A Few Pictures From Last Week

[stealthycat]

I grew up in Norfork, graduated from there in 1987. As a kid, my buddy and I fished the Norfork before all the houses were built on its banks downa nd opposite from McClellans, when there was just an overgrown, empty field right before the bridge that is now a resort. Lots of fun we've had on the rivers as a kid, but never took trout fishing too seriously.

Anyway, 20 years later and a few fishing trips this spring with my soon to be 73 year old Dad and I've rediscovered fighing the White river and in particular, I've got this burning desire to catch a big trout now. Big smallmouth and largemouth bass I've caught, big crappie check, big catfish, check, big stripers check. Big trout ? Nope. Lots and lots of good trout yes, but a really nice one ? Nope.

This past monday and tuesday fueled it even more. We caught maybe 20-25 browns in the 14-22" inch range, 6 between 16-22". Most were males, 1-2 were smaller females. We caught some nice rainbows, but nothing that had a "wow" factor. 3 weeks ago I had a very nice rainbow on, maybe 6-7 pounds, broke my line very close to the boat

Anyway, here are a few pictures from our trip - for some reason the fish sure look smaller in picture than they do in real life don't they ?? I swear i try to be very careful with the fish, and the one picture looks like I'm breaking his jaw don't it ? I'd have sworn I didn't do that if the picture wasn't there

[Ham]

What general section of the river were you guys fishing?

FWIW, I think a 22 inch Brown is a pretty nice one. Lots of places a 22 inch Brown is a BIG one. On the White River system, I guess it takes a 30 incher to be considered "BIG".

Looks like a good trip and I hope you enjoy your pursuit of a BIG trout.

[shawncat]

Nice pic's Stealthycat.Glad you had a good time with your dad.

[stealthycat]

we were below where the White and Norfork meet, the water wa very low and we were fishing the deeper holes. one hole in particular held fish.

I guess the browns are still spawning ? I know all we caught were males (or I think they were) with the exception of 1-2 that I know for sure were females

Funny you mention size. Field and Stream ranked Glenwood Springs as the #1 small town fishing spot in US, followed by #2 Mtn Home area. I lived in Colorado for a while, in Glenwood for 6-7 months. I remember blue ribbon waters, a raging river,tough access to fishing, trout seasons and a 14-16" trout being a dandy ! Maybe its a different fishery now, maybe I didn't know what I was doing then ! But yeah, where you are defines what a trophy is, not uinlike a big Arkansas buck not being that big if he were in KS or IL

[RiverRunner]

Judging from the pictures, it looks like you guys were in Chastains Eddy, just downriver from Reds Landing. That is a good area, I've caught a lot of good fish in there over the years. That stretch of river is awesome when its dead low like that.

[Thom]

Stealthy cat:

Great post. Thanks for sharing.

I had the same experience in the western waters where pictures of 14 and 16 inch fish made it to the local papers. With the exception of the San Jaun tailwaters in New Mexico thats what I experienced. Remember lots of water in the west is not open us outsiders. Floating streams as we do the white and Taney is mostly out of the question unless you have wire cutters and a keflon vest. The droughts has really decimated some of the fishing accesses also.

When I fished the streams around Durango the water was dangerly low due to low snowfalls and dry summers. One of the state park accesses near the Platte was closed due to dry weather.

I was lucky enough to know a resort owner who fronted the Wind River in Wyoming and did well fishing from private land and on the Indian Reservation areas were I was granted private access. Caught some beautiful Brookies on the Wind. Not much size but bueatiful marking. Nice browns with great fight also. I also found that the folks in the western streams were more tightlipped than the frendly folks in Missouri and Arkansas.

I was thinking as I enjoyed your post that I hope not to many true Trout Fanatics outside the area saw them.