Dally’s All Species Odyssey Fly Fishing Tournament

[Ham]

 So, a few years ago a local Fly Shop came up with a Multi-Species fly fishing tournament. You try to catch each fish that is on the approved list of target species.

You can read all about the rules etc on The Ozark Fly Fisher Journal.

So, of course,  as soon as I hear about it, I start scheming on how to fish it. Apparently, I am a little competitive since I wanted to only fish it IF I could have a respectable chance to win it.

Several of the local Big Sticks in the fly fishing community fish it as well as several of the guides. It is not a walk in the park.

Some of the big stipulations are no soft plastics, fly rod only, and has to be public water in Arkansas. Two man team and you have to fish “together”. 
they had an AGFC fisheries biologist doing the official ID work. Bonus points to act as a tie breaker are awarded to each species. The more difficult the fish the higher the bonus points.

I conned FishNDave into joining me on the event last Summer and started prepping for the event back in August Last year. 
I did a lot of pre fishing to determine what species could be reliably caught where and time/distance to travel to these fish. I didn’t always use fly gear, but I did start fly fishing more.

well after what seemed like forever this weekend was the tournament. Shotgun start on Saturday at approximately High Noon. Photos of your catches had to be received by 8 PM. Then the Tourney resumed Sunday morning at 0600 and pics had to be received by 12 noon.

Saturday after our Shotgun start we drove to the wilds of a Black River backwater slough. I call it the Bowfin Hole. Dave needed a bowfin and we needed one for the tournament. Between last year and this year, I was pretty dialed in. Once on location, it took Dave 2 minutes to land his Lifer Bowfin. Which was a Beautiful Baby Boy.we could have caught a bunch, but we needed to get more species. Things had changed dramatically since I was there on Wednesday. I had multiple gar species biting my flys on Wednesday, but we could get no love. We did rally and get a Bluegill, Redear, and a Crappie.

I know many were tiny fish, but in this tournament Size Does Not Matter.

I also got a strange fish that I thought was a Redear and the biologist agreed.I had allotted a certain amount of Swamp time and then jump and run to the Spring River. Well, everything went as well as we could have hoped on the Spring River. We had minimal time, but dropped a hammer on them.

Day 1 ends and we are in First Place. Felt pretty darn good.so so so after a short nights sleep (5 hours maybe) we rolled to Lake Norfork. I had a bunch of fish and a bunch of species located BUT the water just kept coming up flooded all my fish out. I was VERY disappointed. Dave saved our Bacon with some last minute heroics and got a nice Largemouth Bass.

we ran back to the house. Swapped out Waldo for the No Name Canoe. Headed to Crooked Creek to see what we could get. I wanted an Ozark Bass and Smallie for sure with hopes for a Northern Hog Sucker.

locals were swimming and fishing with live bait and doing what they do right where I wanted to fish. Part of what you have to work around. 
we got an Ozark Bass much quicker than I could have hoped and then STRUGGLED to get a Smallie. I was mortified at the prospect of failing to get a Smallie, but at the last minute I got a little Smallie for the needed picture. #crisisaverted

At that point, it was all over but the crying and the woulda shoulda coulda. We awaited Final Results as we drove to the Wrap Up Meeting. So, we finished third. 5 bonus points away from Second. We each won a Custom Color Nautalist XM Fly Reel. I had a Great Time! I really wanted to win, but I just didn’t work the mental game well enough. 
I really would encourage you guys to come play. I’ll do my best to fish it in 2023. 
Thanks to Dave for being my partner in this endeavor and previous adventures.

Next Year.

[Devan S.]

This is really cool! Is there any specific fish you could have caught to get you to second or first?

[BilletHead]

22 minutes ago, Ham said:

 So, a few years ago a local Fly Shop came up with a Multi-Species fly fishing tournament. You try to catch each fish that is on the approved list of target species.

You can read all about the rules etc on The Ozark Fly Fisher Journal.

So, of course,  as soon as I hear about it, I start scheming on how to fish it. Apparently, I am a little competitive since I wanted to only fish it IF I could have a respectable chance to win it.

Several of the local Big Sticks in the fly fishing community fish it as well as several of the guides. It is not a walk in the park.

Some of the big stipulations are no soft plastics, fly rod only, and has to be public water in Arkansas. Two man team and you have to fish “together”. 
they had an AGFC fisheries biologist doing the official ID work. Bonus points to act as a tie breaker are awarded to each species. The more difficult the fish the higher the bonus points.

I conned FishNDave into joining me on the event last Summer and started prepping for the event back in August Last year. 
I did a lot of pre fishing to determine what species could be reliably caught where and time/distance to travel to these fish. I didn’t always use fly gear, but I did start fly fishing more.

well after what seemed like forever this weekend was the tournament. Shotgun start on Saturday at approximately High Noon. Photos of your catches had to be received by 8 PM. Then the Tourney resumed Sunday morning at 0600 and pics had to be received by 12 noon.

