White River - Hoppers and more...

We figured we might as well give this "filming" thing a try, so we stole a camera, hijacked some editing advice, scrounged up some SD cards, and went fishing. This is what we came up with. Enjoy!



If anyone would be willing to give The Bum Cajun a tutorial on how to properly use the GoPro suction cup mount, please feel free to do so.

Chuckin' foam, meat, and a bobber or two...

After a long hiatus from fishing, CTD was finally able to put together a couple of trips over to our favorite tailwaters over in Arkansas. These trips were mostly to let the other guys get some time on the sticks and get comfortable rowing before we head up to Montana in August. The other focus was to throw the foam nasty bugs at some trout as hopper season as we know it here in the Ozarks has kicked off with the hot weather. The past few weeks, I had been hearing stories of some good browns being caught on foam so the anticipation was pretty high to get over to the rivers. Anyways, here's the scoop on the past 2 weekends...

Trip #1 - August 7-8

Well, the plan was to drive over to the Taneycomo tailwater on saturday evening and do some night fishing below Taney with the streamer sticks then get up to drive down to the White on sunday. Well thanks to the a-holes like the SWPA and the COE, the predicted generation schedule totally screwed that plan up for us. Instead of low water on Taney, they decided to generate all night and then they decided to not generate at all on the White on Sunday so floating it wasnt an option. Luckily, they were gonna generate on the Norfork tailwater on Sunday which gave us an option on sunday. Soooooo, we jumped in the truck and headed for Cotter, AR in hopes of possibly doing a short night float on the White on saturday night and then going with our plan of floating the Norfork on sunday. We arrived to Bull Shoals Dam for a night float to find heavy fog on the river which makes finding your takeout at night kinda tough. We tried waiting it out but the fog never lifted so we packed it in...

The next day, we pointed the truck for the "Princess of Tailwaters", the Norfork River. The plan was to do a couple of floats on the 'Fork and then head home. The whole point of the trip was to come and throw hoppers to some brown trout faces so we all geared up our 5wts with big nasty foam bugs and pointed the boats downstream. Now the Norfork isn't known for its hopper fishing like the White is so we had the chips stacked against us but we stuck to our guns in hopes of getting some eats. We were obliged with lots of eats and put some fish in the boats...

After a good lunch from the Norfork Cafe in downtown Norfork (sarcasm), we headed back up to the dam to run our afternoon float. By this time, the temps were hovering around 104 degrees and they had bumped the generation a touch on the Norfork. Sadly, the mid-day foam bite was less than stellar for us. We got a few eats and that was really it, pretty typical for a mid-day float in the heat of summer. I was wishing we had more time and coulda done an afternoon float on the White but we were ready to head home...

Trip #2 - Aug 14-15

Once again, we found ourselves on the road headed for Cotter, AR the following friday afternoon. This time we had the whole weekend to fish but once again, the generation schedule threw us a curveball with no generation scheduled for the White on Saturday. Gotta love those guys. I guess, we are in a drought though so maybe I should cut them some slack? Ahh, screw that....those guys are a bunch of douches. Anyways, luckily, they were generating on the White till midnight on friday night which would allow us some floatable water on the lower sections of the White. That worked out good for us as we had been jones'n to float the Rim Shoals-Buffalo City sections for quite some time. After a couple of phone calls to some fishy dudes for the scoop on that section, we had a game plan for the next day...

We got on the river the following morning at Rim Shoals where we were met with dense fog and overcast skies, not exactly primo hopper weather. The river was also falling out as well but we were already committed and also wanted to check out some new water. The weather basically screwed us for the mornings float with cooler temps and scattered thunderstoms in the area. We had a few eats on the foam bug but it just wasnt meant to be. We reluctantly switched to chuckin' a bobber with a dirt snake and a stupid midge as a dropper. It didnt take long and we started to put fish in the boat. Gotta love the bobber grind...

With the water being off on the White, we decided to head over to the Norfork for a late afternoon float before we called it a day. They were bumpin' some water from the dam but we had good temps and partly cloudy skies so we had hopes for a foam bite. Well the foam bite was a strike out once again with just a couple of eats and 1 brown to the boat BUT, the clouds moved in on us and CoreyD decided to throw some meat to see what he could dredge up. After a handful of follows on as many casts, he was hooked up with a decent brown which he followed up shortly after with another brown. Squatch followed in suit, started chuckin' meat, and he was soon hooked up with a good brown. Now after all that silliness from their boat, it didnt take us long to dig out our sinking lines and big streamers so we could take part in the action.

