Zeppelin Blimps

Yesterday evening my friend Greg and I went out on the lake to chase a few Hybrids. We pulled into my first spot and saw a few splashes but nothing too promising. I caught a nice Kentucky and a small mouth. We moved on to the next spot and nothing. On our way to the third we could see the splashes from 500 yards away. We pulled up into them and starting getting into them immediately. All the fish we caught were nice fish. Doc is a guy who likes to sit down when he fishes,so he landed his first hybrid sitting down. It was extremely funny. We stayed out a couple of hours and saw fish almost the whole time. Man do I love Greer's ferry.

Birthday Girl

Yesterday was my Moms birthday. For Mother's day I had given her a gift certificate to fish for a day. She brought her good friend Anne, who had never fly fished. We put in and ran up river to one of my favorite little gems on the river. It was a beautiful boat ride in the fog. We had the river to ourselves. No other boats! Mom got into them pretty quick and punished them. She brought in several gorgeous browns. Once I got Anne dialed in, she starting catching quite a few fish too! We took a great lunch break and watched the geese squabble. After lunch, we started working our way back to the ramp catching some nice fish in the rising water as we drifted. It was really cool getting to take my mom fishing on her birthday. I think she and Anne will remember it forever!

Chiky and Fred

Jamie and I did a group trip with the guys from Memphis Pizza Cafe on Tuesday. We had a good bit of water left over from the night before, but it posed no threat! It was a nice partly cloudy day. My two guys, Chiky and Fred had a blast. The bite was pretty constant all day. They jabbed jokes at each other all day. Fred caught the first brown and was talking about having all the skills, when Chiky came back and caught four browns almost instantly! It was pretty funny. This picture is one of the nicer browns we saw that day. The fall fishing is starting to get cranking with more and more browns showing up. I think its going to be a great season!

Fun with Dad

So if you guys don't know, I have my dad to thank for my passion of trout and the river. I caught my first fish when I was two years old. We have fished together my whole life. Yesterday afternoon the river was running two units and the sun was shining. Not ideal streamer conditions, but we wanted to give them a whirl. I convinced dad to take his boat. I think that within our first five casts, we both had Fish On! We fished for a couple of hours and caught several nice browns. We both missed several as well. I brought in this 26 inch toad! It was such a rush to have this monster come up out of the water 4 times! He was like a baby tarpon. It was awesome! It was a real treat to get to do what I love most with my dad, catch big browns on streamers.

The Tug is my Drug!

Well if you haven't figured it out yet guys, the tug is my drug.... I love to feel that tug and see the rod bend. I am not picky when it comes to species. Last weekend my friend Hays, came up to do some fishing with me. We had a blast. We never stop exploring. We usually put in 12 hour days on the water when we fish together. Saturday, we were at the lake by 6:20am chasing Hybrids. Conditions where perfect. We got into tons of fish. It was so awesome to see how huge the blitz's were on the water. Fish for acres coming up destroying shad. We found that type of activity at two different spots and stayed on fish all morning until about 1:30pm or so. We could have stopped fishing at that point, but we wanted to go get on the trout. We picked up Jamie, dropped off the lake boat, and grabbed the river rig. Again, we chunked big streamers and punished fish. Sunday, we got back into the fish again with lots of action! The water was low so we had to drag the boat through lots of water but it was all well worth it. We also picked up some trash including this tire!

Fun times with the 2 weight!

I took a good client of mine, Robert and his friend John, fishing last Thursday. It was a cool, drizzly morning and the fish were more than willing to eat out flies. John fished his 6 foot 2 weight. Its an absolute blast just to see how those fish can bend that rod! Both of the guys put a hurt on the rainbows. At one point, about a 7 pound brown came up and took a swipe at the rainbow on Johns line. It was an awesome rush and the second time I've seen this behavior in the last week! Robert decided he wanted to throw some streamers for a while and so he broke out the big guns. He had plenty of action on the rod, but just couldn't get any of the real big browns to commit. We had a blast! The rain was a welcome change from the hot sun. The guys caught nearly a hundred fish! It was another fantastic day on the Little Red River!

Crush'Em!

Ok, so today was unbelievable. I took two guys out. One of the guys Steve, had never been fly fishing and the other guy Bill, had been a few times. It was one of those days that the fish did everything but jump in the boat. After a long rainy, muddy weekend it was like fishing a completely different river. We had doubles going all day! It was out of control. It was a group trip with Jamie and his boat was exactly the same way. We fished several spots extremely hard and it just seemed like the fish never quit. Days like this on the Little Red River are awesome. It makes me proud to call this my home water. At one point a ten pound brown came up and tried to crush the rainbow Bill had on the end of his line! It was crazy cool. There just isn't much better than seeing those carnivores in true action!

Cole-a-Thon

Over the weekend we had some serious rain! Three inches one night. The river got real muddy. I fished Saturday for a couple of hours, but the lightning ran us off the river. Sunday, we tried again. We started out a the dam. We boated a bass. We left and went to the pocket and it was pretty rough. We finally caught a few trout. At lunch I swapped out anglers and took Roger Jr and Kevin. They got in the groove quickly and boated about 20 fish in an hour. About 2:30 pm I switched for Big Rog and Tip. Tip had never fished before, so we got some fundamentals down and Roger caught a few fish. It was a tough weekend on the Little Red River but it sure was fun!

A great summer...

Thanks to all those who've fished with me this summer! Here are a few highlights...

It's not too soon to book your fall trip...

p.s. i've switched the video to youtube... might need to let it fully load first to view without interruptions.

Far Away from the Rockies!

Monday morning it was another cool beautiful morning in the Ozarks. Gary, a Deputy Sheriff, came all the way from the suburbs of Denver to fish with me on our world famous trout stream. Fishing was great! We had a blast. We had tons to talk about since at one point, I too lived in Colorado. He fished a gorgeous bamboo rod. Gary wasn't accustomed to throwing double nymph rigs under an indicator, but soon got the jist of it and wore them out. We lost a few really nice toads. Both times the fish just outsmarted us. The first was a big brown who dove deep and shook the hook. Halfway down the shoal he hooked a rainbow that just peeled the line off of his reel and went straight into the fallen timber. We continued fishing and caught bunches more fish. Then, on the last drift of the day, Gary hooked a brown measuring in close to 20 inches. He played the fish perfectly and landed him! It was a perfect ending to a great day!

The Lachapelle show

Last Sunday I took a Norm and his buddy Scott fishing. They have been friends for a long time and bantered back and forth all day. It was hilarious. Norm first fished with me a few years ago and comes pretty regularly. Last week it was perfect weather. I wore a jacket until noon. We had scheduled the trip to be a beat the heat trip from 6am to 1 pm but there was no heat to beat. It was great the fish seemed to corporate pretty well. We caught fish every where we went. They didn't exactly jump in the boat but it was steady and good fishing. The High light of the trip to was Norm landing about an 18 incher on the his 3 weight!