Running the River

TIME: 8:00 AM to 1:30 PM

WEATHER:  Partly cloudy, low 90s,

WATER CONDITIONS:  0 Units

LOCATIONS FISHED:  Norfork River, Quarry Park to Island above Ackerman/Handicap Access  

ROD USED:  8’6” 5 wt JWF Winston

FLIES USED:  Brown Wayne’s Fly, Cream/Copper Midge

HATCHES:  Midges

OTHER:  Fished with Wayne.  We used one-man pontoons to run the river today, beginning at the lower end of the campground at Quarry Park and floating downstream.  We didn’t catch a single fish in the Resort Hole, and had only a couple in the downstream riffle.  The long riffle produced no fish, except at the very tailout, where I managed to catch a couple.  The riffle at the top of the Long Hole fished real well as another fisher gave me permission to fish it on my way down.  I caught 3 fish, missed 3 others and left it to him.  The tail of the Long Hole was kind to Wayne, but I didn’t catch a fish.  The riffle above McClellan’s produced a couple of fish for Wayne, but again, I didn’t catch a fish.  We fished our way to the “dock” and my first cast resulted in a 20-inch brown.  Wayne found a pocket of fish and pulled a couple of dozen out just upstream of the Narrows.  The Narrows was being fished hard by 4 other good fishers so I floated downstream to the riffle above the island and caught just shy of a dozen fish.  We met up at Mill Dam Eddy and floated downstream to our take out.  Good news was we saw lots of fish; bad news was that lots of people were fishing for them.