Flyfishing with Ham - August 2023

[FishnDave]

As @Ham mentioned in his 2023 Fly Fishing Species thread, we fished together this past extended weekend.   It was an Odyssey from Saint Louis to Cotter and well beyond.  Between me driving and Hamilton driving... around 1500 miles were tallied.  And we fished a little bit, too.  

We fought a number of rainstorm events that weren't in the forecast, and had to deal with high waters, stained waters, and all the debris washed into the waters.  #fishing  #firstworldproblems  

I want Hamilton to add his own observations to this thread, if he will, and the additional fish species caught.  I know he caught some species I didn't catch, but I would probably misstate or overlook certain ones, so I won't try.  Just fill in the blanks, Hamilton!

Day 1 (Aug. 10):

We met up at the Current River in MO.  I reached our destination early, and caught a couple Smallmouth Bass before Hamilton arrived.  He launched his boat, and the first place we went too had a bunch of Longnose Gar on the surface, but they all slowly swam away or dropped deeper and mostly out-of-sight.  Later we saw them again, but they weren't interested in hitting our flies.

In addition to Smallmouth Bass (all just little ones), I caught Carmine Shiner, Bluegill, Longear Sunfish, Green Sunfish, Hornyhead Chubs, Striped Shiners, Bleeding Shiners, Northern Studfish.  Hamilton lent me his rod with tiny flies tied on which enabled me to catch the Carmine Shiner and Bleeding Shiners.  I also caught my goal for the trip, a new Flyfer Shadow Bass!  

My pics:

Smallmouth Bass:

Carmine Shiner:

Shadow Bass:

Bleeding Shiners:

Striped Shiners:

Northern Studfish:

I did take pictures of the other species.

On our way out, we briefly fished from shore on the Jacks Fork, so Hamilton to catch a Hornyhead Chub.  I think he caught 2!  He's like Babe Ruth calling his Home Run shots!  And I caught another Smallmouth Bass.

 

[FishnDave]

Day 2 (Aug. 11):

Solo day.... @Ham had to work today.  I told him some species I was hoping to catch, and he supplied me with ample intel, spots, and even texted me pins so I could find the spots with my GPS.

Hoping to add Brown Trout, and Brook Trout to my 2023 Flyfishing List, and Cutthroat to my Flyfishing Life List, I visited Bull Shoals Dam for the first time.  I arrived at the parking area, and a fellow was leaving and said they had sounded the horn 5 minutes before.  Water would be rising.  Shucks.

I got my waders on, sling pack, net, shut my tailgate, locked the car, and started heading for the path to the water.  And realized I should probably take a rod. 😏  I returned to my car and grabbed a rod.  Wow...  Too many other thoughts about fishing running through my head, I'll say.

Completely unfamiliar with the area, I was unsure where to start.  There was an angler fishing in a likely looking spot already, and I didn't want to crowd him at all.  I tried a ways upstream first, and it was shallow and fast water.  No takers.  I went downstream a ways from that lone angler, and started catching fish.

No Browns or Cutties, but I caught 3 Rainbows (including a very strong 15-incher with beautiful perfect white-tipped fins), and a dozen Brook Trout.

 

[FishnDave]

Day 2 Continued:

The river had come up considerably, so next I decided to go somewhere to try for Ozark Bass.

This creek was low and clear.  I ended up catching 4 Ozark Bass, some Green Sunfish, Longear Sunfish, and Striped Shiner.

After Hamilton got home from work, we took his son Ian out for dinner.  Then the two of us went out after dark...on a very dark, moonless night, very hot and humid... and pursued Madtoms on fly.

The creek was a bit high and slightly colored up from recent rains.  We saw very few.  I spotted 2 Slender Madtoms and 1 Checkered Madtom.  Hamilton put his fly on the lips of one of the Slenders several times, and it refused to respond to it at all.  I never did present a fly to any.  

We did walk within a few feet of a beaver sitting on its haunches doing something nefarious in the dark.  He didn't run away, but watched us walk past.  I bet his friends will never believe his story of seeing talking lights go floating by in the night.

 

[FishnDave]

Day 3 (Aug. 12):

More rain.  We got soaked.  We fished a number of places, stopped at places that we didn't fish because the water was too high.  In other places it was low.  It was a day of few fish, but very awesome fish.

At the first spot, we wanted Longnose Gar, and saw some. They would surface and then dive and disappear.  We each caught a Shortnose Gar.  I spotted something I at first thought was a Muskrat, since it was partially out of the water on the surface, and a brown color.  Eventually we realized it was a fish, and Hamilton saw it well enough to identify it as a Flathead Catfish.  I had a brief chance to put my fly in front of it, but got no reaction from the Flathead.  Hamilton got his chance, and got the eat, and hookup!!  After some tense moments and fish thrashing, and sticks in the way, we somehow managed to get a net under it.  BOOM!!  It was much bigger than we at first though, and SUPER fat!  Turns out it was choking down a fair-sized Freshwater Drum, whose tail was still sticking out of its throat, pretty much touching the inside of its jawbone.  We think because its belly was so full had something to do with it hanging out near the surface and slowly cruising around under the trees where we spotted it.

