Our latest video: Chasing Bronze...

Yes, the blog has kinda died. Lack of motivation and busy day to day life has kept us from writing very much the past month or so. We have been fishing...a lot actually. Trout and smallmouth are still feeling the wrath of our hooks. We just don't care to tell anyone about it. Anyways, speaking of smallmouth, I finished up our latest video project....

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you....Chasing Bronze...

Let us know what you think of the video. Sucks? Ok? Pretty good? We just would like some feedback to see if we are going in the right direction with our stuff. Its been a lot of fun filming our adventures. Fishing has starting to wind down for most of us with deer and duck season just around the corner. So the blog....well, it might actually die....again....

Return to the Tailwaters...

As far as our trout fishing goes this year, we haven't really spent that much time over on the White and Norfork Rivers as much as we have in the past. Honestly, we got kinda burnt out and was looking for a change of scenery. Thus, we spent most of the late winter and spring over on the North Fork of the White in Missouri. It was great. Treated us really well with some epic streamer fishing trips for the browns and plenty of spunky wild rainbows on the bobber to pass the time. We loved it. Can't wait to get back over there this fall...

After that, smallie season kicked off and we have been basically spending most of our time on the smallie rivers chasing after those beloved bronze-backs. We have had a pretty good year too. Plenty of water after an awesome wet spring and lots of hungry fish came to hand. Its been pretty sweet. Well, here we are, its prime summer time fishing  and we have started to think about trout again. Especially catching big brown trout on that beloved foam bug over on our beloved tailwaters. From our previous post, you saw that the Professor and I had already tested the waters and found some hopper eating fish but it was time to get the rest of the crew involved. Lets roll...

Day 1  

With the primo conditions to throw hoppers happening in the evening with the higher flows on the White, we opted to start the trip over on the Norfork with a low-water float to wade fish all the fishy spots along the river. Most everyone dug out the 5-weights and rigged up a bobber with some kinda nymphy bug below it. We dumped the boats in at the dam and made our way down to the 1st spot where my boat started at the big riffle above the island while the Professors boats set up shop at the island. Things were kinda slow for us on the riffle  minus Crik finding his groove and plucking some decent fish out while Nathan caught a few and I was flat out striking out. Gotta love it...

We pushed on downstream from there, hitting all the fishy spots that we have wade fished for years during low water before we had boats. Its cool getting to see spots change that you have fished over the years but the fish are always there. Always. It was typical Norfork bugs as always....small streamers, eggs, scuds, and the odd mayfly variation (one in particular that I'm not gonna name cuz it works so good : ) thank you to my buddies in Montana for that one). All the guys were getting into the fish which is always plus. The Norfork typically treats us pretty well so we love the "princess of tailwaters" in all her glory.

Our final stop was the top island above the handicap access and everyone spread out on different water. It was good. Very good. Bent rods were seen every time I turned around. I even broke out the fiberglass glass rod rigged with a hopper/dropper rig just to see what I could do. Didn't take long as I plopped the foam nasty under an over-hanging tree and watched a fat rainbow come up to inhale the hopper. Brilliant. Had a few more eats on the foam bug but most were coming on the dropper in the fast water. Easy pickings. Man I love this river....

As the day wore on, we made a push to the boat ramp so we could make time for some lunch before sneaking over to the White in hopes of a foam bite. We loaded up the boats, stowed our gear, and headed over to Gassville to hit up our favorite pig out spot in the area, KT's BBQ. If you haven't hit this place up while fishing the White River, you are really missing out. Their BBQ is amazing and their sour cream potato salad is nothing short of epic. If I wore it as a hat, my tongue would beat my brains out trying to get to it. Anyways, we all made ourselves completely miserable with our lunch and enjoyed the AC for a bit before we loaded up to hit the White and chuck the foam....

As we made our way up to the boat ramp to drop in, our luck started to wear thin as a good ol' summertime thunderstorm started to move in. Isn't that just freaking dandy? I don't know what it is about the White but she can be a cruel mistress. When we want clouds and overcast skies to throw streamers, the sun shines bright as ever and when we wanna throw hoppers, the skies turn gray and it rains. Gotta love it. We stuck to your guns though and decided to see the trip through. We got to the ramp, rigged up 6-wts with foam bugs, and our 8-wts with big meaty streamers. Our target? Big brown trout....

Wish I could say that we had an epic float with several big browns to each boat on either hoppers or streamers but it just wasn't meant to be. We couldn't turn a fish on a streamer so we stuck to the foam bug and just kept hammering the banks. Finally, towards the end of the float, the sun tried poking out and it was like a light-switch for whatever reason. We started getting some eats on the hopper, missed a few fish here and there, and Joey finally put the 1st brown in the boat.

After a short streak of action, it shut back off again when the clouds returned. The fish were showing us no love at all for quite a while. We hit all the good banks, changed colors and sizes, and couldn't get it done. Frustration was beginning to set in and then it happened again, the sun decided to poke out again. It happened on 1 of the 2 last banks before the boat ramp so it was basically 4th and long for us to make it happen. I finally stuck a fat brown and wrestled it into the boat. Joey followed it up with a typical White River snake of a brown trout. Mix in a few feisty rainbows and a couple of LOFT inspired misses on some NICE browns right before the boat ramp to call it a night for us. It wasn't what we had hoped for but the river did show us a little love and gave up a few good browns so the trip wasn't a total loss...

Day 2

The next day, we returned to the 'Fork in hopes of another day of good numbers but it just wasn't meant to be. In all of the trips I have taken to fish the 'Fork, it has never fished bad. Never. It always produces for me. Well, I guess all good things must come to an end. It was a pretty tough day for us. The fish were just being weird and I'm still kinda wondering what happened. We managed to catch a few fish here and there but nothing like the day before. Of course, the Professor stuck more than his fair share of trout....the dude is fishy. It happens. We fought the slow bite for a while and then pushed on for the boat ramp as we had some time constraints to meet back home.

