Beaver Dam Store 10th Annual One Fly_ October 29

[Guest flyfishBDS]

Southern Flyfishers Converge On The “One Fly”

One fly fisher, one fly and finding the biggest fish in the river, that is the Beaver Dam Store One Fly Contest tradition. Around 100 fly fishers from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri and Kansas will converge on Northwest Arkansas next month for the South’s friendliest fishing event. Many are regulars, returning year after year and planning several days of fabulous fall fishing on the White River’s world-famous tailwaters around the One Fly. Newcomers quickly become part of the One Fly family.

While winning, losing, or even catching a fish seems barely the point to the social part of the day, this year’s main prize features a superb graphite fly rod from SAGE and a matched SAGE 2500 large arbor fly reel, flyline and backing. The olive green Z-Axis fly rod made its global debut at the International Fly Tackle Dealers Expo in Denver last month. A special prize will also be given to the ugliest fly used. But the heart of the One Fly is in meeting up with old friends and making new ones at this unique annual event.

Renting a cabin for the weekend at the Spider Creek Resort is part of the tradition for many entrants.

The 10th running of the One Fly will be held on the Beaver Tailwater of the White River on October 29, 2006. Started in 1997 by local fishing authority and former Store owner Charlotte Downey the event has grown both in size and reputation.

The One Fly rules are simple:· Only One fly may be used during the contest. Lose the fly to a tree or a trout and your contest fishing is done. We encourage people to keep fishing and have fun.

· Flies only (No jigs) - Longest trout wins – Catch and Release all fish.

· Egg patterns are banned for ’06-07-08 events. Winning flies are banned for three years to encourage innovation and to ensure the competition is fair and even.

· Participants will fish in pairs in order to verify fish length measurements

· Partners will be drawn 30 minutes before start time.

· You must be present at drawing to enter. (Be there 6.30 am)

· Arkansas Fishing license and trout permit required.

· Earliest entry decides tie – coin toss for second tie.

· You and partner must return to store by 12-noon or forfeit first prize.

Fall traditionally offers Beaver Tailwater’s finest fly-fishing. The crowds of summer have left the river; often you can have the river to yourself. And the cooling temperatures and autumn colors along the river valley announce that its big fish time. The big browns and rainbows, who have hidden out all summer, become more aggressive, hungry as they follow their natural body clocks’ demands for more food ahead of winter.

So what fly to choose? The ubiquitous Woolly Bugger, in its many variants, is a White River staple winning all but two One Fly events. Our Beaver Dam Store Buggers (Light Olive) remain a favorite.

“The Woolly Bugger will be hard to beat,” Beaver Dam Store guide Steve Dally said. “It looks like nothing but a big chunk of food, you can strip in it or drift it under an indicator, fish it deep or shallow. But surprisingly small midge nymphs like Charlotte’s Redneck or Razorback Midges and our popular lBryce’s TDM patterns have been proved to take good fish. Scuds and sowbugs are always part of the trout menu on the river. Plus San Juan Worms have been doing extremely well in recent weeks. If it’s hot big hoppers can sometimes lure the bigger fish to the surface.

“But to my mind one of these years, a seriously big trout is going to fall to someone working the river with a “big ole streamer” on a sinking line. Not many people fish that way here but a big chunk of protein can be hard to resist for a big brown, particularly on a overcast cool day.’’

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[Guest flyfishBDS]

One other thing we have had plenty of positive comments about are the rule changes to try and even out the competition for all and to make it more interesting.

Woolly Buggers (7) and egg patterns (9) have won all 9 previous events _ which is pretty boring for a start. So as of last year we introduced a rule to ban the winning fly pattern for 3 years. So all eggs will be out for 06-07-08, that includes the Y2K, though I still say its a power egg pattern. :b

I certainly think this is going to make fly selection more interesting in the years to come.

Secondly there has been a fair amount of controversy about fishing the spawning congregation at Parker Bend, which has produced the winner 3 of the last 4 years _ all to the same guy Andy Nichols. This is not criticism of Andy, he is a very good fisherman, met all the rules at the time, worked out where the big fish were and fished it well.

But its a simple fact that this one small spot is a staging point for a lot of big fish and if you are one of the first 8 on the spot and you can fish you can probably assure yourself of a high placing. We had the unedifying spectacle of some people (not Andy) sending friends down to hold the spot for them _ which is contrary to the spirit of the occassion.

We had pretty much made up our mind to close this spot to competition this year, but the changes on the river due to the Parker Bend J-Vanes may not make it necessary. Our final decision on this will be made on the morning.

There will always be holding spots on the river, but we don't want this to be about shooting fish in a barrel. We also want to give everyone a decent shot at the crown, particularly when we have some very good prizes on offer.

I hope this is going to benefit the majority of competitors, and open up interest.

Cheers Steve

[Phil Lilley]

Steve- change the date on your first post- it states "October 39, 2006". Use the edit button.

[twosets]

I think that I am busy on the 39th.

[Terry Beeson]

Maybe they have 39 days in October in Oz....

Sounds like a very kewl event, Steve. Wish I could make it...

[Guest flyfishBDS]

Funny beggars LOL

So are you busy on the 29th????