Troutnut69

Thanks guys...it was nice to see some green grass and trees that still had all their leaves. The corn up there was it's usual 8 foot tall and green as can be. They've been getting some moisture up there when we havn't. We always camp at Bear Creek cabins and General Store in Highlandville. It's one of the most central locations to where we like to fish and the folks are super nice people.

Took a little trip last week to escape the miserable heat here around home. Headed to one of my favorite destinations...the Driftless Region. Some beautiful country with some equally beautiful wild brown trout that inhabit the small streams that abound here. We caught some fish and just had a heck of a good time over the 4 days. I know this isn't an Ozark TR but thought some of you might enjoy the scenery as much as I did. Full report on my blog for anyone interested....Jeff http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/

Thanks guys....I like to use a size #6 or #8 fly for both drum and carp. My go-to fly is basically a wooly bugger with a set of small dumbell eyes or bead-chain used for weight and a couple of rubber legs. I usually palmer a like colored hen hackle or pheasant rump feather around the head of the fly which gives it a little more action when I'm twitching the fly right in front of their face as well.

Got out and waded the flats on one of my local reservoirs this past weekend. The carp were surprisingly absent but there were loads of drum cruising around with an appetite and an attitude! In a couple of trips I ended up with two fish over 30 inches (my personal best for drum) and lots of fish between 3 - 5 pounds. Definitely a good time and I'm already looking forward to getting back at em when I get a chance. A few pics on the blog.....Jeff http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/

Got out for a much needed fishing trip this past week down on the White. Heard the hopper bite was on and a buddy and I decided to take a few days and check it out. Took my pontoons along and we floated both the White and Norfork and had some stellar fishing on both rivers. The fork was incredible for numbers of fish but the hopper bite on the White was what it was all about. Except for the last day when they shut the water down we didn't fish anything but hopper patterns and were rewarded by numerous browns slurping them off the surface at regular intervals. Some of the best fishing I've had in a long time. Got a full TR and some pics on the blog.......Jeff http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/

Got out last Friday and spent some time chasing fish on my locals. Ended up being a good summer day to be out hunting the carp and drum , probably landed twenty drum and at least a half dozen carp. Most of the fish were just of average size but a couple of the drum were real pigs , pushing 10 pounds. I've got some friends that just can't believe I waste my time chasing carp and even worse ,drum , with my flyrod....obviously they havn't had the pleasure yet and that suits me just fine! The water temp in the lake is at about mid July levels and the fish are responding accordingly , definitely a good time to get out and wade the flats (or better yet stay home on the couch and leave all those "Trash" fish to me!!). Short little TR on the blog with some pics.....Jeff http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/

Got away on a little unplanned trip last week down to the Current. Work has been hectic and I just needed to get out of town and re-charge the soul. With the hot weather we spent more time than usual just kicking back in the shade around camp but still managed to catch a few fish. I mostly fished below Baptist or around Parker , just too many other folks up top this time of year for Joe and I. That tactic worked well for us and we only saw a limited amount of fishermen on those sections of river. No streamer bite to speak of for any big fish but just about anything worked for the average sized bows we were encountering. We had a good time , like always , and can't wait for the next opportunity to get back out there. Full TR on my blog.......Jeff http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/

If the waters really off-colored you pretty much have to put the fly about a foot in front of them. I normally use bead-chain eyes for weight on my flys but I'm usually fishing less than 2 feet of water. You want the fly to sink fairly quick but not make a big splashdown on the cast.

stinger160 - I can honestly say I've never caught a carp on the fly that I didn't see first. From my experience sightfishing is the only way to go , blind casting an area and hoping to catch one is futile at best. Those fish up shallow splashing around are spawners and in my experience you might as well forget about getting them to eat very often , one track mind I guess. When a carp is feeding they're usually pretty stealthy and just slowly cruising a feeding area , occassionally tipping their mouth down to hoover up a sighted item or to root around for a food source. My two favorite types of areas for feeding carp are rocky shorelines where they often hunt small crayfish (one of thier favorite food items) and the shallow mud flats. I guess my best advice would be to keep at it , finding the right fish is more than half the battle , once you do a well presented fly will often result in a hook-up or at least a take. That being said, these fish aren't pushovers , they're as spooky as any trout I've ever encountered and once you make your presence known they're history. Hope some of that info helps you out , I'm by no means an expert....just another squirrel looking for a nut.

