Fly Fishing Report - Lassiter's Was Hot

[Yakfly]

Spent a few days last week fishing the Spring River. Fly fished Lassiter's access, and floated the DAM3 to Bayou section several days.

The water was dropping out from the past couple of weeks flood. For the time I was there the level was about 1-2 feet above what is normally the low water level for the Spring River. For those who fish it alot you'll know what that means. The water had a little color to it, but did clear up signifigantly over my 4 days there.

I didn't fish really at DAM 3 itself, but I put in there for floating down to Bayou. I saw several folks fishing there at the DAM, many were doing well high-sticking woolly buggers.

The deep hole just below the first island down from the DAM fished really well. I caught 2 rainbows of 18 inches out of that hole, and too many 10-12 inchers to count. Hot fly was the woolly bugger (black, olive), fished DEEP DEEP and worked crawled slowly on the bottom.

Fished on the drift down to the Bayou and did well in the deeper sections with big big woollies and rubber legged stoneflies, dead drifted under a BIG indicator. This is a killer technique for this river - one I've started doing more and more with good success.

Bayou Access fished slow for me all week. Could never really get a pattern established. I kept changing flies and presentations, and locations, just to catch a few trout per hour.

Lassiter's access was on fire though. The upper section from the access, directly across from the Motel fished very well. The extra 1-2 feet of water created some super pocket water with all the boulders and runs up there. Just drop a fly in behind a rock and WHAM fish on! It was crazy good, in one afternoon session I caught probably 50 in 3 hours - no trpohies, just the standard bows, but the action was non stop. Woolly buggers, small clouser minnows, larger soft hackles, everything was working. Even caught 1 nice brown trout up there, a pretty 14"er - browns are rare for me on that river.

All in all a good trip. I've fished Spring River many times over the years, and my experience would always rank best spots as Bayou, then DAM 3, then Lassiters. But this trip it was exactly opposite.

[Ham]

Sounds like a good trip to be sure. I've enjoyed fishing the Spring several times and will likely go back, but living 10 minutes from the Norfork river and 15 minutes from the White River gets in my way.

[Terry Beeson]

Ham... You're missing a treat especially with all the generation going on.

Yak... Good report! My wife lived just over the hill from Lassiter when we met and I would opt for Bayou myself over Lassiter. But you're right... Seems like it was a good day at Lassiter when it was a bad day at Bayou. Kinda weird, but they ARE very different spots. Sure do miss living a stone's throw from that stream.

[Brian Sloss]

Fished Lassiter on Sat myself and I have got to agree completely with your report. It did fish really well, though most of my fish were on the small side with only one fish at about 15 inches. No browns for me though.

[denduke]

The Spring makes the place unique...Friendly people too...

[Ham]

Ham... You're missing a treat especially with all the generation going on.

Yak... Good report! My wife lived just over the hill from Lassiter when we met and I would opt for Bayou myself over Lassiter. But you're right... Seems like it was a good day at Lassiter when it was a bad day at Bayou. Kinda weird, but they ARE very different spots. Sure do miss living a stone's throw from that stream.

While I would MUCH rather wade to do my fly fishing, I have been using the flyrod from my boat. A week ago tomorrow I got 53 fish to hand and all but 8 came via the flyrod. I made another short trip last Thursday and every one of the 17 fish I got to hand was caught with my fly rod.

Having said all that, you're correct. I do need to make another trip to the Spring river.

[Daltrey]

I got to fish lassiter saturday too. It was actually my first time fly fishing and I had a blast. I managed to hook a few but I wasn't able to land any of them. I'm still learning though and hopefully next time I can catch my first trout. My brother did manage to catch and release over 30 with a fishing pole while we were there. I have to say fly fishermen are some of the nicest people around. One local even drove home and came back with some nice hand tied flies for me and gave me alot of good advice. I plan on going back the first weekend in december.

[ozark trout fisher]

I got to fish lassiter saturday too. It was actually my first time fly fishing and I had a blast. I managed to hook a few but I wasn't able to land any of them. I'm still learning though and hopefully next time I can catch my first trout. My brother did manage to catch and release over 30 with a fishing pole while we were there. I have to say fly fishermen are some of the nicest people around. One local even drove home and came back with some nice hand tied flies for me and gave me alot of good advice. I plan on going back the first weekend in december.

Keep trying man..... It was like my fifth time fly fishing for trout here before I got my first, but it's really a rewarding way to fish. Totally worth the trouble.