Monday, February 25, 2013

Downtown Fly Fishing...

A few of us couldn't stand it any longer. We had to get out on the water and do some fishing...somewhere and somehow! After a few text messages were exchanged, a plan of attack was hatched amongst us. DonnyB, Squatch, and myself would ascend upon the polluted waters of the Arkansas River in the Tulsa city limits amongst the melting pot of gear fisherman in hopes of finding....well, anything. When you fish the Arkansas River, you honestly never know what you're gonna catch. There are the quality fish...stripers, white bass, hybrids, Kentucky bass, etc. Then there are all the "trash" fish...carp, buffalo, bowfin, skipjack, drum, etc. Shit, we have accidently hooked spoonbill before while stripping clousers for white bass below the low water dam. Its a freak show down there sometimes. You never know what you're gonna find in the river too. So much trash and junk ends up in the river. The first time I ever fished it, I spent most of my time perched up on an ol' Chevy 350 engine block in the middle of the river. I'm not even kidding...

So...the fishing....was slow. The water temps were super cold and the river was super low. We were hoping that the warm and sunny 60 degree day would stir the white bass up for us. We dredged the normal holes with clousers, deceivers, and various other streamers. We were able to pull some white bass out of a couple different holes and DonnyB even picked up a few bonus Kentucky bass. It was a good day to get out and take a look at what the river was looking like for the upcoming striper run too. I took the GoPro along as well, got some footage, and will hopefully toss up some video goodness this week at some point.








Sunday, February 24, 2013

Possibly the best trailer....ever...

I had a Vimeo fly fishing video binge late last night as I couldn't find the motivation to get out of the recliner to go to bed. I was checking out this years film selection for the IF4 and this trailer really struck a nerve with me. This movie looks like its going to be absolutely amazing. I hope it makes it to DVD or they post the full video soon. Give it a watch and enjoy...


 
You're welcome...

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Trout and the rivers they call home...

This is a pretty sweet video that has some big trout in a beautiful river, but no fly fishing. Yeah, I know, it doesn't make any sense but just enjoy for what it is. Yes yes...this is 2 videos in a row that we have shared on either the FB page or the blog that doesn't have any fly fishing in it. Get over it...


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

McClouds in the Ozarks!

Not a lot has been going on with CTD the past couple weeks since our botched streamer trip to the White. Everyone has had BS grown up responsibilities to take care of and I guess that's just the way the world is. At some point in time, u gotta take care of business and be a grown up. I say screw all that noise any chance I get these days, which is few and far between. Anyways, to the fishing...

The Professor got out and about this weekend for a day and checked on one of our little wild trout streams in the area. The drought has really put a strain on these little watersheds this year but they keep surviving thankfully. This place in particular is a jewel and has a cool story. Originally stocked by railcar in the late 1800s and last stocked in the 1920s, these McCloud strain rainbows have lived down and thrive in this little stream. Some say their strain is even more pure than the what lives in the McCloud river currently. Sssshhhh, don't repeat that to anyone, sure would hate to get some California fish hippy butt hurt at us.

CoreyD was able to put some nice McClouds in the net after venturing down to the lower stretches of the stream. The guy really does have this stream dialed in. He is one of the "chosen ones" as I like to say for this creek. We love this place and hope everyone who fishes it shows the place some respect. Practice catch and release, pick up some trash, etc.

Ok, I'm done being a little sappy about the creek. Lets move on...





Sunday, February 10, 2013

Facebook Give Away! Stickers and Streamers...

Well CTD finally has their own decals to tag anything and everything we can find! To go along with this, we have decided to do a give away on the Chasing The Dream page on Facebook!

Help our page reach 100 likes and we r gonna draw out a name to receive a sticker or two and a couple of streamers from the CTD meat box...

Show us some interweb love...



