Porky!

Yesterday I fished Ryan and Conor. Conor had held a fly rod one other time and Ryan had a little bit more experience under his belt. The conditions again were awesome, The river was crowded but we were able to keep our distance from the other boats and stayed on top of alot of fish! The boys whacked them one after another and boated well over 55 or 60 fish by noon. On our last drift of the day Conor stuck this porky little pig! It was awesome, the fi

sh smoked him straight to the reel! What a fish!

Guy and JP

Friday morning I meet two fellows Ive never fished before, Guy and JP at 6 am to get an early start. The water level was awesome and the bite was even better. I completely ruined these guys for life. We had over 20 double hook-ups before 1. It was nutes, around 130 fish boated. We saw lots of cookie cutter rainbows and several little football rainbows. The boys literaly had their rods bent all day long! Not to mention it was my birthday so the boys let me catch a few fish as well!

Steve and Jay

Yesterday after the storms cleared I took My guys Jay and Steve out for an afternoon float. These guys started fishing with me on their "annual" fishing trips, all though now it seems to be a couple of times a year! Last spring Steve landed some thumper rainbows and this time the tables turned and Jay caught a monster brown. The river was low and clear considering the massive thunderstorms that swept the area that morning. On top of the pig both guys boated buckets of fish,

life just doesnt get much better!

Terrinell and Robert

Last week I got the chance to take my cousins Terrinell and Robert out fishing for a morning. We had gotten a pretty major raim event the nite before so the temp. had cooled of a little bit and i

t was loads of fun, We had the river to ourselves pretty much, low water and active fish! Im sure we boated close to 60 fish by noon,and Terrinell boated this nice brown to be the fish of the day!

Randy Goins

If you read my blog often you know that I take father son combo's out fishing often. Last week the story went a little differntly than normal. I took my man Randy and his 86 year old father fishing. Randy is a great angler who has been hooked for years but it was his dad's first fly fishing trip. It was a fun day filled with awesome fish. Randy caught two really nice browns and his dad Gene smacked a bunch of solid rainbows!

Feeding Fish Foam

So ya'll its official. Its hopper season here in the ozarks. We got green ones, tan ones, yellow ones, brown ones, we got em in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Hopper fishing can be super exciting and action packed on the Little Red. Our fish seem to respond best to these foamy fun flies in the lower flows but not dead low water. Fishing the flies close to the bank along grassy banks. Ive found if I can fish them in a medium to low flow, tight on the bank, with a gravel river bottom my succes rate is higher. I usually dont fish a dropper unless its another dry. They can certainly be a little difficult to cast so down be afraid to shorten your leader a shade. If your experiencing leader twists maybe consider dropping from your normal 5x down to 3 or 4x. These little fellows should be around the river until we get out first few frosts in october so take andvantage of it while you can and feed a fish some foam!

Damon Cluck

I got the pleasure of guiding a couple of our nation's finest Army fellows last week. The water was low and clear. We slid up river and did some boat fishing that couldnt have been any better then after lunch moved down river with the low water window and waded. sow bugs and soft hackles really seemed to be the ticket almost all day. We caught several nice browns during the day as well as loads of 14-15 inch rainbows. Im positive we caught over a 100 fish. Damon got several good jumps and a nice tug off of this brown to be the icing on his cake, it's his largerst to date!

Friday Fishing

The Fishing is awesome on the Little Red Right now. We are having an awesome generation schedule. There is wadable water on various spots on the river as well as awesome low water boat fishing all day. The temperature has cooled down a few degrees and the fish are super active. BWO hatches have been going on every afternoon. Fishing are chasing streamers and munching hoppers. This is a photo from a trip I ran on friday of a nice brown caught swinging a soft hackle.

Willie Time

Last week Tony and I ran a group trip. It almost didn't happen due to the weather but about 10 a.m. we got a break,

the clouds parted and we got a chance to go get our lines wet. I had Willie in my boat. The river was full of rainwater and off colored but the fish didnt seem to mind. Willie laid the smack down on them. After boating 25 fish on nymphs he wanted to try streamers. It took a few minutes to get him dailed in. We had several nice browns whack his fly that we didnt land but right before lunch he did land a nice one! After lunch the sun came out and we went back to nymphing and boated quite a few more rainbows and another brown or two. From a morning that didnt seem like we would fish at all it turned out to be stellar!

Colin and JH

Yesterday morning I guided a Father and Son, Colin and JH. I've guided a lot of father son combo's but this one was truly inspirational. Colin truly wanted the day to be about JH and it was just so cool to see this dad completely do everything he could to make the day fun for JH. The water was a little high and the rigs were just a little to bulky for JH to try and cast, so Colin let or at

least offered, to let JH reel in every fish. He also took his photo's and let him net and release the fish! It was a special day for both father and son and I was glad to be a part of the memories they will both keep forever!

Karrey and Robert

Saturday morning I had two new clients, Karry and Robert. The COE turned the water on early so the water was high and the fish were a little finicky at first, but after some tweaking of the rigs, we found some flies they just couldnt resist. Karrey caught this nice brown and it was icing on the cake for him. The boys had boated close to 50 fish by noon..not to shabby for fishing high water, huh?

Hoppers and Streamers!

Friday I fished with Matthew Owen. We got an early start and wanted to chuck some streamers. We saw gobs of fish and they were willing to eat! I bet we saw 5 fish over 20 inches swing on our fly. We didn't land any monsters but certainly landed a handful of quality fish. As the day went on we decided to switch over to hoppers! Matthew managed to stick foam in quite a few trout! In my opinion fishing streamers and hoppers are two of the most exciting ways to catch trout! What a great day to be on the water!

Lena's First Brown!

Mason and His wife Lena have been great clients of mine over the years and have both caught some great fish, usually by Mason only because Lena doesnt come on all his adventures. Last week Lena landed her first brown and I only thought it was fair to give her a good ole shout out on this one! Nicely done Lena!

Tuesday Mornin' Trout

Amy and I both had the day off yesterday, so we decided we would go pick on a few trout. Well the truth be known she did most of the fishing. I just rowed the boat. I did force feed a fish or two on a hopper and one on a streamer. No monsters but still good fun. Amy fished on them hard and certainly sore lipped quite a few. Her favorite fish on the morning was certainly the nice little brownie taken on a soft hackle!

Sunday and Monday Report

Sunday and Monday I fished a group trip with Jamie. I guided Frank and Tom and Jamie had Herman and Steve. The bite was great. We found the lowest falling water window on the river and got into loads of fish. The river was a zoo all weekend! Yahoo's everywhere, so it was nice to ease up into the lower water and get away from everyone. The bite was HOT! mostly fishing classic nymph rigs.. two flies and a split shot. An attractor with a soft hackle below it has been killer. As the afternoon went on, we had to chase our water window down river. The key is to stay in front of it. If you let the new water hit you, its hard to ever get back in front of it. Remember if you are not getting down you are not going to catch fish!

McWilliams

Friday and Saturday I had the pleasure of guiding a good client of mine and his family, The McWilliams. Friday morning I fished with Mason and his wife, Lena. They did great. We got to fish a stretch of water that I haven't been able to fish much lately and they hammered them! Lena caught her first Brown Trout which was exciting,as well as a couple of nice chunky rainbows! Saturday morning I fished Mason's parents. It was their first time to fly fish and it was pure magic. I bet we had caught 55 fish by noon. They landed 3 nice browns and had doubles on 8 times! It was just crazy good fun!