From Upstate to down South

Saturday I took a couple who is originally from New York. They moved down south a few years ago. It was Loraine's first fly fishing experience ever. Harry has been fishing for a long time, but it was only his second experience on our world famous Little Red River. I got Loraine's rod rigged up first and before I could even get Harry's rod rigged up she was catching fish! They had some friendly competition going on and it was hilarious listening to them talk smack to each other. Most all morning it was back and forth, Loraine would get into a few fish, then Harry would take the lead with a few more. The weather was perfect. A nice cool breeze in the morning and a little sun to warm up the afternoon. I am not exactly sure how many fish everyone caught, but I would say somewhere close to 30. It was a great day with lots of action and tons of fun. They are in the process of closing on a house on the river so hopefully we will see more of the Conte's soon!

Hybrids!!

So all week I had been getting reports that the Hybrids had been busting the surface, so I passed on my report to Jamie. After I came off the river Jamie called and said lets go! I dropped the river boat at Jamie's and we grabbed the laker. We met our friend Joe at the ramp and went on the search. Before long we were seeing the fish blitz. It didn't take us long to get into these bad boys. I am fired up that fall is just around the corner and these fish are already this active. Its such a fun experience to catch these beasts on the fly rod!

Tony Marcone

Friday was the start to a nice and busy weekend on the River for me. I took Tony, a bond broker from Memphis. We had a great time. The weather was nice, the fish acted right and it was a great half a day. I had never fished Tony before, so we had a good time getting to know each other. We fished the two rigs all day. Both tandem rigs. We fished a soft hackle rig in the morning that has been my "go to rig" as of late and as usual, it was on fire. Tony caught fish everywhere we went. About the time we got middle ways down Rainbow Island the fish sort of just stopped being interested in the soft hackle, so I put on more of an attractor type rig and our fish numbers started to rise again. It was strange because normally in shallow clear water, its not a rig I go for, but hey the fish loved it!

Jamie and I did a group trip on Friday and Sat. I fished with Paul and Ray on Friday. Saturday, I fished Jack and Ray. Paul is from Memphis and the other guys are from St. Louis. There was never a dull moment. We tried streamer fishing but it was just never successful. The river was muddy so at lunch Friday, we went up to the dam and fished. It was beautiful clear water up there, not to mention the fishing was good and We saw an eagle! Saturday we went back down river and had a great day, even though the water was still stained. Ray and Jack have been friends for over 20 years, so it was fun listening to them banter back and forth with each other. Ray had the fish of the day Friday with a 20 inch brown. Paul also caught an 19 inch brown that was incredibly colored very dark. She almost looked like as if she was in spawning colors. It was a fun way to spend the weekend with these guys laughing, relaxing and catching lots of fish!

Sunday Funday

Sunday I had the privilege of taking Mike Heflin fishing. We had an amazingly beautiful boat ride up through the fog and went to one of my favorite flats. The first drift he caught a nice bow. We made several more drifts through the flat and caught a few more fish, then we ran up through the shoal. It was pretty much bam, bam, bam for the first few drifts through the shoal. As the morning progressed, the river got a little more crowded and our bite slowed down a little. All of our fish consistently hit a pretty sweet soft hackle. We fished through a few more spots and ended up at another one of my favorite shoals. Its a short drift but if you hit the seam right, it holds a lot of fish. Mike hit the seam right! As soon as I told him where to cast he made it and Boom! We made a couple of passes through it and were successful both times. It was a great 1/2 day filled with good conversation, a good joke and some nice fish!

Family Fun Continues

Saturday I got to take my cousins fishing. It was a group trip with Jamie and let me tell you what... We had some serious Fun! Its always fun when we do these groups trips. The trip consisted of my mom, Terinel, Mary Austin, and Robert. Saturday the temperature was in the upper 80's and the sun was high. We Jammed a little Grateful Dead and everyone caught fish. We took lunch in the shade, got out and did some wet wading and had a serious rock skipping contest. Terinel started her day off with a bang just crushing fish. Mary Austin was getting some serious hits but we just couldn't get them in. We worked out a few of the kinks and right before lunch she got dialed in. She she caught several nice rainbows in the swift water. After lunch we swapped the boats up a little and did some more drift fishing for a while. We ended the day with some more wet wading and Mary Austin got in her groove again! The water was perfect for some summer wading. It was an awesome fun filled day for me to guide my family

Streamer Marathon

So last weekend my Friend Hays came up to fish with me. We put some serious hours on the water. We fished Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We caught some nice fish every day. We stayed committed and threw big streamers even throughout the heat of the day and still caught fish. Sunday we went up to the White river and fished . We also fished the Norfork. Both rivers are great fisheries but it really made me remember how much greater The Little Red River is. One of the highlights of the trip was the bittersweet moment when Hays hooked a a 10 pound fish. This is the second time I know of this fish being hooked and lost in two weeks. It came up out of the water and crushed his fly. The mouth on this fish looked like a large mouth bass! We had tons of action all weekend. We brought the ipod and jammed and threw big bugs, two of my favorite things. It was probably the last time Hays will be able to come up for a while because school is starting so we got in all the fishing we could. Memories were made for sure. Hopefully next time we will land the one that got away!

Lena and Mason

Well the storms blew away and Sunday the sun came out. I took Lena and Mason fishing and man did we have great weather. It was an exciting day. Lena caught her first Little Red River trout which I always love to be a part of. Once Lena got her cast down she was hooking fish left and right. One of the first fish she hooked was a hog of a rainbow, probably a good 18 inches. It was a bummer she lost it, but like I always say, you have to lose some to catch some. Mason caught a nice brown which is always fun. I love brown trout. They brought their Ipod and a docking station for it, so we got to jam all day while we fished. It was awesome. We had tons of action and caught tons of fish. The water was a little stained but it didn't seem to bother the fish too much.

A Rainy Red River Day

Friday night when I looked at the weather it said scattered storms all weekend. Saturday Morning when I was met Mark, I said, can you believe how nice it is outside and he said yeah, it's not supposed to rain until late this afternoon. By 9am the sky got dark and the bottom fell out! We floated by one dock that had a thermometer on it and it read 62 degree's. August 1st and 62 degrees outside, that's just plain crazy! Anyhow enough about the weather, lets get to the good stuff, the fish! It was a good day. It took us just a few minutes to find the bite, but once we got it dialed in, Mark had it licked. He caught fish just about everywhere we went, including this nice brownie. It was a lot of fun fishing with Mark and I look forward to doing it again.