Friday, February 8, 2013

White River Shindig, Mad Dash, and Leaky Waders

THURSDAY

“You might be coming to my house and getting my boat. My babysitter is sick…”

I’d been up since 2 am, had just gotten home from work and was in the middle of a mad dash of last minute packing and gear checking. This was not the text I wanted to get from the Cajun, or as you know him, the guy that likes to call him self “The Bum”(face it man, The Dude didn’t pick his name, so neither can you. You’re out of your element)

This headache mess challenge, combined with The Shindig and 3 days on the water that went by all too fast, have resulted in some less that ideal remembering capabilities on my behalf. So you get to suffer through this, as I rip off a trashy recap with a few pics.

- Cajun gets to go, but may have to come back early. Pick up The Don, begin convoy to Springdale. Pick up Jimmy, final stretch to Mountain Home.

- Halfway there, get a call that the hotel has changed policy, lobby won't be open. Beg fishing buddy to go pick up our keys and leave em in his boat. Cuss the dumbass new hotel management. Make note to find new favorite hotel.

- Late night venture to Wally World, observe meth heads, buy beer and bran bricks, test out cold weather capabilities of Wally World rascals. Epic fail. Spend 40 mins trying to renew fishing licenses, flee with our lives but not our sanity.


-SLEEP

FRIDAY

-Wake up and cool down. The room heater seemed to think that 68 meant 108. Solution= Step outside to a balmy 12 degrees. A few clouds in the sky. Ready to rock.

- Drive up to Bull Shoals Dam, meet The Professor on the state park side. Gear up, launch boats. Toss a few casts on the way to breakfast, 100 yds down and across. Line freezes in the guides 6 casts in, spot fire on bank near breakfast. Time for breakfast.

- Bloody Mary's, biscuits n gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage, and little pieces of heaven called blueberry pancakes. Meet all of the faces we've been stalkin on the facepage for years, meet a few new faces to stalk. Oh yes, fire. Seagulls shitting and dive bombing biscuits. Perfect. Belly's are full, vodka has hit bingo, sun is topping the ridge. Boats start launching.




- Jimmy and Cajun set off, The Don jumps in with The Professor. I'm beginning to think I've been shanghi'd with Tucker and crew, then a Speedy Gonzales Hyundi comes liding to a stop, something to the tune of Bonz n Thugs or Taylor Swift blaring out the windows. Keep your shirt on ladies, Brian Wise has arrived.

- In short time the boat is in the water. A bottle of Capn Morgan chugs some coke and becomes affixed to the rowers hand bench. Tucker shows off within a mile and nets a 20" rainbow, convincing it to rest between his boots after the release for a close-up with the GoPro.

- Much time is spent oogling at new fly patterns dancing in the water. I remember how to row after 6 months of abstinece. We spend 20 minutes anchored in the middle of the river like stoned teenagers, enamored by the frozen mist coming off of the line on a strip and trying to film it. Somebody breaks the seal and we have to stop every 10 minutes thereafter. Homemade spicy trail mix is ravaged. Everyone admits to facestalking my girlfriend comments on how cute my girlfriend is. Wise professes his undying love for his hat.




- Not sure what happened in the other boats, but we at least have some pics to show they were actually fishing.



- The clouds had burned off early, fish weren't looking up, and nobody wanted to drag a bobber. The original plan was to make the float to Wildcat, stumble out of the boat and start cooking. Booze ran out before White Hole, so an audible was called and a shuttle arrived at White Hole full of Jimmy T and his enhanced iced tea. Word comes down that the inevitable has happened and the Cajun has to rush home.

- Grills roll out, food is prepped, people arrive by land and by sea. 10 states are repped, accents are thick and in the air. Before long a fire is lit, we're lit, and laughter is abound. Bullshit, tall tales, boasting and booze, nobody wants to call it a night. Our crew does a bit earlier than most, hoping that our room keys at the shoddy hotel might still work. Coco, Squatch, and Brad Paisley roll in from Tulsa, and Billiam appears in a cloud of dust from the north.

