netboy

We have an inch or 2 here in Flippin/Cotter also.

Thanks for the ID Billethead and Nomolites... The pizza turned out great and we are still alive. We have been making fresh mozzarella cheese and then making fresh pizza dough with the leftover whey. Put together a great pizza tonight with the mushrooms and fresh mozzarella and good Italian sausage from Allen's market in Summit and fresh basil and oregano from the garden. It seems the mushrooms almost take on the texture and taste of the mozzarella. We see a few more mushrooms popping up so maybe we are on to something. Here is a pic of the leftovers...

We were planning on homemade sausage pizza tonight, so I'll slice it and add it.

Thanks for the help, guys.

Wife found this thing in the yard. I think it may be a brain mushroom, but not sure. Can any of you mushroom experts confirm? Also, is it edible?

Well, I've seen 2 guys thrown out of their boats in the last 2 weeks on minimum flow on the White and I imagine the landing wasn't pleasant amongst the rocks in less than a foot of water. My point is, be careful and know your line through the shoals, or if you don't know the line, then don't even try.

I walked down the new access path at Rim Shoals this morning to check it out and do some wading. The path is somewhat overgrown, but our local TU chapter is meeting there tomorrow morning at 9 to clear the new growth. If any of you are going to be in the area, we could use all the help we can get. We bring string trimmers, loppers and chainsaws. We will also have a pizza lunch from Nima's in Gassville, which is pretty darn good. Another event tomorrow will be Davy Wotten doing a seminar and fly tying demos at the state park visitor center at Bull Shoals dam Saturday and Sunday. Here is a link... Davy Wotton free classes this weekend – The Ozark Fly Fisher Journal (wordpress.com) All that said, fishing was good, and I ended up with a couple dozen nice rainbows and 1 decent brown. I also saw another boating incident. A couple of guys (didn't appear to be a guide this time) came motoring slowly down the Marion county side of the river. They were in a Supreme with Yamaha jet and they bumped a bunch of rocks on the way down. Then a couple of hours later they came back upriver. They took it slow and hit a few rocks in the shoal and then when they got through the last shoal, they powered up. They ran about 100 feet and hit a big rock and the boat made a sharp turn and threw the driver out. Apparently, he didn't have his kill switch attached as the boat went into a spin. The guy in the front was able to get back to the motor and get it under control and finally get the driver back in the boat. That is the second incident I have seen in the last few weeks of someone thrown out their boat. Most people think these rivers are dangerous at high flows, but I have witnessed more problems at minimum flow. Bottom line... connect your kill switch and take it slow on these low flows. Or just leave the boat at home and put on the waders. I haven't had my boat out in 2 months. Here is a pic of the brown...

That's a good one for sure. Congrats

I just tie what is working for the time of year. Caddis dries and green cracklebacks in the spring, sulphur dries and yellow cracklebacks in the summer, eggs in the fall/winter and midges and scuds all year long. Here is a decent brown that took an egg this morning at Rim Shoals...

If the landowners didn't want you in there, wouldn't they simply put up some No Trespassing signs?

I'll try to get down there one evening.

I went to the boat ramp access at the dam this morning. They were running 1 unit so I was limited to fishing close to the shoreline. I still ended up having a good morning with a couple dozen rainbows, 1 brown, 1 cutthroat and a couple brookies. Best flies were eggs and scuds. About the time I was getting ready to leave I hooked a really nice rainbow and had fun fighting it for about 10 minutes. Turned out to be 24". There were lots of guide boats out, but I was the only wader. Here's a few pics...

There are multiple ways to set up a tandem rig. This is how I do it (minus the split shot)...

I usually fish them as the trailing fly in a tandem rig setup under an indicator. The lead fly is usually a beaded egg pattern or some sort of nymph such as a pheasant tail or prince nymph, both with a bead to get the rig down.

As far as midges, here on the White and Norfork rivers you can't go wrong with a simple bead head ruby midge (red body and black ribbing) or a P&P bead head midge (tan body and copper wire ribbing).

With all the great places to wade, I never take my boat out during low flows.

I went to the dam C&R access and had a good morning. Caught some really nice rainbows and hooked a big Golden. I saw him holding downstream and tried a couple of different flies and he finally took a scud. Had him on for 2 or 3 minutes with some nice runs and then the hook just pulled out. He looked to be around 22" and fat. I saw him a couple more times, but I guess he learned his lesson as he showed no interest in anything I had. Best flies were scuds and eggs. Later in the morning there was what looked to be a guide with 2 fishermen in a Supreme with a Merc 60/40 jet that was drifting the Baxter shoreline below the Baxter boat ramp. I guess he decided to run up to the dam as he gunned it and then took the wrong line going through the shoal just above the boat ramp. I heard him hit a rock and saw the boat go sideways. One of the fishermen then flew out of the boat while still in his seat. The boat was wedged sideways against the rocks and the guide jumped out of the boat and got the guy and the seat back in the boat. He had to push the boat back into deeper water and then motored upstream and beached the boat on the shoreline. Hope the guy wasn't hurt too badly, but I imagine he had some bruises as the water was only a few inches deep. I left shortly after that. I bet the guide didn't get much of a tip at the end of the day. Here is a pic of one of the better rainbows...

Interesting story about Dusty, Billy Gibbons and the ZZtop band. Back in 60's we lived in a suburb of Houston and after I moved out a new neighbor moved in across the street. Turns out he was a professional music mixer from Nashville and did lots of mixing and fill in guitar work for a number of bands, one being the ZZ Top band. My parents, who were well into their 70's. always talked about the weirdo guys coming over there and would tell the us that the "Easy Top" guys were over there again today.

Another pic of the golden...

I waded at the Roundhouse Shoals access this morning and had a pretty good morning. I ended up with a couple dozen stocker rainbows, 1 nice golden rainbow and another decent size rainbow (at least for a catch and keep area). I saw the golden holding just downstream from me and I was using a tan scud under an indicator. I could see him swim over to investigate the fly a couple of times, but he never took it. I changed to a ruby midge and had the same result, a couple of looks, but no takes. Next, I put on a size 16 egg pattern and after a couple casts he finally ate it. Best flies this morning were the scud and a pale yellow egg pattern. Here's a couple of pics....

Phil, I don't think O2 is much of a problem on the White and Norfork. The White has many miles of shoals that add oxygen to the water. The Norfork had problems with low O2 since it was only 5 miles long. They solved the problem on the Norfork with the siphon that can take water out of different levels of the lake where the O2 is best at that particular time and then it defuses it at the nozzle which adds more O2. The fish seem healthy and always put up a good fight and swim away strong.

Water levels have been mostly low in the mornings recently. Yesterday they ran 2 generators for an hour or so early and then went back to minimum flow for an hour and then made an unscheduled change and increased it to 1 full generator for the remainder of the morning. Today they skipped the scheduled bump early and ran minimum flow all morning. So basically, it's hard to second guess what the flows will actually be on any given day. Best strategy is to just go and deal with the flows you get. This morning was good fishing with the low water. I caught some nice rainbows, 1 pretty cutthroat, a couple brookies and a tiger. I caught the biggest rainbow (the one in the last picture) on top using a small hopper. I saw him come up a couple of times, so I changed to the hopper and he took it on the second pass. The best flies for numbers were small egg patterns and scuds. Here's a few pics...

The article says they put a cameraman in the boat that day. I wonder how they were able to stuff those weights into the fish with him in the boat.

I think that once they get established in the river and start feeding on the natural bugs (scuds, sowbugs, snails, caddis, etc.) they get much more color. Same goes for the rainbows and cutties and browns.

Yes, he did. Made some nice runs and cleared the water twice.