Zack Hoyt

A couple of us down in Ark may car pool to a few of these.

I havent done a ton of night fishing up there. Drop me a pm next time you head over, I would enjoy joining you. I always end up going early in the morning.......or as generation permits.

I have to agree with Phil and the others. Definate props to him for what he accomplished. A trout that big and old would have been lucky to live after being caught and released. Instead of criticising a guy for the way he caught a record brown trout, I am concentrating on the idea that if there was one this big, there are more. I dont seek out record trout, but neither was this guy. It just goes to show how successful of a trout habitat Taney can be, and what is possible no matter the technique you use. On an etiquette note.......if you hook a monster and know what the 45 minute fight to get him landed will do to him, are you not better off just breaking it off?

Sam, we have made them out of scrap lumber a few times as well. Be careful how the wood is "treated", but as long as you have a good solid main arm, you can add 1x1's or so as often as you feel.

Michael, I tied a female sculpin pattern(since its spawning season) and watched my trap unfold.........jk. I was dead drifting a copper john. Thought I had a baby rainbow or chub when I first set the hook.

I caught this little guy while fishing Beaver the other day. He was about as round as a half dollar and 4-5in long. I took the time to observe how he swam and acted in the water. Alot of the time we fish flies to mimic insects, fish, etc. but really have no idea how they look in the water or exactly how they look in real life. I figured this was a good picture to pass along.

Welcome from Nw Arkansas.

With the time of year.....I would look at getting christmas trees people are throwing out. The COE used to pick up dead christmas trees and sink them, but hasnt for a couple years.

Here is a picture of what was done on beaver however many years ago. This is just upstream from the boat ramp and maybe 150yds from the dam itself. These are placed all down the river and make for great habitat.

You'll dig this. I caught this guy dead drifting that copper john. He is about the size of a half dollar round and 3-4" long. I swapped to a black woolie after this and did killer.

I have copied this from my blog........the original can be seen here: http://justfishinguides1.wordpress.com/ I was needing to get away and wet a line…..badly. So I took Monday morning and headed to the Dam. A combination of cold weather, beginning of the week, etc, would mean very little fishing traffic. I arrived at the ramp to one other fisherman. We chatted about what was working and the way winter had dropped on us, and then parted ways. During a high water fishing trip in which Kevin and I were shadowing Ken, I had noticed Ken row upstream from the ramp to near the very first walk in to begin the trip. This made me realize I had never really explored the upper reaches of the Beaver Tailwaters. Water level was about 916.30, the lowest it had been in as long as I could remember. I waded up stream a little ways noticing a few fishy looking spots. There are a few railroad ties and some trees trunks in the middle of the channel. Also a few medium-sized rocks(by medium I mean a small portion of the rock was exposed at this flow). The thing that lacked was activity. I saw no fish moving around, nor any surface movement(sculpins, etc). This kinda surprised me, but I rarely see people up fishing this far……possibly the reason. There were a few small rises against the rock garden on river right. I moved downstream from the ramp and started working the water. I am more familiar with this stretch. From the ramp to the Bathhouse Walkin, there a numerous rocks and a few large trees. the water movement was just enough to be bale to drift, and when the wind picked up, it was almost perfect. My standby for Beaver has become a size 18 Hares Ear with a beadhead. I used this with a good length of 6x tippet and caught a few very colorful fish. They seemed to be very close to the bottom and were not taking very hard. I have gone to using half a palsa or sticky indicator to better detect subtle strikes. The clouds were covering any light that might break through. This made seeing the darker mossy bottom hard. Sight fishing wasnt much of an option except for the accasional rising trout. It looked like a morning midge hatch was coming off…….maybe a sz36. This sure didnt deter them from taking my nymph like fly. They were definitely holding around structure, and many time on the river left side of the habitat. This made casting to certain areas a bit difficult. I worked down to the Bathouse Wakin and noticed another fly angler fishing the upstream side of the access. I stood on top of the concrete access and observed the structure. There are a series of smaller channels the run parallel in this section. Two of them end in some rock habitat that had been placed a few years ago. There were a few smaller fish schooling around this area. A month ago, while on a trip to Harrison, my wife and I stopped by this same area to look around. We saw a few very good sized rainbows, attempting to spawn right off the rocks. We watched them for about 30 minutes before leaving. This area marks the old C&R area. This runs from the Bathouse access to Parker Bottoms. I fished the area just downstream of the access with limited success. At this river level, the shoals that make about a 50yd stretch become very apparent. I have been told, alot of times the browns will spawn on river right of these. the fish in this section were still on the bottom but seemed to be holding tight to the structure. It took some work to get your fly to fall either right in front of or right behind the rocks. I noticed a few rises in the branches of the downed tree as well. All in all, it was a great trip. Not a huge number of fish caught. All were very healthy and colored up very nicely.