- SLEEP

SATURDAY

- Up with the sun and to White Sands for Friskies corned beef hash, steak, eggs, and coffee. Lots of glorious coffee. Tucker and crew roll in right before we roll out, accusing us of being ambitious, sober, and other nasty lies.

- Wildcat to Cotter is chosen, boats are launched, and we caught a few fish not far down the shoal. The sun was covered up momentarily as the generation reached us, hearts started beating faster and a few fish started chasing. Few good eats, no hard takes. Stupid trout. A glorious treasure trove of chocolate chip muffins are found in the Yeti. Water passes, clouds hang around a bit, no big fish.








- Cotter is reached with plenty of light. Jimmy, The Professor, and Billiam head to the Norfork for some wade fishing, the rest of us head to the bar. Some caught fish, some devoured nachos and beer, all ended up at the bar. An almond eyed redheaded vixen devoured Squatch with her eyes. Mullets were observed and judged. Tab out.

- A quick stop for beer ended with liquor sampling and a bottle of apple pie drunkennnness. Party (used lightly) raged on (again, lightly) at the hotel-motel-shithole inn. Some dickhead left the door open and cranked the heater, forgetting to mention said cranking of heater.

- SLEEP

SUNDAY

- Wake in sauna. Heater set at 86. Thanks. Dick.

- With no water generation and little desire to float slack, wading at Norfork was chosen. 5 wts were strung up and 8's left in the chariots, the bountiful bobber beatdown had begun. Some waded up, some down, some fished the access. Didn't matter, fish were caught. Big fish were sought, but 10-16" fish were present and coveted(My precioussssssss...). An equal opportunity moment for all fish to take notice of all flies. Eggs, dirt snakes, nymphos, stupid small midgets, and the occassional short stripper were presented on a silver platter and were eaten at random.







- Blood lust filled, we rigged down and headed back to Okieland. The Professor and Billiam stayed a while longer and nursed the river like a crack head nurses the pipe, before they too headed back to Carthage. A quick stop to see Dom at Two Rivers Fly Shop proved that great things are happening there. He's turned that shop around with some serious hard work, and he's got a pretty kick ass dog too.


CRIK


Oh yeah, my waders blew out early Sunday morning. Subsequent testing shows no durability. This pair is less than 2 years old.








Monday, February 4, 2013

ChiWulff has a way with words...

I have been touting ChiWulff a lot lately. U guys might be getting tired of it. Too bad cuz they keep throwing gold up on the interwebs. Here is another piece of pure goodness from the guys...

http://chiwulff.com/2013/02/03/why-i-fish-i-like-things-that-float/


Sunday, February 3, 2013

Getting some Interweb love...

After our recent video releases of "The Downstream Life" and "The Montana Project", the blog has started to get around like an ol' bar fly down on the strip in Stillwater, Oklahoma. We are very excited seeing our stuff getting thrown up on the interwebs on some other very fishy blogs. Totally cool...

Our friends over at False Casts and Flat Tires were gracious enough to throw up "The Montana Project" on their Facebook page this past week for the world to see. As always, we appreciate everything you guys have done for us. Can't wait till the next time CTD and FCFT are together again...

A big thanks to the guys over at Dallys Ozark Fly Fisher for posting up "The Downstream Life" video on their blog this past week. Steve Dally and crew run a top notch fly shop over in Cotter, Arkansas. They have everything you could possibly need to be successful for a trip to the White or Norfork Rivers and the local smallie streams in the area. Check them out...

The other shout out goes to the big wigs out west in Big Sky country over on ChiWulff. They saw "The Montana Project" this past week and liked what they saw, especially from a bunch of hillbilly fish bums from down south. They run an awesome blog that I read every morning with my coffee. They post everything from the latest fishy video to awesome photos to conservation related topics. Check them out...you will be a follower for life...

And again, thanks to the followers and readers of this blog...I hope you guys are enjoying what we are throwing down...

 
Until next time, keep chasing the dream...