netboy

The day I wrote that I launched at Wildcat; which is in Baxter county.. The next couple of days I launched at White Hole which happens to be in Flippin and Marion county (which also has been providing some great sulphur dry fly fishing). Same amount of empty beer cans, McDonald's empty food bags and Walmart corn cans left along the bank. Took all of 2 minutes to pick them up and dump them in the Walmart gas station trash can on the way home.

Well that all sounds good, but I don't think our Flippin police department has a Flippin forensic unit so I guess I am Flippin out of luck....😁 Guess I will continue to pick up the trash cause I hate seeing it there and the trash fairies have yet to make an appearance.

So you are saying I shouldn't pick up the 6 beer cans and other crap the slobs left at the Wildcat access picnic table and I should call the Baxter county sheriff to come bring the forensic team to gather the evidence and get fingerprints???

Back in Corpus Christi they were known as bay snapper. The meat was as good as red snapper and sold for $8-$10 a pound filleted. The drum down there fed mostly on small clams they got out of the bottom. Easy way to find where they were feeding was to look for what they called "drum noodles" those were many small dimples in the bottom where the drum would blow out sand when they scented the clams. Looked like a bunch of small craters.

When we lived on North Padre Island (Corpus Christi) we used to catch quite a few saltwater black drum. We liked the meat better than redfish or speckled sea trout. There is a thriving commercial market for them down there. They are not considered a game fish like the redfish and speckled trout so it is legal to sell them. The commercial guys catch them on long trotlines. They were fun to catch on a fly rod as they feed in very shallow water and it is mostly a stalking game and then sight casting to them. As Johnsfolly said, the larger ones (over about 25") are not worth keeping as the meat is coarse and they typically have worms in the meat. I have never caught a freshwater drum, but I don't see why they wouldn't be great eating.

Those are some weird looking fish... We used to see them swimming around our underwater lights at our house on North Padre island and they looked like birds flying in the water.

A simple solution to help is take a couple of trash bags with you and pick up some of the trash. Our local Trout Unlimited guys have volunteered to take care of some of the accesses here on the White river and we have 2 stretches of roads, the entrance to Rim Shoals and about 2 miles of Denton Ferry road around Wildcat that we clean a couple of times a year. Yes there are a bunch of slobs up here but you can do something to help. Take out more than you brought in.

Gotcha

Yeah, I just watched the 2 videos on Taney. I doubt he gave away any super secret spots at the outlet. 😁

I launched the boat at White Hole access this morning and ran to a large weed bed that has been providing good sulphur dry fly fishing this past week. They were running around 5 units so the water was too high to wade. I anchored the boat above the area and drifted a size 16 foam body sulphur dry fly back to the rising trout. Had a fun morning with a couple dozen to the net and probably missed another dozen. Had one really nice brown that broke the 6x tippet. It was mostly rainbows, but I did get these two pretty browns...

I clicked the follow button. Good to see kids interested in fishing and the outdoors instead of sitting in the basement on their "devices". I watched his video on fishing the outlets at Taneycomo and was blown away by the underwater sequence at outlet 2. I have only fished Taney once and did not go to the outlets. Are the fish really stacked up there like that? Must be a real zoo if that is the case.

Cool.... We have one cast iron skillet that I use every now and then. We have a Meyer commercial grade stainless 14" fry pan that we use most every morning for eggs or saute cooking. Also have a nice Lodge enamel Dutch oven for the slow cooking stuff.

Wow, you must really like cast iron.🙂

The movie event was a great evening. We started with our local TU chapter meeting under the pavilion in Cotter Park and then moved to the area under the Cotter Rainbow bridge for the movies. They raised $4,000 to help complete the Roundhouse Shoals access project and our TU chapter sold all the remaining raffle tickets for the Jackson Mayfly kayak. The winner was announced and congrats to him. I think he was from Memphis?? Also funny that the big door prize which was a full day fly fishing trip with Steve Dally was won by our TU head GURU Bill Thorne. That should be a great trip as Bill and Steve are are probably the best two fly fishermen on the river. I am sure we will hear some stories on this one. Here is a recap from Dally's website... AWESOME EVEING: f3T UNDER THE BRIDGE – The Ozark Fly Fisher Journal (wordpress.com)

Maybe MDC should take some lessons from Arkansas Game and Fish on how to manage their cold water fisheries. What a shame that the North Fork of the White took such a hit from the floods a few years ago and they won't stock trout.

