Mike Davis

It looked like AGFC was going to allow a pipe to be put under Cow Shoals and were leasing 64 acres of G&F property for frac mining of natural gas. There has been meetings and hearings on this since the first of the year. All the paper work would take time to even just cut and paste here. I'll sum everything up by saying .. the entire procedure involving the area of Cow Shoals has been dropped and a new area is being looked at. Chalk one up for our side. Mike

well, maybe one. The areas that I usually fish in JFK park are still very slow. I was fishing with a friend from Texas and we decided to move. We parked in the gravel parking lot and went in below the first hatchery pipe. There were a few fish feeding on the opposite side of the river and some looked like good fish. I had the Chronicle 3WT and a size 20 Desert Storm. The first fish I got was a rainbow of about 13". Beautifully colored and very fat. The last fish was another rainbow of about 6". Another very fat fish and beautiful colors. I only got 3 fish in that hour and the middle fish was the best. A solid brown that my friend measured it at just short of 17". I didn't have my camera but my friend did. As soon as he sends me the pictures I'll try to post them here. Minimal generation scheduled again for tomorrow. Mike

I drove the park today and the park is filling up. Lots of out of state license plates with quite a few tents and campers. I did see quite a few folks fishing but not alot of rods bent. I guess this will be a "wait and see" on the catching. Mike

The last week has given us a break and we have had wadeable water. According to the predicted generation, today seems like the first day of minimal generation at least for the next couple days. The fishing has been tough. Hopefully it's just that the fish are getting settled after the long periods of generation. I talked with a couple friends of mine that were in boats. The first boat had 3 folks fishing and they landed 3 fish. The second boat had 2 folks fishing and landed 1 fish. In the last 5 days that I've been out I have caught a grand total of 12 fish and one of those days I got 5. I've tried Zebras, Yong Specials, sow bugs and an assortment of midges out of the book Modern Midges. There has been a better catch rate from what I was told up near the dam. But word travels fast and that's where the crowds are heading. Boat fishermen are doing better down river in the deeper water. Midges have been coming off in droves and I have also seen a few scattered caddis. I did manage a first today, at least the first in awhile. One of the two fish I got today was a beautiful little brookie of about 6". As orange as the brookie's bellys turn during spawn, the one today was white. An absolutely gorgeous fish that fought like it was twice it's size. Hopefully the catching will get better as the fish settle. I usually don't fish the weekends because of the crowds and what I saw today was a good thing. JFK has a bunch of campers coming in. Right now I'll gladly give up a couple days of fishing if the campers are bringing money into the area economy. Mike

I wear Simms now but actually the most comfortable boot I've worn is the Chota. I had the Abrams Creek boot until someone stole them from me. If they hadn't been I'd probably still be using them. Not a bad price either. Mike

Has anyone else tried copper tungsten? I tie a variety of colors with the copper tungsten and copper ultra-wire. They've worked on the Little Red, White and Norfork as well as some spring creeks in Wisconsin. I gave a couple to a guy heading to California on a trip and he said a wine colored thread with the copper wire and T-bead did very well on the Sacramento River. Mike

Today was the first day since just after Christmas that I got to fish .. and catch. It was also my first day out since my cataract surgery. I got a call from a friend earlier today that the water had been shut off. There was no predicted generation for the Little Red posted for today until this morning. I got to the river and got in a couple hours before the Corps cranked the generators again. Nothing major in either size or numbers but after almost 2 months of waiting .. who cares. I probably ended up with about 12 to 15 rainbows with the biggest one being about 12". I was using the Flyrod Chronicle 3WT again and the hot pink midge and 7X. I did see a guy catch a definite slot brown of about 5 pounds in the run above me. It was last seen swimming happily away. He told me he had caught it on a minnow. As I was leaving JFK tonight, I started up the hill and there was a doe standing there. She was in no hurry to leave .. she just stood there watching me. After the afternoon I had, I was in no hurry either and had a ball just watching her. She finally ambled off the road and stood and watched my truck as I drove away. A neat ending to a peaceful, beautiful afternoon. Mike

I've had the best results with Umpqua. I've never tried Frog's Hair but will not use Rio again. I couldn't get knots to hold with the Rio and it seemed twisted and kinked right out of the package. Mike

I like Zebra midges. My two hottest colors have been a wine thread and copper wire and copper tungsten bead or a red wire with the same wire and beads. I like to coat them with Loc-Tite from Wal-Mart. Lately I've been fishing .. when the water cooperates that is .. the red combo with a red tungsten bead. Mike

I have an 8'9" 4WT TFO Finesse and 9' 4WT Pro and love them both. The Finesse is one of my "go to" rods here on the Little Red. Mike

and love it. Has anyone else seen it? There are about 1000 patterns in the book which may be a bit of over kill since some are just variations of the same pattern. But overall, I really enjoy the book because it also shows different techniques for midge fishing by several well known fisher folk. I have already made a list of a couple dozen patterns that I'll be tying and hopefully fishing before long. I timed the high water with cataract surgery next Monday so I should be pretty well healed once we do see fishable/wadeable water. Mike