Wayne - if you're interested in catching them on the fly , really there's no secret to it. If you can see em...you can catch em. Carp aren't picky about their diet , they love crayfish , leeches , hellgramites and even small baitfish when readily available. A fly that imitates one of these food items and is presented well to a feeding carp without spooking the fish should elicit a strike , obviously not every time but at least often enough to make things interesting. The real key is to find feeding fish , lazy or spawning fish can be almost impossible to get to eat at times. This is probably all stuff you already knew but it might help someone that's interested....

Just thought this topic needed a little bump. It's that time of year again to grab the flyrod and head out to your favorite creek or lake and chase your favorite "trash fish". Got out on Wednesday for a couple hours and found a few willing players but it's only gonna get better. A few more pics on the blog.....Jeff http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/ Catch and Release Wild Carp

txspecks04 - It's definitely a different type of water than any of the other White River tailwaters. Like you said , there just isn't any flow to speak of in most sections at dead low water. My most successful setup was 7x fluoro..palsa indicator...#20 black zebra or copperhead midge. I also caught a couple fish on small size 8 olive wooly buggers but not as many as came on midges. Instead of trying to get a drift I was simply waiting until I saw fish midging and then placing my setup as close to the fish as I thought feasible without spooking them. With no current those fish seem to roam alot more , kind of like they would in a stillwater setting.

Last week I rounded the family up on Wednesday and we headed down to Beaver Lake for several days for some R&R and of course a little fishing as well. The plan was to get there early and miss the crowd , heading back home on Saturday just as everyone else was arriving. Couldn't have had a better plan..we had the campground to ourselves until Friday night and except for a few canoers the tailwater was relatively void of people. While the fishing wasn't anything to write home about I managed to catch at least a few each outing. This tailwater has always been tough for me and this trip wasn't any different , I know the fish are there but they can sure be tough to catch at times. I caught a mixture of small bows and browns , probably nothing much over twelve or thirteen inches. The most productive method for me ended up being 7x fluoro with a palsa indicator and a midge trailing off between 12and 24 inches below. By the end of the trip I was just getting the hang of the whole midging scenario and catching a few more fish than when I started off. Oh well , it's not the first time I've had my A$$ handed to me by a bunch of pea-brained trout! Full TR and pics on the blog.....Jeff http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/

Fished the park for an hour or so this last Saturday just to get a couple fish to take back to camp and eat (don't like keeping river fish when the park is so close and those fish will all end up in a hot oil bath anyway). Fish came easy enough but they were small , almost embarrassing to put on a stringer small. That place has definitely gone downhill from a quality fish standpoint in the last few years , still big ones in the stream I'm sure but the average sized fish has gone way down in my opinion.

Spent 4 days down on the Current River floating and fishing (maybe drinking a little as well) with a great group of guys this past week. A few more people hanging around than I would have expected for a midweek trip but once we got on the water and away from the well known accesses we had it pretty much to ourselves. Did a couple of floats....Baptist to Parker and then Parker to Cedar Grove both of which are short floats for most people. We planned it that way and took the time to enjoy this incredibly scenic river and still had the time to fish any spot we decided to stop. I just don't enjoy those paddle-fests anymore where you have to rush the last 1/3 of the float to make it to the take-out. Fishing was pretty much what I've come to expect from this river , lots of rainbows with some browns mixed in for a bonus. While no big fish were landed , I had my chances while swinging streamers on a couple of occasions. You know how the story goes...the big ones always get away!! All in all we had a great time on one of my favorite float rivers in the Ozarks. Full TR and some pics on my blog...... http://highplainsfly...r.blogspot.com/

Joe and I got a hall pass this past week and decided to spend a couple days fishing one of the Blue Ribbon trout streams. The weather was a little iffy at times but it must have kept the other fishermen away because we didn't see another person the entire time. The fish were doing well and seemed to be hungry. Like usual , lots of small fish , but who's complaining? I never tire of those beautiful little wild bows regardless of size. I fished an olive mohair leech and an olive mink sculpin pattern almost exclusively and they both worked well. A few risers to some small black caddis and a few BWO's but I didn't see much fish activity on top so I stuck with the small streamer approach. As usual we had a great time and caught a few fish to boot. Full TR on my Blog.......Jeff http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/

Entry #3 - Caught April 15th 2012 / Flyrod and wooly bugger Just another slab...

