Hopper season is here!!

Yes, you are reading the title right. One of our favorite bites of the year has finally kicked into full swing here in the Ozarks. We have been chasing bronzebacks for the past month or so and it has been good....very good actually. Even though the smallmouth bite has consumed us, a few of us have been waiting patiently for the big brown trout in our tailwaters to start looking up for those big bugs that fall from the grassy banks and make a big easy meal for them. The past couple of weeks, the hopper bite has been really good over on the White River. Whispers of it started showing up on the social networks from the local Ozark guides with a picture here and there of a big ol' brown trout with a foam nasty bug hanging from its mouth. So we have started to sneak back over to the White River in hopes of sticking a few browns with the foam bug....

The Professor was the 1st to get back over to the White to chase the trout fish once again. The dude is almost a local over there anymore. He continues to show that he is one fishy dude. He spent some time on both tailwaters over the course of a couple of trips. The fishing was good, like it always seems to be for him. He truly is living the dream....not chasing it...

I was the next one to sneak back over to our favorite Ozark tailwaters in hopes of big trout on foam. The better half and the kiddos had ventured over to the in-laws for the week so I planned out a couple of days to head to the river. On such short notice, the crew were all tied up with real world problems so I sent a text over to my buddy Brock of North Arkansas Troutfitters in Fayetteville to see if he wanted to do some fishing. He had an open day and was game to actually get to do some fishing. Game on. I loaded up the dog, the boat, pointed the truck east, and headed for the White River on Sunday morning to meet Brock in Marble. After meeting up with Brock, we ran the shuttle to ditch my rig at the take out for the float trip before running upstream to the put-in. We dropped his Clacka in and I took first shot at the fishes with the foam bug. It didn't take long as I had 2 solid eats within 50 years of the boat ramp but was too quick on the hook set or was having LOFT (Lack Of F*cking Talent) issues as Brock likes to say. The rest of the float, we just took turns on the sticks and fished all the good hopper banks. The bite started out solid but then slowed thanks to the SWPA dropping the water out on us. Man, I love those assholes. Luckily, we found a few good banks throughout the float that held some browns that obliged us with some cool eats. Brock stuck a couple of fat rainbows and lost a damn nice brown because he was playing Bill Dance, horsing the fish to the boat like a psychopath. I managed it stick a few nice browns on the last good bank before the boat ramp, I was content, although I lost a legit 2-footer that ate the foam bug. Wanted to punch myself in the face. Anyways...all in all, it was a good day on the river. I was glad to be back chasing trout again...especially with the foam nasty....

Man, I love hopper season...