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...

Guide's day off = Guinea pigs

We'd just finished loading the boats up from our day on the NFOW and was headed south back to Mountain Home when I got a text from guide buddy Brock Dixon of North Arkansas Troutfitters. "Are we still fishing tomorrow?" I quickly replied, "Damn straight." Brock and I had been trying to get a day on the water together to do some fishing for a while now but with my limited amount of days to fish and his busy guide schedule, we just couldn't made it work. Finally though, we got a day scheduled to fish the upper White River in hopes of some decent water to do some streamer fishing.

Plans for the morning were laid out and it was gonna be game on for the 2nd day of our trip to the Ozarks. Turns out, all cheap, tight-wad fly fisherman enjoy the same greasy breakfast spots as we met for some morning grub at the White Sands Restaurant in Cotter, Arkansas. Just an FYI for you readers, if you haven't ate at White Sands on a trip to the White River...you are missing out. The food is good, the waitresses are cute, and its pretty dang cheap as well. The only cause for concern is you will want to have a toilet close by or at least have some toilet paper in the boat when it decides to hit bottom.

Anyways, after breakfast, we made the normal shuttle runs for our vehicles and then headed for the boat ramp to dump Brock's skiff in the river to get the float started. As we arrived at the ramp, we were all pretty stoked to see that BSD was bumping some really nice water out of the dam. Hopes were high for a decent streamer bite as we rigged up 8wts again with big nasty bugs. Then the inevitable happened just as we launched the boat...the water shut off and started to drop. This is where I'd like to point out that the COE and the SWPA are a bunch of douche bags, whats the point of broadcasting a proposed generation schedule if you don't stick to it even the least little bit?? Ok, off the soap box now, we made the best of it and fished some good banks with the streamer rods till the water fell out on us. We had a couple of bumps and a few follows from some decent fish but they were super spooky and not aggressive at all when chasing the bugs.

After the water dropped out, we dug out the 5wts, slipped on a thingamabobber, and dropped a couple of caddis-ish bugs off the back end. Brock had some new bugs that he had been wanting to try out and we volunteered our services as fly guinea pigs. From there, we just stuck with the bobber rigs and fished all the fishy seams and runs, pulling out stocker rainbows and a couple of decent browns as we went about our merry way. We took turns swapping out on the sticks and made Brock do some fishing so we could keep him out of "guide mode". It was a learning experience for us too as we got to pick Brock's brain about the fishery and learned a few new tricks. BS was swapped back and forth, crap was given to each other when the time called, and we just had a pretty good time. Also got a sneak peek of things to come as the day warmed up, big fluffy Caddis started to pop and buzz around. The fish really weren't keying in on them yet but its only a matter of time if we keep getting some warm weather. Although, as I'm writing this, its snowing outside...

I also did some filming with the GoPro throughout the day but the footage is nothing special like what I mentioned in the post before with our NFOW trip. You're not gonna be amazed by the footage but I hate to see footage go to waste so here is another quick video smasher of the day's fishing. Hope you enjoy....

If you're looking for an outfitter or guide to use on the White River system. Be sure and give Brock a call at North Arkansas Troutfitters or check him out on the Book of Face. The dude has a whole bag of tricks when it comes to catching trout on the White and Norfork Rivers. He is one fishy dude...