Sunday, April 29—Broken Rod

DATE: Sunday, April 30, 2012

TIME: 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM

WEATHER: Mid-70s, mostly sunny, slight wind

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 Units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Riffle above Island below McClellan’s

FLIES USED: Brown Wayne’s Fly, #20 red/silver Zebra Midge

ROD USED: Winston 10’ 4-weight WT

HATCHES: Midges, Caddis

OTHER: Fished with Wayne. The river was crowded downstream

our Mill Dam Eddy, and we both walked along the island to fish upstream, and it was crowded as well.  As I was crossing, a fisher was crossing in the opposite direction, and fell as he was answering the phone.  I politely asked if he was okay, and after a positive response, continued wading upstream.  Wayne followed soon after, and said the guy had 8 fish on a stringer—the area is right smack dab in the middle of a catch-and-release area, and even if catch and kill were allowed, the limit is only 5.  What a rube.  Wayne very nicely told him it was catch-and-release, and with that many fish jail was entirely possible.  I fished the tail-out of the riffle and sporadically caught fish, though it certainly wasn’t a fish every cast, or even every other cast.  One of the rainbows, shown here, was a nice fish and about 16-inches.  After 3/4 dozen fish, I waded upstream and talked to a fisher in the riffle who said he owned the land below McClellan’s, and that his fishing partner owned the 50 acres below him—interesting! I fished the left most riffle in the plunge pool and missed a 20+ inch fish.  Shortly thereafter, I noticed the reel as being loose, and when I tried to tighten it, it fell off; the reel seat had broken.  I continued to fish, with a bunch of line out and the reel stuck in my waders.  The balance sure felt odd.
As usual, Wayne caught quite a few fish, and still has the touch.

Tuesday, April 24—What a Glorious Day!

DATE: Tuesday, April 24, 2012

TIME: 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM

WEATHER: Low 40s rising to low 70s, mostly sunny, windy

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 Units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Mill Dam Eddy to near McClellan’s Dock

FLIES USED: Brown Wayne’s Fly, #14 gray Norfork River Scud, #20 red/silver Zebra Midge, #16 Elk Hair Caddis

ROD USED: Winston 10’ 4-weight WT

HATCHES: Midges, Caddis

OTHER: Fished alone. A neighbor, Ethan, and I walked in about the same time.  He remained at Mill Dam Eddy, and I waded upstream and began fishing along the island, managing only a solitary fish, a 10-inch brookie.  Further upstream, above the island, the combination of Wayne’s Fly and the zebra midge worked well, taking several fish, including this chunky, well-colored rainbow.

Continuing to wade upstream, all the usual places produced fish, though catching was not the machine-gun style we sometimes experience—rather, just moderate and steady.  The right descending bank near Ace in the Hole had filled in considerably, and the deep run was pretty narrow, but did produce a few fish.  The run below Otter Creek near where the old sycamore tree hung over the bank fished better than the last few years, producing several fish; this brown completed a grand slam.

I waded upstream past Otter Creek to a point about half way between Otter Creek and where McClellan’s Dock use to be, as I had caught lots of fish on the left descending bank there last fall on the scud.  It produced several fish, but not near the numbers previously caught.

Fishing my way back downstream, I caught several fish near the sycamore tree across the channel and slightly upstream of Otter Creek.  More fish were caught as I waded downstream, including this football-shaped brown.

I fished the right descending run at Ace in the Hole, but this time from the left descending side, and had better success than in the last couple of years.

Another fisher, the best on the river was here until I came—a great blue heron.

While fishing in this location, I heard the 12:00 o’clock noon siren.  The small riffle and run on the left descending side of the plunge pool held several fish with 3 being caught, including a nice cutthroat.  It was here that my day turned from real good to great, even glorious, as I noticed caddis hatching, and fish rising to take the adult insects.

The first riffle upstream of the island below McClellan’s had changed considerably, with most flows discharging from the right side, but the tiny riffle on the left did hold fish.  I began there using Wayne’s Fly, but quickly changed to a caddis and was rewarded with a fish practically every cast—it was one of those rare days you never forget!  Most of the fish were small, but I did catch a couple in the 15-inch category.  I was almost giddy watching the small trout jump out of the water after the caddis fly.

By this time I knew Kay would be anxious as to why I was not home, so I began walking out, and just before reaching the access noticed a lone fisher rushing upstream—my good friend, Ed.  When he found out about the caddis, he was elated.  He fished Mill Dam Eddy, with only minor success; we waded upstream, but didn’t have any success along the island.  Another fisher was fishing the riffle above the island, and Ed fished his way upstream on the left descending side, with no fish.  Finally, at the riffle, he tied on a caddis and was rewarded with several fish.  By this time, two other fishers had joined the solitary fisher at the riffle, and were catching quite a few fish, but were using a heavily weighted fly under a strike indicator.  They had no clue about the caddis hatch and rising fish.  As they left, we moved over to that larger riffle, and while standing there, I tripped and slid over a rounded, moss-covered stone and fell in—getting water in my waders—not a graceful move, and while standing relatively still no less!  Ed took pity and said he was ready to go, so we waded downstream and back to the car.  As chance would have it—actually a God incident—I had thought about Ed while fishing the caddis hatch.  It was sure good to fish with him again, particularly to rising fish!

