with all those trout. If I want to catch a trout it takes at least 1 hour to do so. Hmm.... Dennis Boatman- You may be on to something with the California fishing. Steelhead and trout all over according to the map. Man you are in for some serious exploring of some West Coast water.

You're right, it is a great river. Now I am a fan of ALL rivers in general, but a as anyone who has spent much time on the LR knows the LR starts to play tricks on your mind after a while. You'll find yourself thinking about all the time. It's just one of those places for me I guess. I have been all over that river at all different times of day and year with many different people while in a lot a of different boats and at every shoal and hole there is, sometimes fish less even. I have seen some wild things there and have really, now that I look back, went through with some really risky choices in different situations. to try and get my line tight. I guess that may be part of it's appeal to me. It has given me so much yet when I don't fully recognize it's strenght it reminds who's in charge. I am sure all us fisherman got that whole thing going on with this body of water or that one. Us fisherman got a serious case of somethin' going on here with these fish! So LRF, does your father in law live in the Heber or Pangburn area?

We got out for a little while the other day and landed a few trout. They were hungry for about 30 minutes and then they shut off. A very substantial hatch of something went off for what seemed like hours towards the evening but I severely lack bug identification skills. There was a good ratio of Brown and Bows. The Little Red is still one of my favorite places to be. Here is some of the fish my girlfriend and brother caught on sow bugs.

Ahhh, I see. Very cool fly, interesting R&D and design process as well. Now you need to give it some kind of official name like Johnny's Glue Bug or Hot Glue Larvae or something like that. Let us know how it fishes!

Well that looks about as natural as it can get, well done. Question 1:How did you get the glue to be different colors? Question 2: Have you got to try it out yet?

Cool photo, pretty hardcore to be fishing in that rain.

Exciting report, glad it went so well. I too got my first taste of the salt this year, in August. I am hooked. Your really can't go down there and not get hooked on the beautiful scenery, great food and weather, and COOL fish!

That is one sweet fly!

Good report, sounds like you guys had a good ole' Texas time. I can't wait to get back down to the Fork!

Well, I heard the same thing actually. I have never seen any signs though. I wonder why some places choose to do that. For example, Lake Elmdale is no wake. When those generators kick on the wake created from being on plane is really reduced by all the water flowing down stream. Plus it's really hard not to want to go everywhere on plane when your driving a jet boat, you know what I mean HOG.

I was actually thinking of the ramp by the dam, but houseman will do just fine. With all these ramps closed I can't help but to think the fishing will be pretty good due to less pressure. Kind of an unintended result but it may have a positive effect on some waters.... Thanks for the scoop Quill.

So does anybody know if the boat ramp is closed? I have been out of the loop for about a month so I am not up to speed on the news. I do however miraculously have the opportunity to wet a line this weekend and thought some trout might be nice. Thanks.

HOGLAW- I really want to go to the Elk in my jet boat. I see there is an access at Mount Shira. Is that the one you used or did you use a bank from a campground? I don't think there will be a terrible amount of paddlers out and I just need to run some gas through as well. Thanks...

DF to 71B is prime time slime right now, every stretch around every corner with every point bar, cut bank, root ball, wash out, etc make for some quality floating, low on the paddling and high on the fishing. So, I was on the Elk on the 20th. I have been keeping track of the USGS water gauges and for me I'd like to wait until the Elk dropped out a bit more before I go back. I run out of tactics (and energy) for bigger open water like that, I guess I'm more of spot to spot, get out and wade kinda guy and the Big Sugar has got much more of that right now. This is the first year I've ever even went for river smallies btw so I'm working with limited experience here. Crooked Creek turned me into a smallmouth fan back in the Spring. I have been fishing for 5 years now and I must say that the pleasure and adventure you get from fishing out of a canoe on an Ozark stream is hard to beat. I would have never known had we not moved to NWA. I'd still just be a deep reservoir and tailwater kind of guy. I do pick apart some stretches. Others we just float through and talk about all the bugs, birds, trees and rocks. The slow game is a must for hot sunny days like last tuesday, especially with clear water, gotta go finesse. We saw decent numbers of largemouth, particularly in sunny backfills with little or no current where the bottom was not muddy. Spotted several that probably were 2-2.5 range, only got one little one to bite though.

Thanks for the info. Well, I live about 5 minutes from Southtown so I'll stop by there on my way in to town here shortly. All I got left are black/blue and these weird green/silver senko's leftover from a big kit so I'll pick up some of those too. We we're contemplating another trip this weekend, leaning towards Saturday but it could go either way. First day of class is on Monday so we didn't want to get too crazy on Sunday. Staying on the Big Sugar where there is wayyy less paddling and more fish is the best deal for me right now, hands down. I'm in pretty good shape but all that paddling on the Elk just wore me out. Sugar Island will do a 10 mile from Cyclone down for only 30 bucks, that's a good deal.