Entry #2 - Caught April 14th 2012 / Flyrod and ginger micro-jig Small crappie but I liked the background view.

Entry #1 - Caught April 15th ,2012 / Flyrod and wooly bugger A shot you don't often see with a 15" crappie...the release shot.

I spent some time trying my hand at catching a few crappie this last weekend here around home. It wasn't my first choice but the weather and river level kept me from my intended destination unfortunately. As it was I ended up catching crappie just about everywhere I tried (some better than others) and got some pretty good ones at my favorite little pond. Throw in all the hand sized bluegills you can handle and the weekend didn't turn out so bad after all. I've got a few pictures in my latest blog post......Jeff http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/

Got to spend a little time this past weekend chasing some whites and wipers here in Kansas. I had hoped to make it South for some trout fishing but the stars just didn't align. I made the best of it and hooked up with a new fishing buddy to chase some schooling whites and hybrids on a local lake Friday afternoon. We spent the afternoon / evening chasing busting fish and tossing poppers and crease flies , talk about fun! We landed a dozen or so apiece , all on surface flies. Nothing big , as the wipers played hard to get , but the 1# to 1 1/4# whites were just crushing those topwater flies when you got one in their zone and they fought valiantly on the old five weight. I made a couple of new friends and caught a few fish , not too bad in my book. Full TR on my blog.......Jeff http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/

Sharps4590 - Thanks...I would imagine on some of these beautiful spring days we have coming up those little creeks will see their share of pressure for sure , that's what makes winter such a great time to get out! FishinCricket - Indeed they are! The one fish was by far the largest brown I've caught out of the river in probably 3 years. I know it wasn't big by any means , but I was pretty stoked to get that fish nonetheless , made the day for me.

I spent a few days in the area over the opening weekend and got some time out on the river. I floated one of the lower stretches the first day and had a great day of fishing for me on that river. Nothing big , but lots of good healthy fish. Mostly bows but I even had a couple of browns thrown in the mix. Spent another day wading the river at one of the upper acceses and didn't fair quite as well , but still managed a few small bows. In between time on the river I made a couple of trips over to some wild trout water in the area. Hit one stream that was new to me and another that I'd only fished once before. Neither of them disappointed us , beautiful little creeks with fish that just can't be compared to any hatchery specimen. There's too many stories to tell actually , five days is an eternity , lots of pics in the blog post that fill in the gaps for anyone interested.....Jeff http://highplainsfly...r.blogspot.com/

I spent a few days in the area over the opening weekend and got some time out on the river. I floated one of the lower stretches the first day and had a great day of fishing for me on that river. Nothing big , but lots of good healthy fish. Mostly bows but I even had a couple of browns thrown in the mix. Spent another day wading the river at one of the upper acceses and didn't fair quite as well , but still managed a few small bows. In between time on the river I made a couple of trips over to some wild trout water in the area. Hit one stream that was new to me and another that I'd only fished once before. Neither of them disappointed us , beautiful little creeks with fish that just can't be compared to any hatchery specimen. There's too many stories to tell actually , five days is an eternity , lots of pics in the blog post that fill in the gaps for anyone interested.....Jeff http://highplainsfly...r.blogspot.com/

Thanks for all the great info guys. The float from redbeards to Ho-Humm...not familiar with those outfitters , are both of them above Barclay or below? I'd really like to float some water below Barclay but it sounds like the Prosperine shuttle might be a little much to be worthwhile. And what about the NRO to Rendezvous Point float...whereabouts on the river is rendezvous point located , below barclay I would assume? Thanks again , always nice to talk to folks who know the area better than you do when making decisions.