Now this is when things got a little silly for us. We were pounding a good bank with Chris on the sticks while I was in the back and CodyY was in the front of the skiff. I made a cast with my #2 Ass Goblin articulated streamer and began the usual strip-strip-pause retrieve back to the boat when I felt some resistence on the line. I set the hook only to find my 6wt (left the 8wt at home, idiot!) doubled over to the handle and a big nasty brown trout struggling at the end of my line. Again, things got kinda silly....the fish immediately took off downstream and then tried to run around the front of the boat. CodyY still had his line in the water as the fish shot around the bow but somehow we stayed un-tangled. Then we had to let the boat swing around to float backwards downstream so I could fight the fish. Again, the ol' TFO Clouser 6wt was doubled over but I put the pressure on the fish and get his head turned finally. He came to the surface as I started to pull him towards the boat where Chris was waiting with the net. I was staring at the biggest trout I had ever caught in my life at that point. Excited? Totally. I had been hunting for a BIG brown for a long time after catching numerous 18"-21" browns over the past few years, I had finally done. We put the tape on the big male and he measured out at 24" on the nose. We cut him loose after a few pictures and Hog Johnson swam away without an issue. The day was done...





The next day, we decided to hit the White in hopes of finally getting in on a consistent hopper bite. We decided to go with our favorite section, Wildcat Shoals to Cotter, for our float. Sadly, we were once again fighting really low flows which didnt help out our chances of a good hopper bite. We also learned that at half a unit of water on that section is a no-go. We really didnt get into any good water till the last mile or so of the float. Once again, we dug the bobber rigs out and went to work combing the various runs just above the Cotter access. We were able to put some stocker rainbows in the boat to end the day out so all wasnt lost.

All in all, we had another good trip over to our favorite tailwaters in the Ozark region. We covered all the bases  you could say with fish on foam, meat and the bobber bailed us out when times got tough. We will be returning to the White after we get back from Montana to keep chasing that foam bite that we keep hearing about. Maybe we will get some good flows for once and put some foam nasty bugs in a brown trout face or two....

Until next time, keep chasing the dream...

Taney Time!

We talk a lot about our 2 favorite tailwaters in Arkansas, the White River and Norfork River, over here at CTD. Rightfully so, they are both amazing fisheries. All four species of trout can be caught on both rivers, awesome fish per mile numbers, and both qualify as trophy fisheries. There is another tailwater in the Ozarks that kinda takes a backseat to those fisheries, mainly due to one reason. Its located right outside of Branson, MO which attracts tons of tourists every year due to various attractions. To say that it can get "crowded", is an understatement, especially during low water conditions. The amount of total jackasses that patrol the waters any day of the week during the tourist season can almost make a common man commit murder. There is also the "Outlet Elite", these are fisherman who camp out at the hatchery discharge outlets and force feed fish an egg pattern that looks like fish food. Call me high and mighty if you want, but it is pure chaos down there sometimes. Despite all this, it is a pretty bad ass tailwater that is loaded with feisty fat rainbows and some monster brown trout. This other tailwater is Lake Taneycomo, or as most locals/regulars like to call it, "Taney".

We usually will take a few trips a year to Taney to go night fishing in the trophy section below the dam but this year, it just hasnt quite worked out to where we could make a trip over there. CoreyD, on the other hand, lives within 2 hours of Taney though so he loaded up the Hyde and headed for Taney last sunday. So far this year, we have had some great luck on chucking streamers to the trout masses and this continued on sunday for Corey. Despite the hot weather and sunny conditions, The Professor put a bunch of good rainbows in the boat along with a brown or two to boot. Only got a few pics so here's your small daily dose of fish porn...

Meat Eaters...no BS mayfly for these fish...

Like always, keep chasing the dream...

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

That's right. It's time. Time to put away those thingamabobbers, the split shot, and the size 20 bullshit mayfly or midge junk we have been throwing for the trout lately.

It's summer. It's hot. There r big bugs jumping around in the yard as well as your local river bank. From time to time, they do fall in the river and become fish food. Because of this little natural incident, we get to chuck big nasty foam bugs to trout faces from now till September...or maybe even October if we r lucky.

I love it. It's not lights out all the time by any means but when it's good...there is nothing better. To see a big ugly brown trout mug come up and inhale a foam bug is absolutely epic.

We were on the Norfork River last weekend and we will hopefully be on the White River this weekend if flows will allow it.

Reports, pics, and maybe some video coming soon...

Son of a mother lover, I love hopper season...