Kurt and Richard from St. Louis drove down in a blizzard from St. Louis on Saturday afternoon to fish the White River on Sunday and Monday. Now that’s hard core for you. Sunday morning saw no generation and we put in and went upstream. Brown tungsten bead glitter midges drew strikes right away and then it got a bit slow. I had kurt fishing upstream with a San Juan Worm after teaching him the Belgian cast with the wind at his back and he picked it up on the first cast and increased his distance to just about 60 feet. The catching picked up as well (at least for Kurt). The wind pushed the fish down to the bottom and that’s where the strikes were coming from and boy were they subtle. Just the slightest pause or bounce on the palsa indicator and a quick hook and Kurt was rewarded with a fish. All Kurt needed on the first day was a Cutt for a grand slam as he did hook and land a really nice 17 inch brook trout. Richards day went a bit different as he struggled with fishing upstream so I moved him down stream and put on a midge dropped deep and he did pick up a few fish but we did have to change flies often. The next day generation was on so we put in at the dam. The catching started off right away with Richard landing the first fish. Kurt followed up with a good fat 18 inch bow. Richard and Kurt were hooking and landing 2 or 3 fish on every drift then the water was shut off. We fished dropping water with an ant and a dropper midge and caught two. We began wade fishing and the catching was still on. I rigged both fishers up with a long leader and worked with Richard on the right angle and upstream nymphing and he caught on and began hooking fish right away with a really good bow that did get off his hook. Kurt hooked and landed a brown trout (see gallery). It was a bit windy but the sun was out and it was much warmer than the previous day. Towards the end of the day the wind began to subside some and Kurt was fishing to midging fish. I put a CDC Loop Wing emerger on him with a long leader and tippet. This is not an easy way to fish but it is a lot of fun and he was successful for the last hour of the day. The flies we used were San Juan Worms (wine), JuJu Bee’s #20, WD 40’s, Black Midge emerger, CDC Loop Wing emerger #22, Youngs specials #22, Planarian, various midges with tungsten beads during higher water and larger SJ Worms during generation.
LAKE LEVEL: We have had some rain over the past couple of weeks with most of the rain going north of us but in the water shed so Bull Shoals Lake has risen and is now up to 652.09 Generation is spotty and the generation schedule has not been real accurate as of late. Even the phone message has been a bit off. Generation did end this morning at about 10:30 am after generation of 5 units.
MID SOUTH FLY FISHERS:
See you at the Mid South Fly Fishers Next Tuesday night. I will be giving a presentation that evening on how I go about pursuing big fish on low water.
FLY SHOP: Lots of Chota SLT boots and waders in stock in all sizes. Coming Soon: REDINGTON RODS
REDINGTON RODS
See the Fly Shop Page for more details.