Sunday, April 22—Insanity

DATE: Sunday, April 22, 2012

TIME: 12:30 AM to 1:00 PM

WEATHER: Low 60s, partly cloudy, very windy

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 Units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Above the island above Ackerman/Handicap Access

FLIES USED: #14 gray Norfork River Scud, brown Wayne’s fly, #20 red/silver Zebra Midge

ROD USED: Winston 10’ 4-weight WT

HATCHES: None

OTHER: Fished alone. I walked in at Wayne’s and 6 people were in the tiny riffle across from his house, so I waded upstream and began fishing above Elisabeth Creek.  I cast the Norfork Scud a couple of times, but the chop on the water was so heavy, I switched to a brown Wayne’s fly to take advantage of the chop.  I was immediately rewarded with a fish.  I continued to get bites, catching two on Wayne’s fly and the other 5 on the zebra midge.  After only 25 minutes or so, I noted the strike indicator floating downstream at an increased speed and immediately began wading downstream to exit.  Once again, the forecast called for generation to begin at 1:00 PM, but it started early; SWPA’s forecast is wrong more that it is right!  I should have known; after all, one of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. 

Saturday, April 21—Fishing the Norfork

DATE: Saturday, April 21, 2012

TIME: 9:30 AM to 10 AM

WEATHER: Low 60s, partly cloudy, windy

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 Units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Above the island below McClellan’s

FLIES USED:

#14 gray Norfork River Scud, #20 red/silver Zebra Midge

ROD USED: Winston 10’ 4-weight WT

HATCHES: Midges

OTHER: Fished alone.  I waded upstream of the island and began fishing in the tail out of the riffle, and immediately began having success.  All the fish were active, and I managed a nice rainbow of 16+ inches, unmeasured.  All told, I caught 5 rainbows and two browns before the water began rising quite rapidly, after only 30 minutes’ of fishing.  I made it out okay, but if minimum flow had been effected, I could not have exited where I did and would have struggled.  Forecast was for no generation until 1 PM, so I thought I had a 3 or 4 hour window to fish—WRONG!  We can’t rely on the US Army Corps of Engineers telephone messaging system, and we can’t rely on SWPA’s forecast—that sort of puts us on the bottom of the rung!

Tuesday, April 10, and Wednesday, April 11—Bluegill Fishing

DATE: Tuesday, April 10, and Wednesday, April 11, 2012

TIME: Tuesday PM, Wednesday AM, and Wednesday PM

WEATHER: Low 80s, partly cloudy, very windy

WATER CONDITIONS: Clear

LOCATIONS FISHED: Brushy Lake, Five Lakes Outing Club, Hughes, Arkansas

FLIES USED: #10 Bream Killer for bluegill, large foam “Frog” popper for bass

ROD USED: G. Loomis 9’ 3-weight custom IMX, Winston 9’ 8-weight BIIX

HATCHES: NA

OTHER:  We packed clothes and fly fishing tackle Monday evening for our trip to Five Lakes Outing Club near Hughes, AR. Ed and Linda have been so gracious as to invite the “traditional” group of fishers who make the trip to Quetico in Canada each year. We were the first to arrive, and enjoyed sitting on the screened-in porch of the stately old house on Horseshoe Lake. John and Sandy followed shortly, and John and I headed off to Brushy Lake to try the bluegill. Wind was blowing from the wrong direction making it difficult, if not impossible, to position the boat for casting, but John did an incredible job, and gave up fishing most of the afternoon in order to put me in the right place to catch bluegill. I started off using a foam floating bug, but quickly switched to a bream killer; all told I may have caught slightly over 25 fish.

John’s karma was working as he managed to catch fish as we “anchored” to a tree. Ed and Dave came later, but we did not see them. We understand that Dave needed to “boil” his line before fishing again (a private joke). We enjoyed a great dinner of fried crappie with all the trimmings, followed by lively conversation till bedtime.

Wednesday morning came early as we were up before daylight. After coffee, we headed back out to Brushy Lake where John and Dave gave the bluegill and bass a whirl, staying close by the put-in where bluegill typically hang out. Every time we looked in their direction, it seemed like one or both would have a fish on. Meanwhile, Ed and I focused on bass. Brushy Lake is a little unique in that vegetation grows heavily around all but the south edges, leaving only the middle of the lake for bass fishing. We were casting poppers, but most strikes were subtle. Ed is an awesome bass fisher, and managed a bunch of hook-ups despite a bunch of near misses. He had an awful sitting position on the front of the boat, but that didn’t stop him. We wrapped up the morning fishing for bluegill where I lucked out and caught a few of the monster bream. The afternoon saw me returning to bluegill fishing, again with a fly rod and bream killer, and for the day I ended up with another couple of dozen of the giant bluegills. Dinner for the evening was grilled chicken and it was very good.

A cold front had worked its way to the area Wednesday night, and with wind and cold temperatures, we opted not to fish Thursday morning. We all departed for home shortly after breakfast. Many thanks to Ed and Linda for hosting, and John, Sandy, Dave, and Joann for lively conversation—these are good people.