Flatheads on fly are super rare!  Hamilton deserved every bit of it, and totally sealed his LEGENDARY Status.  Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame... are you listening??  

At another spot, we tried for Orangespotted Sunfish, because they are a cool fish!  We didn't get any, but I caught a Warmouth.

At yet another spot, we saw gar gulping at first.  We launched the boat, and the gar mostly quit showing themselves.  But bowfin started surfacing more frequently.  We focused on them, and had some incredible eats where the line would just start running full speed away.  I lost most of mine, but managed to land two.  Hamilton landed 5, and lost a couple.  It was really fun!  Mosquitos we hunting us aggressively.

Hamilton the wizard also got his 2nd incredible rare catch of the day... a Bigmouth Buffalo ate his bowfin fly!!  STRONG fight!

 

[FishnDave]

Day 4 (Aug. 13):

We fished a couple places on the White River, with the main goal of getting me Mooneye on fly, and also Skipjack Herring.  I'd caught Skipjack before, but not this year, and had only caught one Mooneye, years ago, on conventional gear.  So a Mooneye would be a Flyfer!

@Ham did it!  He put me on 'em!  I caught Skipjack, Mooneye, White Bass, Longear Sunfish, and a Freshwater Drum!

My biggest Skipjack of the trip was freakishly strong!  For whatever reason that makes no sense, I was using an 8 wt fly rod, and that Skipjack had it BENT OVER!!  I was trying to hoist it to the surface, and it would not come up for the longest time!  WHAT???  

Anyway, the fish from this trip brought my 2023 Fly Fishing List to 76 species, and my Flyfishing Life List to 110 species.

Thanks for the good times and hospitality, Hamilton!  I really appreciate it!  We'll definitely do it again sometime.  

[Ham]

Because of the distances involved, I’m the fishing equivalent of a P-51 Mustang before they got belly tanks. I’m just not able to fish as long as I want once I reach the fishing spot (unless the spot sucks and then I can’t wait by move on.)

So, we hit the Current River. It seemed a little low, but I don’t know it well enough to be sure. And yet the clarity was only a 10 instead of the usual 11. I wanted to launch at Logyard and run up just below Powdermill. I have some proven Shadow Bass spots that set up well for fly. I don’t think you can easily launch a river boat at Powdermill anymore and I was concerned about running all the way up from Powdermill and back taking too much time. I was also concerned about running long riffle with big rocks that is like a mile up from the 106 bridge. So, I convinced myself we would be ok and would get Shadow Bass on the section from Two Rivers to Powdermill w/o running that riffle. We did, but it wasn’t easy. I for one and Dave got one, but missing accomplished.

Dave caught 3 or more Hornyhead Chubs on Thursday and I had not gotten a sniff. and I still needed one for the year. So we needed to quit early so I could take my wife and Dave out to Rapps Barren in Mountain Home. I gambled that we would still be ok if I stopped at the Jacks Fork access in Eminence. I immediately caught a colored up Northern Studfish, but soon saw Hornyhead Chubs Looking peckish. It only took a little convincing to get the first one and a little more to catch the next two. I couldn’t stop at one and wanted to stay another hour, but we flew along home and even had time for a quick shower before a nice meal. 
we caught a variety of fish pretty steadily, but I failed to catch a Chain Pickerel or produce Mooneye or Skipjack on the Current for either of us. #scrublife 

I think the Current River is Beautiful and full of beautiful fish. I hope Dave enjoyed the brief first visit. 

[Ham]

So, Dave’s Day Two trip was pretty cool. He caught a lot of Brookies and made me nervous that he was sore mouthing too many of them and I wasn’t going to be able to get one after he left Monday morning (spoiler- I should not have worried). I wish he had gotten that Lifer/Flyfer Cuttie, but that leaves something for next time. 

Special Thanks to @netboy for the Brookie Intell. I know where they hold after they are stocked, but I wasn’t sure if any where in there yet. Bob assured me that they were there and were quite agreeable. He told me where to try and what fly to throw ( “you can catch on any fly you want). 

