OK. So it’s been awhile since I’ve updated the front page. It’s been busy in the shop plus I did a show in Tulsa at the local fly fishing club. Have not been out fishing much but did so this past Saturday as well as last Saturday on the 1st of Feb. This past Saturday I fished with good friend Matt Tucker of St. Louis as I’ve done for the past 10 years. Matt is the current president and founder of the Gateway TU club. Matt and a group from St. Louis as well as Oklahoma came over for the weekend and totaled about 20 or so. Most of them with drift boats and big streamers.
Matt-TJ and I put in at the state park. I had two rods rigged up with eggs and Matt had a streamer rod rigged up with a big white streamer (Hog Snare) and got several hits-bumps-tugs on the very first drift. TJ was whupping up on the fish pretty good with the eggs but I got to thinking that if the fish were following that white streamer that well then I’ll bet they’d take some other shad patterns better. I rigged up the fly above which floats on the surface with a dropper. As soon as the fly hit the surface a brown trout came up for it which got off. After rigging TJ up with the same rig the fun began with tons of takes and fish on the surface. At least the fun lasted until the water dropped out. We had a good morning as long as the water was good but the afternoon was pretty much a bust with the lower flows. Generally when the fish come up for and take various shad patterns it ‘s obvious that some shad have been coming through the dam. We’ve not seen any actual shad come through nor have any fish regurgitated up any shad but if you are over in this neck of the woods it would be worth giving it a shot if the water is flowing pretty good. Drop by the shop and we’ll fix you up with some shad flies for either on the surface or fishing on the bottom.
Many thanks to those of you who have called in or ordered on our web shop http://theflyfishing-store.com for the best January we have ever had as we begin our sixth year. We are continuing to add tying materials to the line up and have just added about every color of rabbit dubbing WAPSI carries. We will also be adding the new colors of Veevus Thread over the next few weeks as well. As many of you know you can go on to the Wapsi on line catalogue http://wapsifly.net and select the items you would like and then either give us a call at 870-445-3848 or send us an e-mail and we’d be happy to get the items for you and ship them to you at our low $3.50 mailing rate. No sales tax outside of Arkansas. We pick up at wapsi pretty much once a week as they are close to us over in Mountain Home Arkansas.
Sowbug Round up:
Next month starting Thursday March 20 2014 the annual Sowbug round up starts which of course we will be at so look for us to stock up on your beads, hooks and other items. We’ll be bringing more this year.
To book a fishing trip call 870-404-8906
Generation this past week has been heavy with up to 7 and 8 units in the morning and dropping as the day warms up. It appears as though the C.O.E. has been running to get the lake levels back down after a heavy rain last week. This heavy generation has brought some shad through the dam which is something we look forward to happening most years. Two weeks ago some came through and were floating on the surface but mostly they came through alive as you could see the balls of shad making their way down stream with the current. It did turn the river on to white and shad flies for a bit. The past few days some more shad have been coming through but not very many and they are not making it very far down the river, perhaps a hundred yards are less. Orange eggs however are working quite well on long leaders bounced on the bottom. We are close to the normal pool elevation of 654.00 The C.O.E. ran it down to 653.5 the last time we saw some consistent no generation but who knows what they will do this time around. It is raining now with more headed our way which could bring the lake level back up again so we could continue to see generation because of this rain. That would of course depend on how much we get.