Fishing The Spring

[Aaron Mills]

I have been trying to learn the spring river over the past season. I was wondering how everyone else fishes it and where. I have had great luck at Dam 3 fishing egg patterns and especially green soft hackles. the section below the parking lot has some good deep holes and the fish consistently hit the soft hackles there.

Honestly, though I'm getting tired of fishing there. Can anyone give a suggestion as to where to fish and what kind of flies are working for them??? would greatly appreciate it. I am teaching my dad to fly fish down there mostly and any help would be greatly appreciated. He is picking it up rather well.

Take care all,

aaron

[Danoinark]

Aaron

Try the Lassiter access...a fine example of a spring creek setting.

Also Bayou Access. Both places produce fish on standard nymphs.

Its all good soft hackle water.

Dano

[Yakfly]

I have been trying to learn the spring river over the past season. I was wondering how everyone else fishes it and where. I have had great luck at Dam 3 fishing egg patterns and especially green soft hackles. the section below the parking lot has some good deep holes and the fish consistently hit the soft hackles there.

Honestly, though I'm getting tired of fishing there. Can anyone give a suggestion as to where to fish and what kind of flies are working for them??? would greatly appreciate it. I am teaching my dad to fly fish down there mostly and any help would be greatly appreciated. He is picking it up rather well.

Take care all,

aaron

As said, DAM3, Lassiters, and Bayou are the three main access points. But see the most pressure/harvest by far. If you will access the water between The big island down from DAM3 and the Bayou, you'll find the best fishing on the river. Access by 1) walking the train tracks and scrambling down the bank, or 2) better, floating in a canoe/kayak. Lots of deep holes to drift, easy anchoring, many places to get out and wade. Only advisable though after the summer rowdies fade away, say from October to May.

Flies? Match the type of water / style of fishing you prefer.

Deep holes/runs - woolies. Big woolies. Olive/black/brown. Fish on sink tip is good. This river is LOADED with crawfish, I'm convinced woolies imitate well enough. Also consider dead drifting woolies under indicator - dynamite technique.

Riffle water - as said, soft hackle flies. Also generic, simple stuff like wolley worms, cracklebacks are great. I've had some of my best days fly fishing with Walmart supplied Black Woolley worms fished in Spring River riffles.

LAte summer up to November, toss grasshopper/ant patterns against the bank. This is the most effective "dry fly" fishing for me on the SR. I've dried Elk hair caddies/traditional fries with little success.

Good luck. If you can access between DAM3 and Bayou, you'll have a ton of fun.

Also see articles by area guide John Berry on fishing the Spring - always great information : http://www.berrybrothersguides.com/columns5.html#Springtime

http://www.berrybrothersguides.com/columns...w%20Years%20Day

[Aaron Mills]

thanks a ton dano and yakfly. I have been looking online for spring river info for a while and there just isn't any. I moved to West Plains a year ago. So, i bounce around fishing the White, NFOW, NF, and Spring Rivers depending on where the water is fishable.

how far of a hike is it to the island you described??? Sounds like a great place. I appreciate the tips. Good fishing to you both.

take care,

aaron

[Yakfly]

how far of a hike is it to the island you described???

From the parking lot at the hatchery, about 1/2 mile. walk down the train tracks. Be carefull, seems like theres a train going by every 30 minutes. I usually float the river, so I don't know all the access points from the tracks. may want to look for well worn paths where others have acceseed.

[Brian Sloss]

Being in West Plains, you should try the Eleven Point sometime.

[Crippled Caddis]

I have been trying to learn the spring river over the past season. I was wondering how everyone else fishes it and where. I have had great luck at Dam 3 fishing egg patterns and especially green soft hackles. the section below the parking lot has some good deep holes and the fish consistently hit the soft hackles there.

Honestly, though I'm getting tired of fishing there. Can anyone give a suggestion as to where to fish and what kind of flies are working for them??? would greatly appreciate it. I am teaching my dad to fly fish down there mostly and any help would be greatly appreciated. He is picking it up rather well.

The best thing you could do would be to book a half day with Mark Crawford. <http://marksflyshop.net/default.aspx> He's almost ridiculously inexpensive and knows the big fish by their first names. Tell him you want to get to know the water below Dam 3 and are willing to hike the RR track. Tom

[Aaron Mills]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the advice. I got away Sat. and walked down the tracks to the first island. What a beautiful stretch of water that is. the fishing was rough. I picked up a couple on a soft hackle below a dry. There were several rises in the slower water toward the end of the island, but I couldn't figure out what to throw. A crawdad picked up a couple more. The boat traffic was heavy. Everyone was nice, but "catchin' anything" got old to hear after a while. My dad and I packed back to the parking lot at darn 3 for lunch. I proceded to catch about 20 fish in 2 hours between the upper pool and the water along the back just downstream from the railroad bridge. In the upper pool, I pulled in a nice, fat 18 inch bow. It was fun to release that big guy. He actually had a little kipe started. Anyway, I caught most all of those fish on a peacock herl soft hackle or a zebra midge soft hackle I dropped off it. It was amazing how the fish kept repleneshing in the runs from the main hatchery shoots. I had tried woolly's woolly sculpins, zoo cougars, dries, terrestrials, soft hackles, scuds, stones and crawdads at the down stream island without much luck.

Thanks again for all the advice. I look forward to fishing that downstream island this fall.

Aaron Mills