Shady Beach's concern level was high due to the fact that this was only their third time to go up on the Big Sugar this year. After the high water I guess they assumed the the river would be filled with obstructions and was too fast to be safe. And, they hadn't heard of anyone being up there so they had no info to go on. I knew it was navigable thanks to the fisherman on this forum. About the Ned rig- Can the PJ jig heads be bought locally? Southtown maybe? Funny thing, my brother actually met one of their jig tiers a couple months ago, a young woman who is not a fisherman. What are some good colors: pb&j, green pumpkin? Should the jig head match the plastic?

Well, we ended up putting in at Deep Ford. Shady Beach was very concerned about safety and reluctantly took us up there. The fishing was phenomenal as far as I am concerned. We caught'em on all kinds of stuff, threw the Ned rig only a couple casts. They were hitting small tubes tubes and olive or brown wooly buggers so well it was a no brainer. Cast behind you, quarter downstream, fish a hole behind a root wad, just keep your fly/lure in the water and you get a fish pretty much. I will say the the Elk was a huge slow moving pool that was not near as fun or productive as the Big Sugar. The water levels/cfs/structure are just plain fun right now. We didn't catch anything huge but man we had fun. We're probably going back this weekend too but doing Cyclone to Sugar Island this time.

Ya I always wondered about that company and their products. That Alpha is a serious reel with a ton of room for backing. So, can your beard double as a fly patch? If it could that might influence me to grow my own...

et84: That is one gnarly beard you got there, well done. And how about that reel, what is that?

Alright, thanks for the info guys. We are going to do the trip from Deep Ford to Shady Beach in the morning, fly and spin. Sounds like now is prime time, I can't wait. Only been up there one other time and loved it. I'm going to hit'em with the infamous "ned rig" and see how they like that. I'll report the results afterwards. Thanks again guys.

npierceuark: Sounds like yall had a great trip on the BIG SUGAR. We were thinking about 4 miles on the Big Sugar and 4 on the Elk. So how did the Big Sugar look? Was there lot's of downed trees and debris that made the float difficult? I just called Shady Beach and they said nobody has done that float since the heavy rains and they weren't sure how it was looking. We really want to do it but don't want to bite off more than we can chew.

F&F- I've already started looking at some closer and more easily accessible places for tarpon. Cancun was nice but all the plane hopping and TSA strip searches I could do without for just a straight fishing trip. I will look in to Treasure Coast for sure. Tarpon are apparently available from Galveston all the way to Most parts of Florida, with more opportunities on the fly (canals, lagoons, etc) in the Florida areas. We were already in Cancun so I figured why not hit the water a couple days. I'd like to get a bigger fish eventually but I don't really get all hung up on size that much, little 5 lbers like the one in the pic will do for the next trip or two, I just wanna go fish period. Rainbow- I've eaten mahi mahi and would love to catch those too. Those are the wildest looking critters, I'd probably forget what I was doing and just stare at the fish and let it get off my hook. Those colors and shape are unreal. You have caught these before? sfiser- I found a web site, www.cancuntarponfishing.com. Standard prices, nice boats, and expert guides. Only downside was some the gear, kind of on the lower end of things than what I expected, especially the fly gear. We get all the way out to our spot around 6am and the guide gives me my set up for the day. It was a Sage graphite 3. A very slow action rod, imo, around 25 years old. I have no idea why I left my gear at the hotel, major brain fart. Take your own gear if you have it or just double check what the outfitter offers. Pesca Maya looks like a the real deal to me.

Well, all the hype is true. Tarpon are some real performers! All the jumping and runs and head shaking a guy could ask for. (Even with the "baby" tarpon we caught) What a blast we had out there in the lagoon. I like to to think of myself as a do-it-yourselfer (oil changes, blah blah blah) so it was a little different having a guide for two days. Do I hook my own sardine? Anyways, I did hook my own sardines, but the girlfriend never hooked a single one. I am her voluntary guide back home anyways so big deal there. Our guide was really fun and joked around with us, but when this guy saw fish he got serious. He could spot fish all over in places I only saw water. He would yell "TARPON, 40 ft, 10 o'clock!" or "2 SNOOK, 30 ft, 3 o'clock." No blind casting, only sight fishing, and as soon as you see them they are usually gone. Your window of opportunity is very small and your casts MUST be accurate. Lot's of snapper and barracuda to keep things interesting. Day 2, missed 6 Tarpon on the fly. Overall, we had a blast and it was worth every penny. Will definitely get a Tarpon on the fly within one year. The salt has much to offer.

I've had good luck on lot's of poppers, especially Bett's brand, cone head zonkers, wooly buggers with and without rubber legs, clousers, and even articulated streamers like the circus peanut. Some more good ones are Todd's wiggle minnows, Dahlberg's divers, and crawdad imitations.