Sorry to hear this. What a shame for MDC. Those trout parks were a great resource to get kids into fly fishing. I haven't been to Bennett Springs since I was kid in the early 60's when we lived in Florissant and it was where I learned to fly fish with my Dad. I can remember wading out to secure your favorite spot and waiting for 30 minutes until the siren went off and then cast your brown woolly worm and spinner awkwardly on a fly rod and catch the stockers they dumped the night before. After that wore off we had great fun fishing our favorite fly, Australian Possum Fur scud, that my Dad got the "magic" fur from some guy in Kansas City (I think his name was Glenn Bennett??). Also remember a black/chartturece marabou jig that worked great. We fished some with Pete and Marie Cento who both held the Missouri state record rainbows for some time. Interesting that a friend of mine up here in Cotter also learned fly fishing at Bennett with his Dad and his favorite fly here on the White river is the same old black/chartturece marabou jig. Guess the trout haven't changed their appetite much in 60 years. Great memories. Are all the other trout parks in that bad of shape?

I went to the Ackerman access again this morning and had a good morning. Things started off kind of slow with very little surface activity, but a Ruby midge caught a few. Then around 9 the fog burned off and the bugs started to appear. There were mostly sulphurs along with a few caddis. I had the best luck on a size 16 foam body sulphur dry fly and also caught a few on an elk hair caddis. Ended the morning with a Norfork slam; lots of rainbows, 1 brown, 1 nice cutthroat (pic attached) and a small brookie. Also heard that Bill Ackerman (namesake of said access) passed away this week in Fayetteville. Here is a link to his obituary... Obituary for William Nelson "Bill" Ackerman, Fayetteville, AR (nwaonline.com)

A quick update 6/18... I went back again this morning and there very few fish rising early. Caught a few on a crackleback early and then around 9 they started rising. There was a mix of a few caddis and more sulphurs than yesterday. Ended up being a good morning using a foam body sulphur dry fly. I was able to sight cast this nice 20" rainbow and she put on quite a show.

I have a couple of the 1000 and a 2000. The 1000 is an ultralight and the 2000 is probably better for all around fishing.

Well I am not much of a spin fisher, but when the water here on the White river comes up too much to wade, I do have a couple of spinning rigs. I use the Okuma Celilo 6.5 rod rod which is about 30 bucks and then one of these super cheapo reels from China. They are 12 ball bearings and are equal to a $200 Shimano Stradic that I recovered from the bottom of the White river. I haven't had a problem with these reels and the drag works perfectly.. for $15 bucks a pop they will work. High Speed Fishing Reel Powerful Spinning Reel 12BB Alumium Spool 17.6lb Drag | eBay

They have increased the flows on the White river this week but they have been keeping Norfork at minimum flow until around 1pm. I fished over there this week and the fishing has been good. A size 20 Griffith's gnat or Parachute Adams has worked early in the slow water areas where the trout are after midges. Then around 9am there were a few caddis and sulphurs coming up so the elk hair caddis and orange crackleback worked well. After that a Y2K/ruby midge combo worked. I caught a couple dozen this morning including this nice rainbow on a size 20 Griffith's. Hopefully the low water will continue over there.

They have been running 1 unit the last few mornings which is ideal for wading some of the areas in the C&R area at the dam. There are still a few caddis coming up but also seeing some sulphurs in the mix. Yesterday they wanted the elk hair caddis and this morning they weren't too interested in it. I tried sulphur dries, CDC emergers and then tried stripping a crackleback and that was the ticket this morning. Caught around 20 including some nice rainbows and this pretty cutthroat. I think the cutties are really colored up right now for the spawn. Also missed a bunch on the crackleback by setting the hook too soon. The water came up unexpectedly around 10:30 (no horn) so I called it a day. The trout are really getting fat up there.

If any of you guys plan to be around Cotter next weekend then please plan to come for some fun and a great fly fishing film show. All proceeds will go towards the completion of the Roundhouse Shoals access project. This is a project of Trout Unlimited, North Arkansas Fly Fishers, the city of Cotter and AGFC . The current status of the access is a new parking area, multiple stairs down to the river and a partial trail along the river. The funds will be used to add more trails and stairs down to river as well as another gravel parking area by the waste water plant. This is a great public access and I fished there this morning and had some good caddis action. Here is link with more details.... f3t: UndeR the bridge to aid fishing access – The Ozark Fly Fisher Journal (wordpress.com)

I went to the Bull Shoals Dam C&R this morning and it was a strange morning. Fish were rising early but it was hard to get a bite. No caddis coming up but they were feeding on something in the surface film and not slurping on top. I caught a few on a size 18 Parachute Adams and missed a few more. Then around 10am when the fog burned off the caddis came up and there were fish everywhere. Well, that only lasted about 20 minutes and it was great while it lasted. Probably caught a dozen nice ones on the caddis and then it shut down. Then around 11am it started again and lots of bugs and willing trout. That lasted an hour until the horn went off at noon and it was great. Here's a few pics...

So sorry to hear this. Hope you have a great trip. Those reds are a blast to catch. 😀