Fishing after the flood 4/29

[netboy]

We had quite a bit of rain yesterday and even had the tornado sirens going off in Cotter. When I emptied my rain gauge this morning there was 5" in it. The river looks like the muddy Missouri river right now here in Cotter and a friend told me the bridge on Denton Ferry road washed out again last night. That means a long detour thru Monkey Run (yes that is a real place with a not so nice, steep gravel grade road) for the folks that live north of the bridge and all the fishing resorts up that way. Also anyone that wants to launch at Wildcat access.

This morning I thought the only clear water for fishing would be at the dam so I headed up there early. I walked up the bank to get upstream of a small creek that was pumping muddy water in and the water was clear. I was the only one there and then around 9 am all the guide boats started showing up. When I left I counted 18 fly fishing guide boats. It looked like a parade as they came by me and then motored back up for another drift. Lots of jet motor noise... at least they motored back up on the other side of the river.

Fishing was pretty good and I caught some nice rainbows and a couple of browns. Didn't see any caddis so I used an egg/midge combo.

Here is a nice brown that took a Ruby midge dropper...

[netboy]

Just a quick update on the Denton Ferry bridge washout situation...

My fiend that lives up there said Baxter county road crew responded and now they have one lane traffic open.