There's one just down the road but they're not doing well either and have turned into a more of a destination type place. Looks Like mail order for me. Either that or drive to Mountain Home. Mike

It's really that bad. High water for 3 out of the 4 years it's been open hasn't helped. The majority of their customers are wade fisher folks too. Not much fun watching an "extended family" pack up. Mike

It's not going to be a fun couple weeks. Watching this really hurts. Mike

I fished the hatch a couple years ago and did very well with a Sofa Pillow pattern. Mike

I want to fish Crane Creek with Dano, Terry Beeson and duckydoty as a start. I also want to fish the "Driftless Area" in Wisconsin, the hexagenia hatch on the Brule River and then steelhead fishing with some buddies in Michigan. Mike

From their website: Little Red Fly Shop of Heber Springs is closing its doors. Beginning January 2, 2010, everything in the shop will be discounted by 25% during our "going out of business" sale. This includes Sage, Simms, Ross, Fishpond, Columbia, etc!! Now is your chance to save big on top of the line fly fishing gear! Thanks to all our customers for their loyalty and friendship. You will be missed! Jed Hollan, mgr.

and today found a combo that was absolutely crazy. It's probably one of the world's worst kept secret that I like tying and fishing Zebra midges in some different combos. I had also been fishing patterns with a hot red tungsten bead. Last night I put a hot red T-bead on a red thread and copper wire Zebra. (Would that make it an egg sucking Zebra? The fish didn't seem to mind. I started off with a Lightning Strike SE7 .. a TMC2488 .. in a size 18. The Flyrod Chronicle 3WT and 7X got a workout. After about an hour of non-stop fun, I switched to a SE5 size 16 and 6X with the TFO Finesse 4WT. I ran the Zebra thru the moss in an area I knew holds not huge but decent fish. About the last half dozen rainbows were in the 14 and 15 inch range with the last fish of the day being a slot 17" male. This fish were so fat that they barely fit in my hand. I had caught a bunch of fish on other patterns but the red hot Zebra caught the biggest. I managed to get in about 3 1/2 to 4 hours catching today and have no idea how many rainbows I caught. It was so much fun that numbers don't matter. Generation is scheduled for around the clock starting tomorrow so this may be my last day out for awhile. On top of the generation, I have cataract surgery coming up. If today is the last chance I have to fish .. and catch .. for awhile, I'm very happy with how the day went. Mike

and had a ball. I fished just about 2 hours and caught 20 or maybe 25 fish. All rainbows except for a gorgeous brown of around 14". I started off with what I guess could be called a pink hot .. cerise thread, pink crystal-flash and pink tungsten bead .. and only had a fish or two. I decided to go to one of my old standbys .. red and copper Zebra midge .. and it was almost a constant fish on. Last 2 fish of the day were rainbows about as opposite as you can get. One was a male around the slot with the start of a kype and it was almost purple it was so dark. The other was a 6" beauty full of color and parr marked. The only way today could have been better was if the wind would have died and I could have used the Flyrod Chronicles 3WT. I fished the 4WT Finesse with about 15' of leader and 6X tippet and a size 16 Zebra midge. Back at it tomorrow. Generation is rumored to be setting up for around the clock starting Tuesday. We'll see. Mike

The lake is now in the 470+ foot range again. Last time I checked .. about an hour ago .. the lake was still rising but seemed to have slowed some. The river looks surprisingly good compared to what it looked like yesterday. Lots of what looks like piles of dirt and sand along the river banks and piled in some pools. I may try to fish it tomorrow but I'm still a little leery about the DO. A couple friends of mine fished JFK today and I'm waiting to hear how they did. Hopefully between now and Monday I'll get at least a little catching in. If I do .. I'll post. Mike

and the lake has risen almost 5 feet in a day. I drove thru JFK tonight and the water is dirtier than I've ever seen it. There was a rock/mudslide across from the boat launch in the park about a year ago and it seemed there was just a bit more debris than there's been in the past. They stepped down generation starting midnight last night and were completely shut down this morning at 10. There's no generation scheduled thru Monday evening but it may take a couple days for the water to clear. With all the mud and silt the DO has to be hurting too. Unfortunately there is no report available since they quit posting readings 1 Dec. Mike

The new high water hours are now ... closed Mon-Thur open Fri-Sun 8-5 Mike

Max .. I don't have a wife to worry about. All my stuff will be going to my grandkids. One of them asked me that if they're going to get the goodies, why am I using them. I just tell them grandpa is just making sure everything works. Mike

I have a couple 2WT's now. The 6' 2 piece Signature and the 8' 3 piece Pro. Spring creek fishing in Wisconsin at my dad's is fun with them. Good blue gill rods too. Mike

I have a Finesse 1, 3, 4 and 5 and fish and enjoy them all. My go to rod for the Little Red was an 8'9" 4WT. I have a new rod .. an 8'9" 3WT in the Flyrod Chronicle that will see a bunch of action, too. To me it feels like it would fall between a Pro and a Finesse. All I know is a size 18 Zebra midge and about 15' of 7X leader and tippet and it's a bunch of fun. Mike