Crooked Creek

Things Got Western on Crooked Creek

Fished on 8/19 with Brad Wiegmann and Chris. Flows for the Crooked were at 122 cfs. Water temps were high 70's to the low 80's by the afternoon.

I hope no one fished the same stretch that we fished on Crooked Creek the next day. We absolutely turned the creek upside down. Fishing was phenomenal.

Brad being a "gear guide" for Bass in NWA, he brought his spinning tackle and an assortment soft plastics that I had never seen. They worked like crazy. We also pitched around my old stand-by rigs and they worked equally as well. I think the "one dollar baby", which is my sneaky little rig may have worked the best, but I will say that smallies love them some YUM.

As I was doing the trip to help Brad with a write up, I actually got to do a little bit of fishing as well. I prefer the more low caliber methods of fly fishing so I did quite a bit of that. Fishing was pretty good on it. Fly selections varied from Forrest's finesse worm, clousers, and various patterns and colors of crawbug patterns. They all worked pretty well. But by the end of the day I had struck gold with my old go to fly, Forrest's BB crawler. Had I fished that thing all day, I may have given Yum a run for its money.

The class size of fish has been awesome this year in the creek. It seems like they're running bigger on the creek than on the Buffalo. We caught a lot of fish in the 13-15" range, several in the 16"-17" range with one going 18". We had several more fish on that would have gone 18" but the explosive jumps ended up shaking quite a few hooks. We had one off close to the boat that was well in the mid 3lb. class. My heart sunk for a brief second, but thirty seconds later, another rod was bent with another 14" fish that helped lighten the mood.

I had a great time fishing with both Chris and Brad. They both are great fishermen. It is a rare thing for a guide to go out and be able to pick at someone's brain a bit, but i learned a few things from Brad. I think he may have learned a little about some "creek stompin" and the fly aspect of smallie fishing as well. I would highly reccomend Brad to anyone looking for a Bass guide on the lakes of Northwest Arkansas. Check out his site at www.bradwiegmann.com.

Forrest Smith

Trout and Timber Outfitters

www.troutandtimber.com

(479)684-9189

Troutandtimber@gmail.com

White River (Below Bull Shoals Dam)

White River streamer evening

Fished on 5/17 with Evan and John. The flows were at a plus or minus 20,000 cfs. We fished from the dam to Gastons on a half day evening trip.

Started out nymph fishing and did pretty well considering they turned on all 8 units from no generation in an hours time. John was very new to nymphing techniques and didn't particularly enjoy deep nymphing so we started fishing streamers.

Off the bat we caught a 19-20" brown (pictured above). We landed a couple "nice" fish but nothing monstrous. We got into a few pockets where I had been seeing some really large wolf packs of browns during low water. It seemed like every other cast these fish were chasing it out or taking a swipe at us. A few monsters (mid to high 20 inch range) ate the fly right off the gunnel, but it is hard to "smoke the barrel on a fish when an angler is dancing it on a slack line to entice the bite.

The fish finally got settled into a rhythm with the flows, but then the dam dropped the water two feet in the matter of minutes pushing the bite off once again.

We could have got them pushing the bobber grind (nymphing) with the typical worms, midges, sowbugs, etc. etc. but my hands were proverbially tied in that aspect.

Sometimes as anglers and guides alike, we strive for the style points, but on a half day with some odd ball conditions, you've just got to get down and dirty to get the job done. If you don't...you'll only put 9 fish in the boat in the matter of 4 hours.

Not my peak performance to say the least. Long drive home.

White River (below Bull Shoals Dam)

Hoppers, Hoppers, Hoppers.... and other foam leggy things.

Gary and a 22" brown!!

Sorry for the long delay in fishing reports. It's been late nights on the vise, and early mornings on the river. I've been fishing the White anywhere between the dam and Shipp's Ferry the last several weeks. The flows have been all over the place. The stereo typical day (if such exists) has been no generation 50 cfs or low flows in the 1,000-3,000 cfs range in the mornings to a bit heavier flows after lunch. Some days they haven't turned it on till late afternoon. Some days it starts out at 2,000 cfs and never bumps all day. The flows are also dependent on the stretch of river an angler fishes. The flow reports I am giving are the starting times of generation

another run of the mill brown by Gary

Fishing has been absolutely stupid. Some days I actually feel evil for the defamation of a the fish population's intellegence.

The hopper/terrestrial fishing has been absolutely crazy. They're eating them in every mile of river that holds a trout right now. The bite typically gets better as the land based food load increases further down river.

