ksbass

Thanks guys. What are the shoals like? Is this wadable riffles and pools? Would we need our canoe? We'd probably fish this on thursday or friday. I'll give Gary a call and set something up. thanks, troy

My son and I are headed to Norfork next week and plan to camp Wed through Sat below the dam. Seth asked for a DRC trip for his 14th b-day. Happy to oblidge! We also hope to fish the Norfork during no gen like last year. We'd also like to venture out and try the White. We've read about the Rim shoals water taxi and would like some more details. Where is this at and how do you set things up? Wade fishing along the white sounds great. Any other recommended spot for a father and son to hit? We've also read about Spring River and it sounds good too. How far away is it from Norfork dam? Is it canoe-friendly? Any other place close by? Warm water for smallies would be fun too. Thanks, Troy

We were thinking swamp... minus the gators and moccasins. Yes, this was some tough casting and fighting. Only lost one to the branches. We also decided some video will be in order next time. I'd really like to get on tape when one of the big spiders dives in the canoe and crawls up Seths leg again. Lucky the water is only 18" deep and he wouldn't drown if he went overboard. Forgot to mention we also watched a bald eagle soar above its nest. Same pair as last year. Won't be long and the youngins will be at the nest edge. Beautiful day to be out! How was the wb?

With all the crappie guys at the far end of the lake... My son, Seth, and I hit the carp willows at Hillsdale lake today and fished for several hours. The carp are in the willows in the muddy shallows in abundance. We took the canoe in after them and we did well. Seth ended with 8 and I with 4. He outdid me in numbers and size. His largest was close to 12 lbs. His personal best. All were caught on a #10 dark olive leech fished 6" below a small indicator. In the trees too. Some were a challenge to wrangle out. The fish were on the surface clooping along logs, branches and some in open water. Lots of carp. Not in the crazy spawn mode but lots of cloopers. Its close though. Here's the pics. You can see the trees we were in. ksbass and son...

Triz, What technique/flies do you typically use for carp in your area? The crazy carp spawning season is almost upon us and they are very active the weeks prior to the spawn. We have found that they congregate in large numbers in the shallows and are near the surface clooping on nothing in particular. Atleast nothing big like fluff or seed pods, etc. More of a social gathering thing it seems. Last year this behaviour peaked on Mother's day weekend. We did very well fishing for them using a #10 dark olive leech fished 8" below a very small indicator. Stealth is important! We would manuveur the canoe close to them and cast ahead of their general direction of travel. The carp would approach the indicator, sometimes sucking it in and spit it out, then dive. Most of the time they would grab the leech. High odds even that this would result in a hook up. Don't do a heavy hookset though as you're likely to pull it out too soon. Just raise the rod. The carp will turn sharply as if hit with a cattle prod and you have a fish on. Later, like late May to mid June, when the fluff and berries start falling you can catch them on top with the cottonwood seed flies and the mulberries. We did well on the berry flies even two weeks before they were actually ripe and falling. Carp seem to know the "plop" sound of a tasty berry and respond to the fly. Carp on a "dry" fly are very challenging and very slow on the take. Later in the season once they get into the tailing only mode, catching them becomes more challenging. We haven't got that totally figured out yet. Here's some of the flies we use for carp in the KC area. The leech and mulberry are the primary flies for us. Goodluck, ksbass

