netboy

The river looked like the Mississippi river this morning at the house. We had 3.5" of rain in the guage this morning. The only option for clear water was the Dam so I headed up there. Best flies were a tiger tail and a red San Juan worm. I caught a couple on top on an elk hair caddis later in the morning. Ended the morning with a dozen nice rainbows and a bunch of brookies. I had these 4 rainbows in the 18 - 20" range...

Sorry to hear this. RIP Brother Rick

Our local TU chapter helped out at the Norfork Federal Hatchery outing for the first graders from Flippin school this morning. We had about 60 kids and the hatchery staff did a great job setting them up in groups with an inflatable (safe) archery shooting gallery, then a tour of the hatchery and then some fly fishing on Dry Run creek. I think all the kids caught a trout or two and a couple nice ones were landed and many more quick releases. Still fun to see the excitement when they catch one... and only a couple of us got a hook set in his hand by an over excited kid. Thank you barbless hooks LOL.

I met a friend at the BS Dam C&R access around 11 am when the flows went down to about 1 1/2 units. Fishing was good with a moderate hatch of caddis coming up when we got there. I had 8 takes on an elk hair dry fly and 2 nice rainbows in the net on the first wade. Then we moved upstream and found a pod of smallish brookies and had fun with them on small tiger tail flies. Probably caught a fish or had a strike on every cast. Caught around 30 of the little guys. Fun fishing and really pretty fish. Then we saw some nice rises a bit downstream and moved down and started connecting with some nice rainbows and a couple of midsize browns on the elk hair caddis dries. Here's a couple pics of the better rainbows...I caught 9 more nice size bows on the dry flies and my friend caught some also. Beautiful day to be fishing.

It was a good morning on the Norfork today. Fish were rising to midges and small caddis early and then it slowed down around 11 as the wind came up. Cracklebacks and elk hair caddis dries worked early and then I switched to a Tiger tail late morning when the bugs slowed down. Ended the day with a couple dozen rainbows and this decent brown...

We had a plumber come this morning to fix a broken pipe from the February freeze in the shop so I got a late start. Left the house at 10 and got the last parking spot at Ackerman. Ran into the usual suspects on the river. Caddis were coming up pretty strong when I got there and we all had a good time. Some of the guys were using soft hackles, but I stuck with the elk hair dries. I ended up with around 30 and missed quite a few more. All rainbows and I think the other guys had all rainbows as well. Here's a pic of one of the better ones. Great to see some low water.

I took Tina over to Norfork this afternoon and we had a good day. Water came down at the dam at 11am so we got to Ackerman access at 12:30 and it was just getting low. Caddis were coming up, but not as many as yesterday. The foam Elk Hair dry fly worked well. I set Tina up in a good spot and she had a take on the second cast and caught a nice one. We ended up with around 40 between us and had some really fat rainbows. The water came up at 4 pm, an hour earlier than expected. I switched to an olive crackleback about 30 minutes before we left and did really well with it.

I remember the ones we caught were spawned out and really skinny so they didn't fight much. I have heard the ones fresh from the sea are great fighters.

Brings back memories from trips to my grandparent's house on the Delaware river around Callicoon NY way back in the 50's. The shad would migrate up there and it was about the end of their spawning run. We were primarily fishing for smallmouths and would catch a few, but many of them would die after spawning and would be floating down the river. I do remember that the locals stripped the roe from the females and dumped the rest.

Most of the rainbows we caught were really fat as well. I guess they have been eating good with all the high water we have had.

I met a friend at Ackerman access this morning and we hiked upstream a bit to get away from the crowd. Ruby midges under an indicator worked well until it warmed up a bit and then the caddis started coming up. My friend was using tandem soft hackles and I was switching between a green crackleback and a foam elk hair caddis dry. We each caught around 30 and missed a bunch more. We had lots of 16-18" rainbows along with this fat 20" cutthroat I caught. Glad to see some low water and caddis hatching.

...

Just a guess, but they may be trying to lower the lake levels before April 15. That is when the agreement with the farmers downstream kicks in. The Newport gauge is currently at 22 feet. Bull Shoals is running all 8 generators today (21k cfs).

I launched the boat this morning and headed to an area that has been good for wade fishing. The water was up too much for wading so I anchored above the spot and drifted flies back to the slot where the fish have been holding. I use a Trac anchor system so it is pretty easy to deploy and retrieve the anchor and basically cover the water like wading. Ended the morning with a couple dozen nice rainbows and a few smaller browns. Best fly combo was a peach colored egg with a P&P midge dropper. Just before I left I saw a few caddis coming up over a big weed bed so I tied on a foam caddis dry fly and caught 2 nice rainbows on top. We should start seeing more caddis activity in the next week with some warmer weather. Here's a few pics...

They put up a good fight also. Interesting side note... I just got back from the Sowbug Roundup and showed the picture to Dave Whitlock. Dave and his wife Emily are being honored at the event this year. He was the one that started the Bonneville egg planting project. He said that pic really made his day.

We had some lower water at 1 1/2 units this morning for the first time in a couple weeks. I took the boat to Rim Shoals and ran to an area that is good wading under these conditions. Fishing was good using peach-colored eggs, P&P midges and also a couple on a Tiger tail. Caught a bunch of rainbows, 1 Bonneville cutthroat and a couple browns. Water came up around 11 am so I headed home. Going to check out the Sowbug Roundup this afternoon. It runs through Saturday, if any of you are interested here is a link... https://sowbugroundup.org/ Here's a few pics...

SWPA reduced the flows on the Norfork earlier this week since the lake is now back into power pool. We had a couple of full days of no generation and then a couple days of minimum flow until noon. Wade fishing has been good with the low water although there have been lots of people fishing. I have had the best luck using midges, ruby and P&P, along with some success stripping cracklebacks. I did see a few (very few) caddis coming up, but not enough to bother with. The caddis should start getting stronger in the next few days if we continue to have mild weather. Here's a couple of pics...

Maybe the stocking truck paid a visit???😁

Hope that wasn't in saltwater. Vibrio virus from the salt is pretty nasty stuff.

Yeah. no problem... just funny stuff. Wife keeps reminding me to watch the backcast.

I went to Wildcat access this afternoon and the stocking truck was dumping a load of trout when I got there. I like to play with those little guys and try to educate them a bit before the meat fisherman take them out. I put on a woolly bugger/spinner and was catching a fish or getting a bite on every cast. I probably caught 40 and then a gust of wind caught the fly rig and it ended up in my ear. It went through the earlobe, but the hook still had a bit of barb on it and I couldn't back it out. I didn't have any wire cutters so I headed back home and the better half cut the barb off and the hook came right out. She was laughing her A** off when I got home with that spinner dangling from my ear. Lesson learned... REALLY pinch those barbs down or just use barbless hooks.

Arkansas version of the Bad Boy lawnmower...

I always wondered how putting your hands over your head and getting under the desk was supposed to save us from a nuclear blast.

Get ready for World War 3... Baby boomer bomb shelter. Only $995.

I hear you... just gotta keep moving forward at our age. 😀