Gary and myself with another 20" fish

During lower flows, I have been fishing some smaller hoppers with another dry for a dropper. Midges (thread and a bead) have done well as droppers on the hoppers. Higher flows, present the opportunity to throw some bigger foam patterns. dropping smaller hoppers or a bigger midge have also produced quite a few fish. During extremely high flows, its go big on the terrestrials and put it in the spots or you've got to nymph worms. Smaller hoppers and other terrestrials and dries will still work in the recirc holes.

John Bass's 21" bow....John's 7 feet tall and has catcher's mits for hands that will swallow even substantially large fish...therefore I had to pose for the grip and grin.

The river is in as good of shape as I've seen it in probably 15 years. There are a lot of big fish to be caught. There have always been good numbers of big browns, but the size class of rainbows the river is holding right now is simply amazing.

another run of the mill brown by Gary

All these pictures have come in only the last three days of fishing. I misplaced my camera charger and haven't been able to take any pictures in several weeks. The bigger fish are absolutely gobbling right now.

On Monday 8/9 I fished Gary and his wife Joyce. Gary boated two nice browns that day, one going 20" and the other pushing a shade over 22". While trying to land his 22" fish, Gary's wife Joyce hooked into a leviathon fish. Two big browns on a double out of a boat can be a great recipe for absolute chaos, and Joyce's fish ended up eluding the net. It was a bitter sweet ending as Gary got his fish in, and Joyce not landing her fish (that easily went into the high 20's). Two bigguns on a double present a problem...but I guess its a good problem to have.

Bill and a decent brown

Fishing sucks....I hate my life..........

Forrest Smith

Trout and Timber Outfitters

www.troutandtimber.com

troutandtimber@gmail.com

(479)684-9189

White River (below Bull Shoals Dam)

I had the opportunity of fishing a few days ago with a great friend of mine, John Bass. John is a fellow Arkie native that resides between Northwest Arkansas and Bull Shoals. He's a true purveyor of all things fish, and a story teller extraordinare. He also brought his long time friend Dave Wendell along for the ride. The banter throughout the day consisted of: fish, ducks, why the Razorbacks are ridiculously good at everything, how Longhorn fans are actually closet Razorback fans, and unrelenting "ribbing" of everyone in the boat. Great fun was had by all.

Fishing was great. Nymphing predominated the day, but great dry fly opportunites presented themself in the afternoon. Fish ate the more techy foam bug stuff and the occassional hopper. Nymphing consisted of little baetis stuff, midges, and micro dirt snakes (san juan worms).

Flows were pretty consistent in the 4,000 cfs range until the big bump in the afternoon.

Note: There is now a new food source in the river. Its, big, its ugly, it floats, and it draws some pretty big fish to the surface from out of the wood works. It will probably go for two more weeks....and I happen to have a few openings during this time.

Forrest Smith

Trout and Timber Outfitters

www.troutandtimber.com

(479)684-9189

troutandtimber@gmail.com

White River (below BSD)

Sorry I haven't posted another report in quite a while. Things have been hectic trying to get the main site up, all the while chasing some major hatches, and laying the smack down on unsuspecting trout on foam and rubber legs.

No smallie trips this month yet, but we've been slammed by a mid summer pig wallering rain so the rivers have come back up and will be floatable for a while after the mud pushes out.

All trips as of late have been out of Mountain Home on the White. Fish have been smacking foam on the back end of our Sulphur hatch on the sunny days. Bumper crop caddis hatches are still going late in the evening (and will continue till probably September) in the really buggy stretches. Big fish are still coming up on them. I've seen several two footers surfing on them, had anglers stick them. Smaller line, bigger flows, and bigger fish have proved a bit daunting for most anglers. Video below of some of the action

note: The angler, Randy, may look familiar from the last post. This was a completely different trip. It was so good a week and a half prior that he wanted to do it again.

For the nympho heads.... good numbers of fish are being caught on midges (it doesn't matter what color, they're all good...thread and a bead), small san juans, scuds, and baetis nymph stuff. Nocturnal stones should be out starting this week down river so the Pat's rubber legs and other Stoney nymphs can drum up some bigger bites.

River has had drastically varying flows. I've seen 75 cfs-24,000. We just had that 4 day rain so they should push some water for the next few weeks. Big water and drying conditions make for some awesome cicada and cricket bug fishing.

Main site is almost done so keep looking for it at www.troutandtimber.com .

