A Little Father Son Bonding

Yesterday I took a Father and his two boys, Alex and Will, who are 13 and 17. Will got back in the groove immediately and started catching fish. He caught 3 or 4 fish on our first couple of drifts. Alex had a few on that we just couldn't seem to get to the boat. After a little work, everyone was bringing them in. The water was low and the fish where kind of lethargic, but we managed to stay in a few spots where the action was pretty good. For the second half of the morning we decided to get out and wet wade for a while. The water felt great. I think all of the guys caught 3 or 4 fish apiece while wading and loved it. Will hooked a nice brownie, but he spit the hook. We worked on casting techniques and reading water. I think the guys all had a great time doing some father son bonding and catching fish.

A Fantastic Morning!

Sunday I took Jerry Hillman, a gentleman from Memphis fishing. I picked Jerry up at 7:30am and we headed to the water. On our first drift we had 11 fish strike. The second 9. It was incredible how active the fish were. Jerry had a new Winston rod He wanted to break in and he sure got to. We had a pretty serious case of the butter hooks going on and lost a lot of fish, but we still managed to bring close to 50 fish to the boat by noon. We stopped and ate a few ham sandwiches for lunch and took a nice break. The sun got high and the temp got hot. The water continued to drop out and fishing got a little different. We still got into a few fish and had a lot of fun, but we started to have to really work for them. At the end of the day Jerry told me he had never had such an action packed morning in his fishing career. It was truly a Fantastic morning!

Red Fish Excursion 09

So I apologize for the lapse in blogging. I have been Fishing a lot but kind of got sidetracked because my Dad and I went to Southern Louisiana for a Red Fish trip. The Family and I pitched in to send Dad Red Fishing and I got to go along. It was awesome. We drove down and fished with an amazing guide by the name of Captain Bryan Carter.( if anyone is interested contact me for his information) Bryan picked us up at about 4:45 am and we jumped on a ferry across the Mississippi river. We were fishing by about 6 am. Dad caught the first few fish and from then on we switched off every two fish. Most of the fish averaged about 7 pounds but we caught several 10 pounders. I think we fished until about 4 pm and caught somewhere around 28 to 30 fish including a big gar. We had an alligator watch us fish for a while which was cool, but kind of creepy. We had a ton of fun and I plan on making it back down to fish again hopefully in Jan or Feb. Its was an awesome bonding experience for me and my dad and I don't think we could of asked for better fishing.

Hog Tastic

A while back I posted About me and my friend Hays getting to fish together. Well, He and his dog came back to see me and Buddy, my Pyrenees, this weekend. I had guide trips Friday and Saturday but Hays and I got to Fish on Sunday and Monday. Sunday we got out there early and each got a few fish to the boat. Then the clouds and thunder rolled in. We stuck it out and had great fishing all morning. The summer shower was nice. We had the river to ourselves and it was perfect. Well, eventually all good things must end I guess, and it got sunny and hotter than blue blazes. We took a water temp and it was high so we decided to nymph a little. We caught some nice bows and figured we would get after the hogs again the next day. On Monday we did a little different float and worked real hard for them. We each caught a nice fish and that was it. The morning started off with Hays getting tons of follows, but no takers. I guess all in all the awesome day we had Sunday morning makes up for slow fishing. I am truly addicted to big brown trout. I always want one more. Hays and I are on the same page when it comes to our fishing, that's why we have so much fun out there together. I say the fishing was slow, but really, can you tell me another place where you can go catch 6 fish over 18 inches and 4 over about 21 inches! The fishing was just perfect.

And the Mystery Continues...

Saturday I took two guys over to a river we call Mystery. The fishing was amazing. Could not get any better amazing! We spent the morning throwing big nasty streamers. Wes had the browns on lock down. He crushed them. He couldn't keep them off of his line. By lunch he had caught 8 fish over 18 inches and several in the 23-24 inch range. He caught 3 fish in 5 casts. It was something I had never seen. Unfortunately Steve's mojo wasn't quite right and could not get them to bite. Wes also caught a walleye and a large mouth. After lunch we did some nymph fishing and Steve crushed some fat and sassy rainbows. In my mind there is nothing cooler than throwing a 2 inch fly and seeing a big gold swirl come out from the shadows and smash it. They attack with such ferociousness its unreal. It truly is a rush to see these big predators in action. Not all streamer fishing days can be productive, but this one was truly amazing for us.

Gene the Machine!