DaddyO, I'd recommend a 5 1/2' 5-wt thread based floating furled leader for starters... I really like the thread based furled leaders for single rig nymphing, soft hackles, and dry flys. They float well - nice drift, have no memory (thingamabobber won't kink them up), turn-over decent and present a dry fly really nicely. They do have some stretch to them which I feel helps to prevent light tippet breakage on a hookset or hard run. Yes they will twist some. But I haven't found it a real problem or felt I lost a fish because of it. I prefer the monofilament based furled leaders for fishing heavier stuff, streamers, multi-fly rigs and large top water stuff. They do have some memory and can be kinked with a thingy, but turn over very positively. If I need to go deeper I use the fluoro based furled leaders since they sink. Try stripping a crackleback on a fluoro furled leader down at Taney. A good time will be had! Length is somewhat a personal preference\part task. Given I usually fish for trout at Bennett or Roaring River with a single nymph, soft hackle or dry, I generally like my total leader length to be about rod's length. So for my 7' 3-wt small stream rig I typically use a 4-5' thread furled leader with 2-3' of 6x tippet. For my 9' 4-wt rig I will use a 6' furled leader with 3' of tippet. This lets me land and release a fish without having to pull the leader butt through the guides. Like I said a personal preference. When I'm bass (or carp) fishing with my 9' 7-wt rig and throwing something heavy or big & light, I use a 4' mono based furled leader and only 2' of 8lb tippet. The shorter length assures positive turn-over but with a heavier landing. If I'm in some serious cover I use the spiderwire furled leaders. They have zero stretch, no memory, extremely strong, float well and turn over better than thread but not as well as mono. Are furled leaders for everyone? Maybe, maybe not. In general, furled leaders perform well when matched to the application. They cast well, resist wind knots, and last a long time. The tiny tippet ring makes tippet changes quick and easy. I found furled leaders when teaching my son to flyfish. On one Bennett trip we went through 5 knotless tapered leaders that ended in birdnests on his rod in one morning. We tried some furled leaders and were impressed. I stumbled into making my own when I wanted to experiment and add what I thought were improvements. My daughter Emma joined me in the endeavor and we're currently making 30+/month. We enjoy feedback from our customers and the challenge of a making a new style to meet a particular need. Give us a try. Hope this helps. -ksbass

Bum, PM me your address and I'll send you one to try. Let me know your rod weight and what you want it to do, float/sink/nymph/dry, etc. Offer goes to anyone on OA Forum... well ok... to the next ten replies. Wrench, You too. I've got a furled leader breed without the twist. It floats very good and is very strong. We call it the stealth spider. I originally developed it for bass and carp in heavy timber on a 7-wt rig. We can make one in just about any weight. We scaled it down for a guy in Jeff City as a 3' - 2/3-wt. and it's now one of our best sellers. We also can use a micro swivel instead of the tippet ring if twisting is a concern. PC, Thanks for the endorsement! Let me know next time. I just saw the post today. My daughter and I are making the furled leaders to support her wildlife charities, savings, and spending money. Emma plans to donate the next $100 in profits to the Dry Run Creek restoration project in Northern Arkansas along the Norfork. She's already donated several hundred dollars to the World Wildlife Fund and "adopted" several threatened animals. For a 10-yr old she's quite a selfless caregiver to the planet. We're very proud of her. Here's a few shots from our recent Easter trip to Dry Run Creek at the Norfork tailwaters in northern Arkansas. Emma and I camped Thurs through Sunday. A "product testing" trip. Beautiful weather and redbuds and dogwoods were blooming. Great father/daugher trip. We worked on many techniques and I will proudly say she is a quick learner. This is really tight quarters fishing, lots of tree hazards, with no room for back casting in some fast moving water. She quickly picked up on roll casts and flip casts and great line mending control. I believe girls are easier to teach to flyfish than boys. She took the 26" brute on her own tied pink SJW and the brown on her own designed Scoubi Snack - a plastic tubing nymph. She used a thread based Em's Pink Bubblegum furled leader the whole trip on her 7' 3-wt rod. If you're ever at Lilley's Landing, check out our leaders there. Phil stocks some of them there. BTW - the improvements they have made at Dry Run Creek are awesome. If you've got a <16 yr old. Take them to DRC. It's a beautiful stream that happens to hold some nice fish! Thanks! ksbass

PC, Nice! Dang! you've got Seth and I a wishin' we'd been fishin' today. What were the hot flies today? I'd guess an olive leech. Nice report! Troy

I'm here.