[Ham]

So, Northern Arkansas had a significant rain event Wednesday morning. I did a couple of brief stops in NWA Wednesday morning/afternoon and that stuff stayed clear, but the ground was dry and stuff moved thru quicker. We had more rain and additional rain after the ground had become saturated and I became concerned about water quality. I had intell from a guy that lives in Batesvillie and he said the White had muddied up. So, I called an audible and pushed the White River trip back to Sunday and threw out options to Dave. 
We decided on Portia Bay/ Lake Ashbaugh, and a community Pond in Missouri. A series of manageable drives and a long drive home. 
it was my second trip ever to Portia Bay, but I felt like it was a multispecies option for us with lots of gar available. I wasn’t wrong, but as I have been told. Gar are unreliable. 
oddly enough, we each caught the first Shortnose Gar we presentes Flys To, and then never landed another one despite lots of eats. so, I had seen a small pocket I was interested in and I hope a gar might be loitering there. None were, but Dave spotted something strange on the way in and again on the way out. What the heck? A Flathead up near the surface just hanging around. Heck Yeah I want to try to catch that. Honestly, I did not know it was that large and I expected to get broken off. We both got opportunities at it, but I got Lucky and got a better opportunity. I was laser focused on that gaping mouth and when the fly disappeared in there I got a quick set.

The fish was obviously not at 100% with that other fish lodged in its throat. Too big to fit all the way in its stomach. I did try to remove the fish and I was not able to do so. I think we might have helped it clear some gas from his gut and I was actually able to get a little more of the fish in his gut. I hope the Flathead is able to finish its meal and not die from it.

We got frustrated with the Longnose Gar, the mosquitos, and the rain and decided to call another audible and drive to Manilla, AR and try for Longnose over there. I was worried that we would not have enough water, but instead we had about 6 foot too much. 🤨

I was hating how this was working out, but I decided to cut the losses and go to Lake Ashbaugh. Yes, more driving. 
we get to Lake Ashbaugh and it was too low to launch the boat. Too shallow to really fish my Orange Spotted area and mosquitos were still chewing on me. 
i had several areas I wanted to try and we did the logical progress through those options and fortunately we found a spot that had some fish and we staged a rally. I was starting to feel like such a jerk, but it all worked out. 
we saw lots of fish moving around and it was a little tough to reach them from shore so Waldo got launched again. 
Dave got the party started with a really nice Female Bowfin that really did not want to be captured. It did a Polaris launch out of the net after I scooped it up TWICE, but Dave caught it anyway. 
It was just my Lucky Day I Guess. Things went really well for me. I hooked like 7 of the 10 Bowfin Bites I had and landed 5 is the 7 I hooked. That’s crazy Good for me with Bowfin on fly. 
our Bowfin flurry was like 90 minutes long. I really enjoyed It.

Somewhere towards the end of it, I stripped my fly and a fish had it already. I was worried it was a Bowfin that I was fighting w/o getting a good hookset, but the longer the fight went the more I realized this wasn’t a Bowfin. It pulled hard and did not want to come to the surface. I was desperate to catch it because I was pretty sure it was gonna be a Flyfer. I hung on for dear life and Dave got it in the net. My Lifer/Flyfer Bigmouth Buffalo! My second Happy Accident of the day.“Boy, you got a Purtty mouth”

despite my desire to fish until dark, I eventually call it and we headed for home.  

[Ham]

So, Sunday rolls around. It’s put up or Shut Up. No more delays for the White River at Batesvillie/Oil Trough.

Keep in mind that both Saturday and Sunday morning we loaded our gear and hooked up the boat in the rain. We drove through the rain most of the way to the lake Saturday and we launched in the rain on Sunday.

because of the rain, I chose to launch at Batesvillie and swing streamers in heavy current hoping for White Bass and Stripers. The rain waned to a close without any big guys playing. We switched over to skipjack. I caught the first one and then Dave got one. Not big numbers, but he got one.

I tried some wing dams hoping for a walleye or sauger, but I only got a small Longear Sunfish. Further down river, Dave got a nice drum that used the current to his advantage.

I looked up and saw numbers of Mooneye feeding in the main river. Eased over to try for them. I managed to get Lucky and get one and then we missed a couple strikes. I’m still learning about Mooneye. I didn’t think they were that noise sensitive, but I’m rethinking that one. 
we relocated to Oil Trough. I have the Mooneye figured out better down there. Dave force fed them his micro jig down there to great effect. He caught a bunch. 
We tried a few spots for Gar. Nope.

We rolled up in my best spot and saw a fish strike. Good sign. Usually, we can get big bluegill, bass, White Bass, Gar, and Skipjack there. This time, it seemed like it was mostly Skipjack. Dave got some White Bass. Skipjack are a really fun fish and we got pleasantly distracted by them.
I was Happy Dave got his Mooneye and Skipjack. I like to honor my commitments. I wanted to show him the entire river, but we only had a few hours, and the water quality wasn’t as good as normal. So, it is what it is.

Another Fun, crazy, whirlwind trip that I enjoyed a bunch. I look forward to the next adventure. 

[FishnDave]

We caught a lot of the same species, of course.  In addition to the Flathead and Buffalo, @Ham caught 2 other species I didn't catch during the trip.... Bigeye Shiner and Largemouth Bass.  Combined, we caught 24 species!