Forrest Smith

Trout and Timber Outfitters

(479)684-9189

www.troutandtimber.com

White River (below Bull Shoals)

Big Bug bite Brown

6/22/10

The last few outings have been very amusing. I'm observing guides with bobbers strapped to beadhead rigs tucking tale and running to the dam...all the while the bugs are massing in the trees waiting for the magical hour to burst onto the scene in the spots down river that the said guides just left. There must be something at the dam I don't know about right now, but with the dry fly fishing as good as it is....ignorance is bliss.

Randy and a brown on a Sulphur....life's tough

Fished the State Park to Wildcat. Flows started at about 12,000 cfs and bumped to 16,000 in the afternoon. Same deal different day. Hatch progression started in the afternoon, so we started out with some nymphing and then moved to the dry game after lunch.

Brown on a Caddis.....they'll be here all summer folks.

I have never seen hatches this thick anywhere I've ever been. That's saying something as i just left the dry fly mecca of Missoula, and spent three winters in Chile. Sulphurs are coming off in the mid afternoons with the caddis coming off really late. The big bug bite is still going and will continue to get better

Forrest Smith

Trout and Timber Outfitters

troutandtimber@gmail.com

(479)684-9189

www.troutandtimber.com

White River (Bull Shoals Dam)

6/17/10

Fished Bull Shoals Dam to Wildcat with Rob and Bob Lambert. Flows were really consistent in the 13,000-14,000 range. Worked hard for fish in the morning, picking most of them up on tungsten midges. After lunch we got into some pretty hot terrestrial action. Flying ants have been in the system for a couple weeks, and fish are really keying in on them. At about two o'clock the sulphurs really got going. fish were concentrated in the "bug funnels" and feeding in massive pods.

Rob and Bob did an excellent job jamming the flies in the magic eat zones. We started running some large terrestrials as a lead with the sulphur stuff behind, and had some great action: multiple doubles, sight fishing, explosive takes, a few nice browns, and sight fishing to some really nice bows. Its was a tough job, but the Bob and Rob were up to the task. Now onto the caddis finale.

Now I must first admit, I was a little slow on my hatch progressions during the day, but I did manage to stay on top of it. The last piece of the progression puzzle came in the caddis game. It was almost time to hit the boat ramp, but fish were still up. The sulphurs started to taper off, the big bug bite slowed, the caddis began to emerge in the flat light of the late afternoon. Bob was spent. Man down, I dropped an 18 lopro caddis off the back of the big bug on Rob's rod. Worked instantly. Boated several fish in a short period. As we were working down, we found a small side riffle, with an inside eddy foam pocket against a rock wall. Fish were up on rhythm ....something out of a text book. Rob jammed the fly on the nervous water edge of the foam, missed a fish. Put it back in the same slot and a different fish comes up for a nice sip, and Rob stuck it.

As Rob was fighting the fish, Bob and I were giving him a hard time about show boating his dink of a trout. Fish finally came to the side of the boat, where I slid the net under the fish. Turns out Rob wasn't show boating, and that dink of a trout was a legitimate 20" brown.......on a dry fly.

QUICK NOTE: Many a time have I told people that it doesn't matter what the flows are on the White, you can find fish looking up. River was at 14,000 cfs! We caught fish all afternoon on dries...big ones and small ones. Just find the right water to play with. So when anglers read reports that say "if the water is low, we should have great caddis action", I would advise them to ignore the "if the water is low" part.

Kings River

Fished the Kings on 6/8 with Rob Lambert.

The flows at Berryville were recorded at 212 cfs. The river is low but still floatable. Pretty good numbers of smallies and kentuckys were caught, but the bigger fish have moved back into the lake. Big fish are now running in the 14" range....still a good smallie. No River traffic what so ever. It's nice being the only boat out.

Fish came on various baitfish imitations, but ate on top water stuff late in the afternoon. I repeat. Smallmouth ate topwater stuff! This is the beginning of a solid month of great top water smallie fishing. Should get better every day.

White River (Bull Shoals Dam)

White River below Bull Shoals Dam

Fishing was pretty good. Caught lots of nice fish on san juans and midges. Sulphurs came off early in the afternoon, and fish were up on them in the "bug funnels."

Big browns are still crashing big streamers early and late when the water is up past 4,000 cfs.

The powerhouse should continue generating from 6,000-16,000 cfs (3-6 units) for the next week. Remember that this is just a prediction of a fishing guide, and not the true forecast from those "monkeys" at the dam.