The next morning, we all piled into the trucks for our final day on the water for our little road trip. We jogged south to Norfork, Arkansas to eat breakfast at our 2nd favorite greasy spoon breakfast spot in the Ozarks...the good ol' Norfork Cafe. Make sure and check it out. Its not bad! After we filled our bellies with pancakes, omelets, and biscuits n' gravy (Oh My!), we ran up to Norfork dam to dump the boats in while the COE was pumping out some good water for us. Shuttles were ran, boat spots were picked, and we were off....
To stick with the weekends on-going theme, we kept with the big sticks and chuckin' the big bugs in hopes of finding a unicorn. I don't know what it is about fly fishing and all the variables that go into making a presentation that will entice a fish to eat but on certain days, some guys have what I call the "touch". Doesn't seem to matter what bug they tie on, the fish are just gonna eat it. This day, that guy (or SOB if you're in the boat with him) was DonnyB. The dude was straight up being fishy and was dialed in. He was sticking rainbows and browns off all of the good banks and missed a ton of fish along the way. Cole and I just couldn't hang with him that day. It was pretty stupid, to be honest, but DonnyB is known to have days like this from time to time...
While DonnyB was having a grand ol' time sticking trout faces all morning, the rest of us weren't having the same kinda luck. Sometimes, you just have 1 of those days where nothing can go right on the river. Personally, while I was trying to clear out the line at my feet while fishing, my full sink SA line got hung up on a rock in the middle of the river. Before we could get the boat slowed down and headed back upstream, the rock it was on sliced the line in half. Just freaking great! I was able to retrieve all of my line but it was done. Gotta love it. In the other boat, JoeyC was having a few problems on his own. While tossing a big nasty double deceiver, he finally made contact with a unicorn (BFBT or big freaking brown trout). This wasn't your normal 2 footer either, it was bigger. According to The Professor, he fought the fish as well as anyone could and they chased the fish down with the boat but before they could get it in the net.....the fish just came off? Heartbreak...
We finished out the float and called it a day. We had plans to leave early enough to head back to Fayetteville in time to make a pit stop at McLellans Fly Shop and grab some dinner before heading to the F3T show. After squeezing 2 trucks and 2 drift boats into the cluttered parking lot where the fly shop was, we did some loitering in McLellans and BSed with Brock to kill some time. I picked up another spare spool for my Hatch Monsoon that I had ordered and bought a new SA Streamer Express full sink fly line to replace the broken line, brilliant! After some more loitering and BSin', we decided to go grab some grub and then head to F3T. Corey picked the establishment for which we would dine that afternoon and it was a dandy. It was a chain restaurant that's basically a spin off of Hooters and Twin Peaks, except the local talent wears kilts instead. Well, the food was alright and you could tell we had the Monday afternoon "talent" shift if you catch my drift. Yes, I'm still a prick...
We finally made it to the theater for F3T. The guys were pretty excited as Donny and Corey didn't attend last year and this year's film lineup looked to be pretty freaking awesome. We grabbed our seats and settled in. This year's film tour lineup was geared more to the freshwater crowd with quite a bit of "trout" related films as well as the normal exotic locales and exotic fish that probably 90% of us will never see or fish but they were still good films. Intermission was entertaining as always as the F3T crew do a great job and give away plenty of swag for the audience. Also, CTD as a group has been pretty lucky at these events. Last year, I won a free SA fly line of my choice but we doubled up on the swag this year. The Professor got a fly assortment from Montana Fly Company as well as a few other things and then Joey won a Montana Fly Company F3T Edition Boat Box! It is freaking awesome. We all hate him for it...
As far as the best films go, I would have to say that my favorites were "The Brothers Brown" and "Reel: A Day on the River". Both were geared towards the trout audience and had a really great story to go along with each film. "The Brothers Brown" really hit home with all of us as its about 3 brothers who go to the Lower Au Sable to chase the monster browns that live there with streamers out of drift boats. Sound familiar? It was an amazing film. that I think we all identified with. I will buy it when it hits DVD, no doubt. "Reel: A Day on the River" revolves around a handful of guides and their daily lives up in the NorthEast that fish the Delaware River system which is kinda where modern American fly fishing was basically born. It's a great film as well. The F3T Tour is a great event, if you have a venue close by then you really should go. I think its an essential part of the future of our sport and where its heading. I think it helps to attract a younger generation of fisherman and to push current fisherman to enrich themselves deeper into the sport.
My Personal Favorite Film from F3T...
I don't really know what else to say about this trip that I haven't expressed in the previous blog posts. I guess all I can say is....it was a really damn good fishing trip!
Until next time, keep chasing the dream...
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