Now up until the past few years, trout have been the name of the game when it came to my fly fishing endeavors. Why else would anyone wanna pursue anything else with the fly rod? As my addiction grew, so did the realization that there were all kinds of fish that could be caught on the fly. Carp, white bass, stripers, largemouth bass, catfish, gar....all were fair game with a fly rod. It wasn't until a canoe float trip on a small Ozark smallie stream a few years ago with JoeyC that brought me back to the fish of my youth, the smallmouth bass.
Fast forward a few years, now trout have become a "filler" for us while we wait for our favorite Ozark streams to warm up and for the bronzebacks to get active. There is no better game fish in the Ozarks to chase with the fly rod than a smallie, in my opinion. They are aggressive, fight harder than a fish twice their size, and live in some really beautiful places. Most of the fishing is sight fishing with streamers or topwater flies as well! What else could you possibly want from a game fish?
This past weekend we decided to check out our favorite smallie stream since the flows were good and the weather had been unseasonably warm for the past couple weeks. Everything else has been coming on a month early so what the heck, maybe the smallies are starting to feed already. I loaded up the drift boat and headed for the Elk River to meet up with Joey and Corey to float the Pineville-Mt. Shira section of the river.
After we put in, it didn't take long for our smallie guru, Joey C, to get hooked up into a couple of smaller fish as he dead drifted small tan circus peanut close to some structure. Joey fishes the Elk on a regular basis and has these fish dialed in. We continued on down river, picking up fish in various kinds of water on different flies. The day was just getting good...
For early April, we couldn't complain about the fishing. The river fished just as solid that day as it does during the summer minus no big fish or any fish on topwater. We didn't even see any big fish while we were floating but we decided they were probably backed up in an eddy somewhere trying to spawn so we didn't sweat it too much. The only downfall to the day was the other "hatch" that started showing up around 11:00 which is the aluminum and rubber hatch. Plenty of floaters coming down the river today with the nice weather. Luckily the fish didn't mind and we kept sticking fish all the way down to the take out.
For the 1st smallie float trip of the year, I'd have to say it was a success. Give it another month and we will be killing smallies on topwater, I guarantee it! The fish were already trying to stage up in their summertime holding water. Overall, it was a good day to be floating and fishing with good friends. Life ain't bad...
Until next time, keep chasing the dream...
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