Wednesday, March 29, 2006

DATE: Wednesday, March 29, 2006

TIME: 12:30 PM to 4:30 PM

WEATHER: Low 60s, mostly cloudy, wind 5-15 mph

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 Units (no generation prior 5 days)

LOCATIONS FISHED: White River, Rim Shoals

HATCH: Some midges, what I believe was a Light Cahill or something similar, 3 sizes of caddis flies (one was small, #18, gray with gray mottled wings; another was larger, #14, olive with near white wings; and the third was #16 tan). The hatch was not as prolific as March 28.

ROD USED: Winston 8’ 9” 5-weight LT (broke the Winston 8’ 6” 5-weight WT Joan Wulff Favorite this morning)

FLIES USED: #16 bead head flashback pheasant tail, #18 olive elk hair caddis

OTHER: Dick and I met Ed on the water; Wayne was there also. It was Dick's first time to "dry fly" fish, and he did very well. We both fished the riffle at the #2 "trailhead." There was not as much rising activity as March 28, but caddis flies were still coming off. In terms of catching, it was an even better day than March 28 for me. Again, none of the fish were large, but several were in the 16-inch class, and were surprisingly HEAVY fish.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 2006

TIME: 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM

WEATHER: Mid 50s, partly cloudy, wind 5-15 mph

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 Units (no generation prior 4 days)

LOCATIONS FISHED: White River, Rim Shoals

HATCH: Some midges, what I believe was a Light Cahill or something similar, 3 sizes of caddis flies (one was small, #18, gray with gray mottled wings; another was larger, #14, olive with near white wings; and the third was #16 tan).

ROD USED: Winston 8’ 6” 5-weight WT Joan Wulff Favorite

FLIES USED: #16 bead head flashback pheasant tail, #18 olive elk hair caddis

OTHER: Ed and I began fishing at the upper riffle. I used a #16 bead head flashback pheasant tail and caught several fish, then noted fish rising (two to my strike indicator). I switched to a caddis and began to catch fish on the dry fly, about 9:30 AM. I fished caddis the rest of day and had one of those particularly wonderful days, catching fish almost every cast on dry flies. None of the fish were large, but several were in the 16-inch class, and were the heaviest fish, as a group, I've ever caught on the White River. We quit before the hatch was over, as we were too tired to finish the hatch. I literally wore out several flies. We observed no other fishermen fishing caddis!

Thursday, March 9, 2006

DATE: Thursday, March 9, 2006

TIME: 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM

WEATHER: Mid-50s, overcast

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units, extremely turbid

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, above 2^nd island above Ackerman/Handicap Access

HATCH: None

ROD USED: Winston 10’ 4-weight WT

FLIES USED: #6 shad imitation (gray body, palmered grizzly hackle, fluorescent orange tail—it was the biggest, ugliest fly I had)

OTHER: I fished solo. It had been raining practically all week, and runoff combined with lack of erosion control at ongoing development at Overbrook Estates near dam "flooded" the river with sediment. It was so turbid that one could only see about one inch under the surface of the water. Regardless, I began by dead-drifting a fly in the riffle—nothing. I had heard that some browns had staged in the pool above the riffle, so I began casting the big fly quartering upstream and stripping back. I thought I had hung up, but then felt some movement. Making a long story short, I caught a 22-inch female brown. I made a few more casts and caught a 6-inch brown. I was so disgusted with water conditions that I quit for the day.