Friend Dave O. from Illinois was up fishing with buddies in his new boat A 4 lb brown trout hooked at teh bottom of Cane Island and landed across from the Gastons boat ramp on a midge. Midges continue to be great producers on the minimum and low flows either under an indicator-terrestrial-or humpy surface fly that is able to support a tungsten bead midge. If you are fishing at the dam say at the creek on the golf course side a dry adams will bring some takes. Try other dries as well. We will soon begin seeing our fall caddis hatch the black caddis as well as others.
Henrys Walking and Wading Report
The weather is becoming cooler, much nicer to wade and the trout seem to be feeling a little more frisker also. This is the time of the year we all look forward to, soon the Ozarks will come alive with fall colors and the leaves will start falling and thoughts of mating will soon find the trout making redds.
We are enjoying some unbelievable action from the trout, they seem larger, more aggressive and fight like never before putting a smile on the anglers faces. Minimum flow may have something to do with it but I wouldn’t know, I just listen to what the big boys tell me.
What I do know is that this week we are getting some good wading opportunities on the Norfork Tailwaters and that the trout up toward the dam are liking sowbugs, midges, softhackles and eggs. Hares ear softhackle in # 16 and 18 are doing well. The “F” fly is doing very very well in the slower water, lot of anglers praising this top water fly all up and down the river in # 22 and 24’s.
As we move into the mid-section of the North fork river we are seeing more activity in the form of midges, especially Rainbow Warriors, Pheasant Tail, rubber band and Zebra’s, sizes #16 – 22 are giving good results. In the faster waters the RS sowbug is making a strong showing as well Hares ear Softhackle and Pheasant Tail Softhackle. Start packing your egg patterns, they are producing and will become a more viable fly as we get closer to spawning time.
The road down to the river on the Marion County side is about 90% complete. I drove it this morning and it is sweet. Gone are all the pot holes that will beat up your boat and gear. Now if we could only get the gravel road up to the top part of the dam done?
Monday morning as I was crossing the dam I took this photo of the “FOG TUNNEL” which frequently develop as fog is migrating from the riverside of the dam to the lake side of the dam. This was a short tunnel as sometimes they are much longer.