High water releases, 20,000+ cfs, has made drift fishing from a boat the only option. Brightly colored nymphs, San Juan worms and egg patterns are working for those that want to watch an indicator. For fly fishermen that want to be more active, a larger streamer fished on a sinking or sink-tip line is working. Make sure you are casting to structure, as the trout will be holding to get away from the current.

The river has fallen to where floating is tough. Soft plastics are working with colors in the reddish or green tints. With the cold weather, slow down your retrieve.

Water releases have slacked off some and the Table Rock Lake level has gone down so there is much more wading access. The fish have been staying near the bottom and hitting mostly nymphs. Sowbug/scud patterns, small mayfly nymphs such as pheasant tails and copper johns and bead head midge patterns have been working best. Small olive woolly buggers fished with a sink-tip line are picking up nice fish.

Well definately use commonsense.....I have seen some people do very odd things with this. I try to cover any huge holes. Having rice in your display might keep the moisture out, but probably isnt the best for it. I would lay it face down in the bowl to see if that works. I honestly have never had an issue totally immersing anything in rice, but again, watch your connection holes. If the facedown dosent work, then go ahead and fully cover it. Rice is very good about drawing moisture out of different things. I have used this with GPS units, cell phones, etc. Does that help?

I have recently used clear fingernail polish, or even to get more fancy, get some with the sparkles in it. Be careful, you do get funny looks in WM while you are perusing the polishes.

I know with other electronics, I have put it in a bowl of uncooked rice. The rice will draw the moisture out and dry it. I would say if you are getting condensation behind your screen, there is a seal issue. Might check around the edges for something like that.......or keep a bag of rice in the boat.

Fished it a few times, just havent wrote a report.......whoops. No idea down your way, but there are some warm water places around Fayettenam. Also, the nice thing about Ark, if there is water in it a good portion of the year, there is sure fish in it.

Great report and killer pics Russ.

Phil, I am assuming the Corp has a regulation in place for the minimum distance structure can be placed in regards to the turbines and such. Banning boats is probably not an option. Most structure is setup for a nomral flow situation. During higher generation events it offers a place for fish to hold, a "protection" if you will, for the trout instead of them heading toward the banks. A 8'-9' rock would have to have an insane base size to keep from toppling over during high generation or if a boat hit it.

Welcome from NW Arkansas Tim. I look forward to making up your way very soon to say hello in person.

SWPA shows Table Rock cranking 100 all day tomorrow. I assume when TR drops out a bit, Beaver will fire up. Bull and Norfork are holding the same. Lots of water gonna be moving.

SWPA Schedule for tomorrow is out. Still pumping BS and norfork, and Taney is getting turned on all day. I assume beaver will start once TR is lower.

I bet thats quite a site out your back door. 20,000cfs is no laughing matter. Beaver and Table Rock are not genning hardly at all. I figure it will take a few days to see what they plan on doing, if it is going to differ from whats going on now.

Thank you very much. I had read the Penn site and one other. The otehr two I hadnt stumbled upon. Good background info to have.