Thom, My son and I hit BSSP today (Sunday the 18th). The water is running very nice and strong. There's a definite tinge and sight fishing wasn't happening much unless in the sun with a fish right on top. From the dam to the bend, we brought to hand around 30 between us which was good for us considering we hadn't been down for a month or so. We caught some on pink and brown sjw, tan scuds, y2k, a couple on dries, but the best most productive pattern was a golden brown marabou midge in #18 size. The fish are really fiesty now and with the fast water, really bend the rod. There were several fellow anglers in the early AM but by 11 they cleared out and a few times we had the high bank area and riffles to our selves. Be prepared for a bunch of falling leaves. It frosted heavy last night and once the wind picked up, the leaves were thick. The fall foliage is awesome this year and you will enjoy that for sure! The best part... Was a super day to spend with my son at Bennett!! Watching Seth sight fish to a rainbow after some ants, hooking him on his own tied dry, fighting and finally releasing it sure made me proud! Be sure to report back. Troy

My family camped and fished Sat-Tuesday at the park. Spent alot of time in the C&R area. Saturday afternoon was really good in the middle section below the riffles. Several kids were wading upstream in the shallow area right above the riffles. The water was riled with the activity but the fish didn't seem to mind. My son and I caught several on olive scuds, brown SJW and I tried out my version of the Japanese beetles. The foam beetles produced well and were great fun. Sunday morning I hit the C&R riffles early. I was met with a cloud of Tricos. I hadn't seen this much hatch ever. Below the riffles the fish were boiling the surface. I thought this was going to be fun. Wrong! I didn't have a close trico fly in my pack and tried several different dry patterns on 7x to no avail. Zippo. The trout were taking the tricos all around my fly but not the fly. I gave up and tied on a brown SJW. 6 fish in 10 casts. I felt much better. The hatch was over by 8:30 with the cloud of zig-zagging tricos all but gone. Later I stopped by Tims for some advice on the Tricos. I bought a few #22 tricos and tied a few others. We fished some in zone 2 later in the afternoon and had good luck with the beetles again along the far bank under the shady spots. Mostly dinks. Good action and great long distance casting practice though. Monday morning was going to be different. I again hit the C&R riffles this time armed with the trico flys. The hatch was much lighter but I did manage 3 on the tiny #22 tricos. Thanks Tim. The action was much slower in that area so I walked up towards dry hollow to fish the shallows. I noticed a large spider web totally full of live tricos. The web was perfectly shaped and I'm sure the spider was busy if not really full. I didn't have my camera at that moment but came back an hour or so later and took this shot. The web had been blown apart from the wind but there were still a bunch of trapped bugs. The shallows brought more trout on the beetles. I got hungry so I headed back to the camp for breakfast. My family decided we needed a trout meal for supper so we hit the park and Emma caught 3 on pink SJWs. The crowd got big so we headed to Z2 to catch a few more for supper. The fresh fried trout and taters sure were good. We all decided we needed another trout meal to go with the sweet corn a friend gave us so I fished zone 2 Tuesday AM. I started in the lower end and again witnessed a decent trico hatch. I hooked one on the trico fly but that was it. I did turn several with a cream SJW including 2 very nice fish but brought nothing to hand in the first hour. As the crowd cleared I moved up and noticed some risers along the far bank in the chain-link fence area. I tied on a foam beetle and caught six in 45 minutes including 4 nice keepers. We had a great early lunch then hooked up and headed home. Nice weekend. Awesome weather and decent fishing.

Zach, Check here for the latest water level at Bennett. Bennett Spring Level. The rain hasn't budged the level at all so far. Low, nearly clear and perfect. I was there as well last Sunday. I'm quite the rooky, but did well just up from the dam on a #14 cream bodied peacock thorax soft hackle fished solo and with a split shot under an indicator. Good luck, Troy