Saturday after our Shotgun start we drove to the wilds of a Black River backwater slough. I call it the Bowfin Hole. Dave needed a bowfin and we needed one for the tournament. Between last year and this year, I was pretty dialed in. Once on location, it took Dave 2 minutes to land his Lifer Bowfin. Which was a Beautiful Baby Boy.we could have caught a bunch, but we needed to get more species. Things had changed dramatically since I was there on Wednesday. I had multiple gar species biting my flys on Wednesday, but we could get no love. We did rally and get a Bluegill, Redear, and a Crappie.

I know many were tiny fish, but in this tournament Size Does Not Matter.

I also got a strange fish that I thought was a Redear and the biologist agreed.I had allotted a certain amount of Swamp time and then jump and run to the Spring River. Well, everything went as well as we could have hoped on the Spring River. We had minimal time, but dropped a hammer on them.

Day 1 ends and we are in First Place. Felt pretty darn good.so so so after a short nights sleep (5 hours maybe) we rolled to Lake Norfork. I had a bunch of fish and a bunch of species located BUT the water just kept coming up flooded all my fish out. I was VERY disappointed. Dave saved our Bacon with some last minute heroics and got a nice Largemouth Bass.

we ran back to the house. Swapped out Waldo for the No Name Canoe. Headed to Crooked Creek to see what we could get. I wanted an Ozark Bass and Smallie for sure with hopes for a Northern Hog Sucker.

locals were swimming and fishing with live bait and doing what they do right where I wanted to fish. Part of what you have to work around. 
we got an Ozark Bass much quicker than I could have hoped and then STRUGGLED to get a Smallie. I was mortified at the prospect of failing to get a Smallie, but at the last minute I got a little Smallie for the needed picture. #crisisaverted

At that point, it was all over but the crying and the woulda shoulda coulda. We awaited Final Results as we drove to the Wrap Up Meeting. So, we finished third. 5 bonus points away from Second. We each won a Custom Color Nautalist XM Fly Reel. I had a Great Time! I really wanted to win, but I just didn’t work the mental game well enough. 
I really would encourage you guys to come play. I’ll do my best to fish it in 2023. 
Thanks to Dave for being my partner in this endeavor and previous adventures.

Next Year.

                        Wonderful report Ham and congrats friend. I appreciated the reports you updated throughout the day. Wish I was closer to do the recon for chasing the fish. Would be right up my alley as you know. 

[Johnsfolly]

Congrats buddy and to @FishnDave for great efforts and getting so close on your first go at this tournament! Everybody clicks! That's my kind of tournament😉👍 Can't wait to see how well you do next year.

[Quillback]

That's pretty neat, congrats on doing well!

[Ham]

There were 20 teams in this year’s event. The SWAG bags were Legit. I really think the 💵value was higher than our entry fee.

when you are catching target species and submitting catches, it’s so Great!

when you are grinding and the bites aren’t happening, it’s a BAD time.

I was prepared and we were Lucky. Next year I have to be more prepared to make sure we do well even if we aren’t quite as Lucky. 

[trythisonemv]

Who won this year ham?

[Ham]

3 hours ago, trythisonemv said:

Who won this year ham?

MOW2. A couple of guys from Missouri. I don’t know them, but you can look their names up online at  Ozark Fly Fish Journal

[FishnDave]

On 6/5/2022 at 7:08 PM, Devan S. said:

This is really cool! Is there any specific fish you could have caught to get you to second or first?

Yes, we'd hoped to get at least one, if not 2 or 3 species of gar.  They just picked that day to not cooperate at all.  We also each had Spotted Bass eats, but somehow managed to not hook up.  The guys that won it with 16 species...did fantastic!  The stars definitely aligned for those fellas. 

@Ham's gameplan was solid...very well thought out, as you can imagine.  Fishing anywhere on weekends isn't easy, when everybody else is also out fishing, swimming, etc.  We had excellent weather!  I've got a few more pictures to share later.

[FishnDave]

On 6/6/2022 at 6:11 AM, trythisonemv said:

Who won this year ham?

The winners:

Copied from:

https://ozarkflyfisherjournal.wordpress.com/2022/06/06/odyssey-22-won-and-done/

"MISSOURI fly fishers Mike Kromrey and Kyle Kosovich, dominated the 2022 Dally’s All Species Odyssey, finishing with a record breaking 16 species caught and released.

The pair finished 4 species ahead of the next closest teams of David French and Gabe Levin (Creek Chubs) and first timers Hamilton Bell and David Merical (Fly or Die).

Kromrey paid tribute at the closing ceremony to one of his fly fishing mentors, Rick Osborne, who passed away recently. The team spread some of Mr Osborne’s ashes on the White River this weekend.

“I think some of that spirit was with us,’ he said.

Kromrey and Kosovich, both accomplished warmwater and tailwater fly fishers, who now work on water quality in the region, won a pair of new Orvis Blackout rod and Mirage Reel/line outfits worth $1500 each."