Arkansas Upcoming
- This topic has 3 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated Oct 1, 2015 at 8:40 pm by
.
-
Posts
-
Hey y’all –
Bearded Jay, Tracy and I are headed over to Arkansas for a little streamer action this weekend. Hopefully some of these will pay off:
It’s been a while since I spun deer hair. Wish us luck!
Zach
Zach,
just saw your post here about Arkansas. I assume you fished the White. How did you do ?
I was there the week before you went. Worst trip I’ve ever had over there. Fished the White and the Norfork.
We knew the water was high and it would be different than what we were used to. Reports made it sound like fishing was good
and improving as far as the hopper bite went. NEVER had one fish eat a hopper or any other dry the entire week. In fact,
streamers were the only thing we really caught anything on, save for a couple of nymph bites. September had always been
good to us over there, but not this time. It wasn’t just us, the guides were having a tough time with their clients. We caught
a few fish each day, but very few and no size what so ever.Mike the whole dynamic there is different with the new high water fishery they’ve developed. I don’t think you can go to the White at 16,000 cfs. and expect it to be what it is at 3,000. We went to sling meat and to some extent it worked; we had follows and slashes from big browns (one of which ate my fly and just didn’t get hooked). We didn’t land anything large either (although I caught several rainbows on nymphs at one point just to demonstrate).
From what I was told the hopper thing is a lot like the streamer fishing; lots of casts and long days for a few fish, but potentially large. Maybe it’s just my striper mentality these days, but that’s kind of what I expected. Getting blanked on big fish doesn’t bother me; to me it’s a time on the water scenario and we just need to put in our licks.
Chad Johnson is the head guide for Dally’s Ozark Fly Fisher. When the Michigan guys came down and showed the Arkansas boys their articulated streamer tactics, Chad went out and gave it a try. He caught a 27″ brown fifty yards off the ramp… and then didn’t break that mark again for three years.
But I guarantee you this: no shop in the country has as many pictures on its walls of 28″ plus brown trout (every single one of them caught in the last four years) as Dally’s.
Zach
Zach,
I absolutely agree with your point. Very different over there right now. High water is good for the health of the fish, it’s us, the predator, who has to adjust to conditions. I knew it would be a challenge, but that’s always been a lot of the draw to the sport in the first place. Had a great trip anyway…. by chance , did you get to eat at Club 178, in Bull Shoals ? I’ve been a couple of places where they served Walleye, and it was the bomb there. Reasonable too.
Next trip out to the White may be in the earlier part of the year. One of the locals there recomended that time frame. I agree on the picture gallery there….. I’ve been around a little, and there is not hardly a location that can brag like them.Mike Livingstone
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.