Sorry about that. Make sure you go easy with the super glue and only use the liquid kind as it drys fast and makes it easier. Hey I'll trade you a few mulberry flies for your favorite tie. They sure stay on the hook better than real mulberries though. They are very durable too. They survive even the sharpest carp teeth!! Here's a shot from last Saturday. This tree was dumping like mad. For whatever reason though there were only a couple carp under it though. We ended up picking a bag full of super ripe berries that were the best I've eaten. You should have seen the canoe bottom too. It was loaded from the berries falling into it. Also a shot of the two types of mulberries on our place. Who knew there were white mulberries? They are sweeter too. Troy

Sure. It's here. Island Park Mulberry Fly Recipe I get to shift gears (from carp to trout) next week and spend all week in Branson with my wife and kids attending my daughter's nationals dance competition. The warden said Seth and I could spend 3 of the 6 days fishing. Never been before, but thought we'd give Taney a try. I think we're geared but could use some guidance. Any help would be appreciated. We'll be wade fishing with flyrods. Troy

You might try a floating mulberry fly or something like that for your mystery fish. I just posted in the carp section about our luck with mulberry flies for carp. Even without a tree dropping berries they are very interested in them. They know a good thing when they see it. troy

We've been doing well this spring catching carp on the flyrod and having a blast. First it was dark #10 mohair leeches 8" under a smalll indicator and now it's floating mulberry flies. I noticed the immature mulberries a couple weeks ago and decided to tye up a few foam mulberries. They were an instant success even though there were no mulberry trees with dropping berries. They know! I am gaining more and more respect for carp. If you ever thought a trout was a picky eater just try carp on top. I had one guy inspect my mulberry for no less than 30 seconds with both eyes before he slooowly came up and finally sucked it in. You have to slowly raise your rod otherwise it's easy to pull the fly out of his mouth. Troy

What is the water clarity in the lake you're catching the cats in? Over here in eastern ks the lake and inlet I've been canoeing is very muddy (vis about 6") but the bait fisherman are tearing up the c-cats on minnows and shad and flats on bluegill. We've been targeting carp on top and doing well. I did catch a nice cat on a dark leech but wasn't after them. I might give it a try though with the white buggers. I found some great log jams that almost smell of cats. In my childhood we would have hit the jams with stinkbait and done well. Thanks a bunch for the post. You certainly have a good thing going! Troy

We hit Dry Run Creek Easter Weekend. All four of us plus the dog went camping this time. Fishing was decent. Not quite as fast and furious as in Dec but fun for the kids all the same. Emma picked right up on the fly fishing and landed 41 fish. One really nice 18” rainbow and a nice 16” brown. She hooked a mid-20” sized rainbow and fought it for 20 seconds or so before it threw the hook. It was a mammoth. Not bad for her first-time flyrodding it! Seth caught 37 trout and thus was outfished by his little sister but he did land the biggest fish, a 19” rainbow. Emma fished Friday and Sat evenings when Seth didn’t. He brought a cold with him and wasn’t running at 100%. Pink wasn't the color this time, instead, light brown San Juan worms were the ticket. The lightweight 7' 3-wt outfits worked out well for both Seth and Emma. The campground at Norfork dam is really nice. We had a beautiful spot overlooking the river and weren't crowded at all. The actual fishing at DRC was almost empty. Several times we had the creek to ourselves. As you can see, the creek was picture perfect. The redbuds busting out everywhere and the hills were alive with striking white Dogwoods. It was chilly (40's) and breezy on Friday when we got there and nice and sunny on Sat. The rain moved in on Sunday around noontime. We packed up the camper in heavy rain and headed home. We really needed another day down there for such a long distance to travel (6 hrs) but we all had a great time and a week to recover!