Monday and Tuesday were two awesome days on the Little Red River. I took Gene, a gentleman from Northern Louisiana. We got great windows of fishing both days. We started pretty early and ran up river both days. Gene waxed fish. On Tuesday by 9am he had probably already caught 25 fish. We couldn't keep the fish off. He was Fishing a tandem rig that continues to be productive. Both days at lunch we put the boat on the trailer and headed further down river. On Tuesday, the Corps didn't turn the water on until 11 am. We caught fish on every stretch we fished. It was truly a pleasure fishing with Gene. Tuesday morning we got into a bunch of browns and in the afternoon he brought in about a 16 inch female. Fishing really could not have been any better both days, catching over 60 fish. I am looking forward to fishing with Gene again in the fall. He has now got the Yellow Belly Fever and wants to come back to chase some of the big browns the Little Red River has to offer.

Fishing on the Fourth of July

Yesterday was the 4th of July and I was part of a group trip. Jamie and I took the father,son, and two of his sons friends. I took Hugh, the Dad and a friend, Joe. I used to play soccer with Hugh's son, Tyler. Joe is from Austin, Tx. Joe is the boyfriend of a friend of mine from grade school. What a small world huh? Anyhow, Fishing was great. Once they got comfortable with the rods in their hands they started to smoke them. Surprisingly, the river was not nearly as crowded as it was on the 3rd of July. The Corps had given us a nice window of low water, turning the water off the night before at 11 p.m. and not turning it back on until 8 a.m. that morning. We caught fish in every drift we fished. We started off fishing some slow dead drift water and moved on into fishing some shoals. The swift water produced some excitement and some good action. Hugh caught a nice brown which is always exciting. We ended our day at noon with somewhere between 30 to 35 fish. It was a great morning on the Little Red River.

A Father and Sons Adventure

I took a father and two of his boys fishing on the Little Red River this past Friday. The dad had been a few times, but the boys hadn't been in years. Fourth of July is always the busiest weekend in Heber Springs and as usual there were a ton of boats on the water. We got started about 7am and the water was still pretty high. I got the boys comfortable with their casts and by around 8:30 am, we had found a steady bite. We were able to stay in front of the water almost all day. They rotated in and out of fishing since only two anglers can fish at a time. We picked out a great spot to eat lunch once the water finally caught us. We adjusted our rigs to the high water and the guys continued to catch fish. They didn't realize we could even fish under those conditions! A couple of big fish got away but that's part of it. I guess that's why they call it fishing instead of catching! All in all I think the Harriman crew had a blast spending time together Fly Fishing on the Little Red River.

Family Fun

Today I had the pleasure of taking my two of my cousins fishing, and man did we have a blast! Mary Austin had been fly fishing once before but it was really high water and hadn't gotten the opportunity to land a fish. Her mom Terinell has been a few times and was pretty comfortable with the rod. The Corps ran water last night until midnight and turned it back on at 6 am. It gave us a good window of fishing. We sang Motown songs and hooked fish. Mary Austin was able to land her first rainbow trout on the fly rod( this is the picture above!). We ended the day a little early because the water finally caught up to us with a bunch of nice rainbows. It was an awesome day on the water for me to get to spend time with my family and be a part of their adventure on the Little Red River.

Bamboo Fishing

Sunday I took Ed fishing. The last time I took Ed fishing we went white bass fishing and he absolutely crushed them, sticking nearly a hundred whites. Ed's wife had given him a 6 foot 6 inch bamboo rod that he had never used and he was was anxious to get it broken in. The Corps was good to us and gave us a window of low water fishing, so we took it. It took him a minute to get used to the soft new stick but before long he was sticking fish left and right. It was super exciting to watch his rod bend almost in half with these fish. About noon we put the boat on the trailer and headed down river. The fun continued. Everywhere we went Ed was hooking fish. We had to work hard for all of them but it sure was a blast. We finished the day with about 60 fish. An incredible day. He only fished a graphite rod for about 30 minutes at the tail end of the day when we ran out of low water. We had a blast. We worked on some double haul techniques and got him ready for some streamer fishing next time!

Another Fantastic Day on the Little Red River

Saturday was another fantastic day fly fishing on the Little Red River. The summer fishing is continuing to be hot in more ways than one. Temperatures have been in the 90's, so the early start has been crucial. Trout sometimes can get a little lethargic in the mid day's heat. I took two great guys from Memphis, Ben and Larry. We fished tandem rigs all day and the fish tore them up. We ran up river to an awesome stretch where we had nice clear low water. I love to watch the fish flash on the fly, it fires me up. Larry caught a nice brownie as well as about 25 rainbows. We came off the water by noon with nothing but smiles, good times, lots of fish and good memories for the guys.