Searching....

With a long weekend upon us, the CTD crew set about to find some un-crowded water to chase some smallies for a day. Memorial day isn't exactly the best time to be looking for solitude in the Ozarks since many streams/rivers are popular float destinations but after some discussion with our local smallie creek ninja, JoeyC, we had a creek picked out and made a plan of attack.

Cody and I met up with JoeyC on sunday morning and then proceeded to "Creek X" do some exploring for big smallies in skinny water. Armed with our 6 weights and some meaty streamers, we took turns leapfroggin' each hole as we made our way upstream hitting all the good holes. We had a slight setback at the put-in as we got behind some bait slingers who proceeded to keep every smallie they were catching and wouldn't let us fish by them. Every time we would start to hike past them, they would reel in real quickly and head for the next hole. This proceeded to ruin the first few holes for us but luckily we were able to get past them and have some fresh water to ourselves.

Overall, the fishing was pretty slow. The creek was super low and clear which made the smallies very spooky. We had to make a very stealthy approach to get a few casts in. We were rewarded with a couple of solid bronzebacks in the 1st couple of holes but only managed to stick a handful of average fish the rest of the hike.

All in all, it was a beautiful day to be out wet wading an awesome Ozark smallie creek. Days like this is why I love summertime in our region. Its pretty tough to beat!

Until next time, keep chasing the dream...