And I thought you were a couple days late with an April Fools Day Photoshop gag... http://www.rioproducts.com/product.php?recKey=140 Guess not! I gotta have it! Carp from a canoe on my favorite rig spooled with Rio-Carp. Man I can almost smell the anise oil! Can hardly wait. I wonder if they need any beta testers? Troy

After having gone through the "first time" flyrodding experience with my son this past summer I now have an affinity for furled leaders. From my list of what my son and I learned this past year. It's #1. 1) Furled leader with metal tippet ring - We started out with the mono tapered leaders and I was continually swapping rods with my son to untangle the major messes. I went through 5 or 6 tapered leaders the first day alone. I had never seen so many knots and tangles! Paolacat then recommended the furled leaders and oh man that really helped. Way fewer knots and with the tippet ring it makes it much easier and faster to just cut off the knotted tippet and tie on another piece. No more blood knots. No more frustration. The single best investment we made for sanity sake. I started with the mono furled type without the silver tippet rings then tried the F-C mono with tippet ring. Nice but pricey and also takes a "set" if you use the thingamabobber-type indicator on it. I searched the web and found a guy in Indiana selling all sorts of furled leaders. Nice (low) prices too. I ordered several types and gave them a try. I settled on his Mystic River ones (they are $6 with shipping) that are thread except for the last foot or so, that is 1 lb mono. These work well for us. Mike's site is http://www.streamsideleaders.com/ He makes them in whatever color of thread, length or weight you want. They are all custom but only take a few days to get them. Troy

TJ Nice! Isn't DRC great! Did you see those battle scared brutes? The setting is wonderful with the trees and all. Over the bank and you're in a remote stream somewhere. My son Seth already has item 1 on next years Christmas list. Can you guess? My 9 yr old daughter thinks that she'd like to try some of her own tied flies at DRC. My son is headed to Montana (with his flyrod) for 3 weeks with the G-parents and Emma and I might sneak down to DRC for a couple days. She'd get a kick out of outdoing her bro on one of those lunkers. Thanks for the report and girl with trout pic! P.S. Does anyone have the Norfork Tailwater campground phone number? Are canoes allowed down the Norfork? Float from the dam to the Ackerman access? Troy

On the lighter side of funny... I watched a guy walk down to the stream and vigorously wash his fly box in the water. Puzzled, I had to ask why... He grinned and said that he had faced a real dilemma just minutes before when he was in the port-a-john and dropped his flybox in the pit! He said he just couldn't leave $100 worth of flies in there. Thus he did what any real fly fisherman would have done!

PC Glad you made it back down there. We stopped through on Friday. There were more anglers on Friday than the previous three trips down there. Weather for us was warm and windy! I brought 12 to hand and Seth landed 8, including a nice 3 lber with no help. White marabou midges were the ticket for us. I watched a guy land a nice 8 lber on a Y2K below dry hollow. Then his fishing buddy backed over his rod and smashed it while taking his picture. I loaned him my spare for the rest of the day. He is in the military and headed out to SC for duty and this was his last RRSP for a while. I was glad to help him out. kbs

DRC was a blast! 709 miles round trip and worth every minute in the van! After fishing RRSP on Friday, Seth fished DRC all day Saturday, even through the rain, all but two hours of Sunday and today till around 1. What an awesome place to take a kid. Once you're over the bank you feel like you're in some remote stream. Seth caught several fish. He didn't land any of the monsters. Hooked a few but the biggest at hand was one in the 8-10 lb range actually two but the second one spit the hook at the net, a couple in the 5 to 8 lb range and dozen or so in the 2-4 lb range and many more smaller ones. Atleast two dozen browns up to 5 lbs or so too. The color of the fish is magnificent. The spawning male rainbows especially so. Although the browns and brookies are awesome too. I took a bunch of pictures all three days and some action video today of him presenting a dry he tied to a hungry rainbow, the battle, and landing it. Seth's memorable moments were when a monster bow came up and nearly swallowed an 8" rainbow that he had on his line. Also, catching a grandslam, especially his very first Brookie and Cuttthroat. We had a great time and Seth is especially looking forward to the next DRC trip. Duh! We met up with a few other folks and enjoyed their stories too. One kid we met today turns 16 on Friday and has been coming to DRC since he was 7. He landed a beautiful 4 lb bow today just as we were headed out. I would highly encourage anyone with kids, grandkids, etc to take them to DRC for a fun memorable trip. Thanks to all for the advice and previous posts on DRC. Ksbass