First trip to Current River

[Gene K]

You could also consider crossing the river at parker and walking upstream on what are some easily navigated and traversed trails...

http://goo.gl/ODGkny

[ozark trout fisher]

You could also consider crossing the river at parker and walking upstream on what are some easily navigated and traversed trails...

http://goo.gl/ODGkny

Yep. I wasn't going to say that (I go back and forth on how protective I think I need to be of the Parker Hollow area) but that's where I'm referring to.

Based on anecdotal evidence, you'll give up something like 50% of the trout population you've got up in the Baptist area. Certainly you'll catch fewer. But if you want to get a feel for what the river is really like without dealing with a circus on Memorial Day weekend it might be your best bet.

[Al Agnew]

And I'd suggest buying the trout stamp even though you don't need it strictly catch and release fishing...I figure if you're gonna use the resource you ought to pay for it.

[mister]

If I was coming from OKC I'd hit the Norfork of the White instead of the Current.

[DainW]

Thanks everyone who offered advice. Just got back and wanted to write up a quick trip report:

First of all let me say what a beautiful river you guys have up here. I heard a lot of good things about how scenic the river was and it didn't disappoint. I actually met up with another OAF member, Bruegy, who was kind enough to show me around Saturday morning. We started at Tan Vat and worked our way down. I started hooking up pretty quick but LDR's my first 3 fish. I was finally able to land a nice 14" rainbow behind a sunken tree on an egg pattern. We worked our way down to bluff hole by about 9:00 a.m. Bruegy and his crew headed back upstream while my dad and I continued to work our way down stream to a nice hole below the next riffle. I picked up several nice rainbows and LDR's what seemed like 10 more. All in the 14-16" range and all very healthy. Started the long walk back to the car about noon and broke for lunch. After lunch and nap at the hotel, we decided to hit Baptist Camp for the evening. Walked down stream for about a mile until we made it to a nice deep run below an island and ran into a really nice caddis hatch as well as some of the recently stocked brown trout. Caught a couple of those, about 8-10" and about a 12" rainbow and called it a night about 8:30.

Got up this morning and decided to check out parker hollows. The river is much wider here and we had to do some walking to find what looked like good water. We were there for about an hour when it looked like it might begin to rain. We hadn't caught anything and didn't want to get caught on the wrong side of the river if it really started to come down, so we headed back to the car and drove up to Tan Vat. I guess everyone fishes upstream from Tan Vat because we didn't see anyone fishing downstream. Headed down steam and caught a couple nice rainbows on a z-wing caddis below one of the riffles. Worked our way all the way to the hole below the bluff hole again. Tied on a pat's rubberleg and proceeded to go to town. Probably caught 10-12 in an hour and a half span. My first hook up of the day was really strange. I hooked up on a strong take and as I'm fighting the fish, I noticed that there appeared to be another fish that had taken my dropper! This didn't last long and I eventually pulled in my best rainbow of the trip, about an 18 inch fish. It got really cloudy for a few minutes and as soon as it did I hooked into a nice 17" brown trout. This was one of the fatter fish I've ever seen. Of course I didn't have my phone with me to take any pictures. I also lost a fish that felt bigger than that one. I never got a look at it, but I made what seemed to be a really good hook set, he made a hard initial charge, and then just kind of skulked around at the bottom of the pool. While he was doing that I was keeping good pressure on him and all of a sudden the line just went slack. Dange!

Anyway it was a great trip and I'll definitely be back. All the fish were really hard fighting, very healthy, and the rainbows had some great color to them. You could tell that they had been in the river a while. Thanks again for everyone's help.

Dain

[Greasy B]

Great report,

[Nortrad]

Glad you had success on the trip. Pat's RL rocks when they're keying on it.

[DainW]

Yeah that's got to be my favorite fly to dredge deep holes with. It sinks like a rock and I'm not sure it doesn't do an equally good job of imitating a crawdad as it does a stonefly nymph.

[jwitt618]

Sounds like a great trip! Last time my buddies and I spent a weekend hitting those spots (Late Oct) we struck out all weekend but enjoyed perfect weather- nice in the day and chilly at night around a nice fire. An excellent rainbow mocked me for a good 15 minutes near Tan Vat- he'd jump out of the water literally 5 feet from me, then dive back into the depths, only to do the same thing a couple minutes later. Darkest colored rainbow I've ever seen! A fellow with a jet boat put in at Parker's every morning- he agreed that the fishing was slow (except he knew what he was doing and still caught a couple fish each day).

I'm headed out for a 3 day float trip 1st weekend of June- not going to be tons of time to fish but I'll get to wet a line a few times each day and the scenery is amazing.

[Gene K]

A fellow with a jet boat put in at Parker's every morning...

Huh? That's not exactly kosher...