Fly Fishing for smallmouth with Ozark Sweetwater

[Flysmallie]

Today I had the great opportunity to fish with my good friend Jeff Trigg. Jeff is the owner and head guide of Ozark Sweetwater. If you want a chance at a big smallmouth on a flyrod then Jeff is your guy. You aren't going to find a better guy to show you how it's done. We didn't catch any monsters today but we caught more fish than I could keep track of and had an awesome time. My arm feels like it's going to fall off.

http://ozarksweetwater.com/

 

[Gavin]

Looks like a great trip Ronnie! Good for you guys!

 

[BilletHead]

   Well done and great pictures too,

BiletHead

[stlfisher]

Excellant. Looks like a great time! Wish I had better numbers on the fly, but still figuring it out a bit.

[Gavin]

Helps if you have someone to handle the boat if you want to fly fish for them. 

[Flysmallie]

9 hours ago, Gavin said:

Helps if you have someone to handle the boat if you want to fly fish for them. 

 

I am not going to disagree with this at all. Hell yeah it does. But the same could be said if I would have been using a spinning rod. It's nice to have someone controlling the boat for you. And I did my best to return the favor for Jeff when he got off the sticks and fished with me. Of course I'm not a customer so he doesn't have a problem yelling at me when I'm f'ing it up.

Probably what was the most helpful on Sunday was his experience. I've been flyfishing for smallmouth for a long time and I have been successful at it. But Sunday Jeff had me fishing to water that most fisherman, both fly and conventional. would just pass on by. We hardly touched the stuff that most fisherman key in on. 

I also don't think you could fish those sections as effectively with conventional tackle. You sure as heck couldn't fish them as effectively floating by yourself. Just not possible. He had always told me that it wouldn't be easy to fish in a canoe and in the back of my mind I thought he was a little crazy. But after seeing how he's doing it I realize that he was right all along.

The pictures above are maybe a 1/4 of what was caught. And if I would have landed every fish that almost yanked the rod out of my hand or broke me off it would have been an unimaginable day. I tried to keep count but lost track somewhere. I tried to take more pictures but that's hard to do when someone is yelling at you to get that one off the hook and fire back in there. It was an eye opening experience. I was just looking forward to hanging out with Jeff, what we caught was beyond my expectations. A bigger fish would have been a bonus but I missed and lost so many that I have no way of knowing if one of those wasn't that fish.

I know that paying for a guide is beyond what a lot want to do. I don't really want to be a commercial for my buddy, but I'm telling you that it is worth every penny you would spend. And you aren't going to find a better guy to do it with. 

 

 

 

[Gavin]

Not disagreeing with you either....Jeff has a very good reputation.

 

 

 

 

[Browntrout]

Nice spot there, lots of great pics. Wish smallie fishing here was still possible

[Flysmallie]

2 hours ago, Browntrout said:

Nice spot there, lots of great pics. Wish smallie fishing here was still possible

 

Well now you have my curiosity going. Where is here and why isn't it possible. 

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, Flysmallie said:

 

Well now you have my curiosity going. Where is here and why isn't it possible. 

White river ?