Spring Fun Continues

And the fun continues in the beautiful Heber Springs area. I had several more great days chasing the whites, but the last time I went out all the females were gone and the males were all milting, which means the spawn is coming to a close. The Good news is the Little Red has been on fire. Caddis have been coming off all day. I fished clients both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday the Corp gave us a solid 15 hours of no generation. Saturday morning was awesome. We broke out the trusty double nymph rigs. By lunch they had easily caught 85+ fish. We stopped for lunch and had some leftover duck from the night before. It seemed to really hit the spot. After lunch we continued to move our way down river. Twice we drifted through one of my favorite low water shoals and caught 9 fish each drift. The third drift 7. They couldn't keep the fish off. I asked Rollins and Jacob if they had any interest in trying out some of my streamer techniques, maybe sacrificing the numbers in the afternoon but looking to turn a big brown. Within the first 35 minutes of throwing the big bugs, they had each boated a 23 inch or plus brown. The afternoon continued to be awesome, boating two more big yellow bellies in the same size range. It was a monumental day for the father and son.

Epic Fishing In Arkansas

Today was truly an epic day. I took a man named Ed fishing for the white bass. We smoked them. By noon he had easily caught 75 fish. A lot of cookie cutters, but several very nice fish. We had beautiful spring weather. The weather was in the 70's with a small breeze. We drank Kombucha and ate ham and cheese for lunch. Ed even managed to check the stocks, the weather and shoot out a few emails in between the brutal smashing of the white bass. After lunch it slowed down a considerable amount but by 2:30ish we were back on track. I rigged the rod with my secret weapon and it turned them back on. Ed even caught two nice white bass at once. Double Trouble. We were blessed all around today.

Easter weekend Caddis

Caddis were thick today on the Little Red River. I took my sister's boyfriend Lewis and my dad out today. We hit the water early and were fishing by 7:15 am. The sun came up bright. They threw some streamers early and Lewis caught a few rainbows. Dad had some cool follows, but it just didn't seem like a big bug day, especially when we got down to the shoal and the caddis were thick. I re-rigged Lewis with some of my favorite caddis emerger patters and the whacking began. Every drift they were hooking two fish apiece for a while. We had a great window of pretty low water and took full advantage of it, fishing the shoals and fast water. I would say it's safe to say they caught somewhere around 50 fish, nice rainbows and browns. It was a perfect day for making some memories with family on the river. It was all around a perfect day, I almost forgot I was guiding.

fly fishing on the Little Red

Yesterday the water was high. I had two clients who were great sports with the challenges in front of us. Jacob fished hard. He was pretty committed to throwing some big flies all morning. We had some exciting follows and a few hits. After lunch we decided maybe we should go for some numbers so I rigged up a few big water nymph rigs and immediately Jacob caught two nice rainbows and Steve soon followed suit. Jacob landed a real football. The picture does it no justice. towards the end of the day I took the guys down to another streamer spot I love. I told Jacob I had a good feeling about a spot and try the big boy one more time. He made a few cast and a huge flash of gold turned. Jacob didn't see it but I did. I stood up and and pointed, right then the rod bowed over. It was a true toad, pushing 25 inches. It was a fish of a lifetime. The biggest trout he'd ever landed on a fly rod. We didn't pack in tons of number but some great moments and awesome bonding for him and his dad, and a successful catch and release of trout-zilla

Where are we catching these fish....?

So with the lake still above power pool the Corp has continued to blast the big 2 at us 24/7. Yesterday I took my client to this special creek where I've been hammering white Bass . The first four casts he had fish on! Kevin had never fished a sink tip line or had any familiarity with the techniques we used. He picked up on them instantly and absolutely crushed fish. The weather was perfect. It eventually warmed up to above 70 degrees. We had a small Wind factor but we adapted. For the first few hours we had the place all to ourselves. As the afternoon progressed, a few others showed up but we remained the only fly anglers. We also remained the only ones catching fish. It was a picture perfect day with over 50 fish boated by lunch. After lunch our we didn't catch as many fish, but they were all nice slabs. Probably 15 fish in the 3 to 4 pound range. We even hit a few crappie, small mouth and a couple of rather nice large mouth as well. You really couldn't have asked for a better day. There is only a small window for this type of fishing. I suggest to anyone who likes to catch fish that can put up a hell of a fight, to come on down and see us. It truly is a whole new adventure and an amazing amount of fun.