fishing report 11-12-06

[Jeremy Hunt]

We headed for Arkansas around eight in the morning. We wanted to fish both the Norfork and the White if we were going to make a full day out of this. They were running one unit at the White and two at Norfork when I called that morning. I thought the Norfork would be a better bite to start off with because they were running two units. I noticed when we got there that it was a low two units and it would be a nice drift fishing out of a boat. I have fished this current many times before and knew we had a good chance of catching a lot of fish with this type of water. We all started fishing san jaun worms in red and pink because it has worked every other time we have fished this river. One thing I have learned fishing worms is to up the size of the chenille and tie them on a straight shank hook instead of a curved hook. .I have lost a lot of fish in high water until I figured out to change the hook style. It really doesn’t matter in low water because the current is different, but fishing faster water you will find the straight shank is a better way to go. The ones we fished were tied on a TMC 3769 size 12 in the standard chenille. Standard chenille is one size up from the micro. The micro is perfect for low water, but when fishing the micro chenille in faster water the fish can’t see it from a distance. Ask your self this question. If you catch fish on a small san jaun worm in low water? Why can’t you just up the size so the fish can see it. The reason why people don’t catch fish in high water is because they think they have to figure out a whole new way to catch trout for the most part. I have learned that because the water is going faster, you need to stick with the same patterns that worked in low water just up the size so they can see it. If the current is fast they really won’t see those smaller flies from a distance, but they will see those bigger ones and that will get their attention to come over and see what you have in store. I usually tie the standard chenille on a 12 or 14 hook instead of a curved, you will find that you get a better hook set when fishing in high water.

We caught most our brook trout on pink while the rainbows liked the red. We didn’t catch anything real big. A lot of the brook trout that we caught were in the 10 to 15 inch range, always a pretty fish to catch! Rainbows seemed to be a little bigger, ranging anywhere from 16 to 19 inches. We only ended up catching one cut throat and my dad caught that one. At the end of the day fishing Norfork I wanted to change it up and try some kind of shad imitation to see if I could get one of those big browns attention so I tied on a rabbit type streamer and fished it under a indicator about eight feet dead drifting like a dead shad coming through the generators. I only caught two fish doing this for about thirty minutes, but two nice fish. On my first drift I caught a 19 inch rainbow and the other one was a 16 inch brown. I wish that brown was going to be that big one. I guess I’m asking a lot considering the day I had before at Roaring River. Most of our fishing we did was up at the dam because that seem to be where we were having most of our hits. We did drift a few times downstream, but the bite was slow. We finally called it a day at Norfork when they turned the water off and it gave us a reason to head out and fish Wildcat Shaols for the rest of the day.

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