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
(479)684-9189
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