netboy

My daughter and her family came in last night and will stay for New Year's. I took her wading at the Cotter access this morning and we had a good time. On the way in, I saw a big brown in the shallows that just recently died. I didn't see any signs of wounds or mishandling. It is a shame to see such a great fish dead, but I bet the raccoons will eat well tonight. We ended up catching around 3 dozen rainbows between us including a couple fatties. Best fly today was a white eggstacy egg under an indicator. Here is a pic of the brown and one of the better rainbows...

I'm not that mad at them. Got a nice fire going and watching the football bowl games this afternoon/evening.

Impressive stuff... you guys are quite the craftsmen.

I wanted to get in one more day of fishing before the bad weather hits us on Thursday, so I took the boat up to the state park. Ran down to Dew Eddy Shoal, anchored up and put the waders on. I saw a few redds and one of them had a pair of active rainbows on it. I tied on a new egg pattern that I have been experimenting with made out of Eggstacy egg yarn. They claim the yarn makes a "slushy" looking egg when in the water and the trout holding below the redds certainly liked it. I fished for about 3 hours and ended with a couple dozen nice rainbows, 3 browns and 2 brookies. I did have one really nice brown that looked to be in the mid 20's come up and check out my indicator, but no luck getting him to take the fly. Here's a couple of the browns...

Here is a picture of some reds on the prowl. We had very little tidal movement in the Laguna Madre so the reds would move into the wind blown current. Pretty challenging fishing, but exciting when it all came together. One bad cast into the middle of the pod and they were gone... a good cast out in front of the pod and they were fighting for your fly.

The saltwater fly fishing along the lower Texas coast where I used to live did require much more casting skill than fishing a river for trout. It was mostly wade fishing in very shallow water and sight casting to redfish that were either tailing or cruising in water so shallow that their backs were out of the water. It was very similar to bonefishing on the sandy flats, but I think the reds were even spookier than the few bonefish I have caught. Once you see a redfish or a pod of fish, you need to wade into position to intercept them as they were always moving. Next you need to place your fly a couple feet ahead of them so as not to spook them. All this with the prevailing winds that usually are blowing. Also, it did require a fairly long cast as they would spook if you got too close.

The COE opened the spillway gates at the dam on Wednesday. The lake is only about a foot over power pool so I don't think it will last long. I drove to the dam yesterday and didn't see any evidence of a shad kill and only a couple bank fisherman.

I don't know about you guys, but I rarely cast much more than 10 feet when nymphing or dry fly fishing. The most important thing is mending the line to making a drag free drift downstream to your target. I have much better line control going on a straight downstream mend.

So, was there a flood that caused this?

SWPA has been giving us minimum flows on the Norfork for the last few days and the fishing has been good. I fished below the dam yesterday and then made a trip to Ackerman this morning. I had the best luck with eggs and scuds fished under an indicator. Ended the morning with a couple dozen nice size rainbows, 2 cutthroats and 1 medium size brown. Looks like more rain again tomorrow and then some sunny days after that. Here's a couple of the better ones from this morning...

Don't know if you are aware, but the this is going on in Qatar, which is an Arab country, and no beer or booze is allowed...

With the colder weather the last couple of days, SWPA has been increasing generation starting early morning and then shutting down around noon. I made an early trip to Roundhouse and had a good morning. Water was at minimum flow when I started at 8:00 and then started coming up around 10:30. Best flies today were a white egg with a ruby midge dropper and then later in the morning, a tan crackleback stripped just under the surface. Ended the morning with a couple dozen rainbows and 1 average size brown. Here's a pic of the biggest rainbow...

So sorry to hear this. I learned a lot about fly fishing from attending a couple of his seminars. Also, one of the nicest guys you would ever want to spend time with.

I also probably average around 50% when using a crackleback, so don't feel bad. I tend to set the hook too early when I see the strike. I mentioned that to Davy Wooten and he had two suggestions... 1. Use a longer, more limber rod that creates more cushion. 2. Hold the rod tip higher as this creates a bigger belly in the line and slows the hookset a bit.

With the recent cold weather, we have been having high water in the mornings on the upper portion of the river. With that said, I have been exploring some of the accesses farther downstream. This morning I tried the Cartney walk-in access, which is below Buffalo City. The water was still falling out from last night's generation which limited my wading to close to the shoreline. I started out using a Y2K under an indicator and caught quite a few rainbows and 1 cutthroat. About 10:00 the water dropped enough that I was able to wade across to the other side of the river. I switched to a tiger tail and caught some bigger rainbows and this pretty brown. Overall, a good morning and I didn't see anyone else all morning.

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?