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