It was a good weekend. It was nice to get back to the Cotter/Mountain Home area and visit the old haunts both on and off the water. The hopper fishing wasn't what we had hoped for but it all worked out in the end. Everyone had a great trip and fish were caught. We can't complain...

Until next time, keep chasin' the dream...

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...

Back to the basics...

As far as fly fishing goes, most of us started out by wading some little creek somewhere in hopes of getting a finicky ol' trout to eat some tiny little fly. We would end up over the years spending hours by trekking many miles up and down these streams, waist deep in the water. Wade fishing is how it all began for most of us. Getting down on the same level as the fish, trying to be stealthy, and making a good cast without putting our flies in the tree branches behind us...it was all part of the unique experience that only wade fishing can give you.

In recent years, we have been fortunate enough to began fishing from drift boats in our pursuit of all things fishy here in the Ozarks. Its an amazing way to see and fish these rivers. It has its advantages over wade fishing, no doubt about it. It makes fly fishing more of a social experience as well when you get to share the boat with 2 of your good fishing buddies. Its great in its own right....BUT, there comes a time when you just need to get back to the basics...

This happened a few weeks back on an early Sunday morning for JoeyC and myself. We had planned on floating one of our favorite smallmouth streams with another buddy of ours but family plans required him to miss the trip then JoeyC and I both had fishing time constraints to adhere to. So, instead of floating, we decided to just wade fish a couple of our favorite sections of a couple of smallie rivers. I left the house around 4:30am and met up with JoeyC at 6:30am at the 1st access point where we would begin our descent downstream in hopes of sticking a few bronze backs. Wet wading sounded like a great idea till the temp gauge on the truck was reading 56 degrees when I got to the river and I had left my waders at the house. Nice. Here goes nothing...

Luckily, the river temp wasn't too bad at all as we dropped in and started making our way downstream. Armed with our 6wts and fly boxes full of big nasty streamers, we began our assault on all of the fishy spots in hopes of luring a big smallmouth from its lair. It didn't take long at all, actually it was on my 2nd cast, as I put the fly next to a log jam and saw a big gold flash. Fish on!! In the heavy current, the fish put a serious bend into the rod and made a couple of awesome runs. Smallmouth are just bad ass....pure and simple!

The bite was good for us that morning. We threw DDs on full sink lines in all the likely spots and the fish obliged us with some seriously cool eats. Now with throwing the bigger streamers, our overall numbers do go down but the quality is definitely up on the fish. I gotta give smallmouth some credit though, even the little ones can get a little over zealous and try to eat a fly thats over half its size. They hit harder than the big ones do too! Its totally insane. Want evidence? Take a look at this greedy lil' SOB below....

After wading down as far as we could go, we jumped back up on the county road and hiked back up to the vehicles so we could go check out another river where we knew there were some serious mondo sized ditch pickles hanging out. Sadly, thanks to a few individuals who have no respect for people's property, we were met with "No Trespassing" and "Private Property" signs at the pull off spot on the county road where we normally park. JoeyC was just there earlier in the week too! We were SOL so we drove on up river to the next bridge where there was another pull off to park and access the river. We waded backed downstream to the very upper parts of the section we were wanting to fish, we didn't even get to fish the primo water that we had in mind. We were able to stick a couple decent fish but the bite had slowed for us with the high mid day sun and we were starting to see some canoe/kayak traffic as well. Part of it....

Great day on the water. It was good to get back to our roots per say and do some wade fishing on our favorite stretch of smallmouth water. Looking forward to what the summer is gonna bring us as far as the smallmouth fishing goes. The topwater bite should be kicking off in fully swing anytime. We have a big group trip planned for next weekend as well for smallmouth. 3 drift boats, 9 anglers, and a lot of quality smallmouth water to fish. It should be epic...

Here are a few other pictures from the day's trip. Hope you guys enjoy the pics...

Until next time, keep chasing the dream...

Smallie season is officially here!

We have been waiting for it all spring. Tying new streamers to add to the meat boxes. Spinning deer hair and cutting up foam for poppers. Hanging the waders up for the summer. Yeah...its smallmouth season in the Ozarks! The fishing is really starting to get hot on some of our rivers and creeks. JoeyC and The Professor have already been getting out the past couple of months to check out how our rivers and creeks have changed from this springs floods. They are catching a few fish too...

The last few weeks, the fishing has really started to take off. The fish went through their pre-spawn, spawn, and are finishing up their post-spawn stages right now on most of our rivers. When these fish turn on, it can get absolutely silly good if you can hit it just right. They are eating streamers like there is no tomorrow right now but the topwater bite shouldn't be too far away. JoeyC has already stuck a few fish on a mouse pattern (yes, you read that right) on a couple of the smaller tributary creeks where the fish are in full post-spawn. We just can't freaking wait...

JoeyC has been getting out on our local smallie waters more than any of us. He lives just over a half hour from some primo water. He has been able to get on the red hot evening bite several times over the past few weeks. He has been doing very well, catching some really nice smallmouth. Oddly enough, big trout streamers have been his go-to bug. No clousers. No buggers. Just pure and simple meat! Don't believe me? Look at these...

We also had our 1st smallmouth float of the season a couple of weeks ago (we are slacking, I know) on a tributary of one of our favorite smallie rivers. With the recent rain events happening on a consistent basis about once a week, the smaller creeks have been keeping some higher flows to allow for floating. The sweetest part of our float was that the creek we were on had never been floated before in a drift boat as far as we knew. First decent baby! Its typically a canoe/kayak kinda creek. I will say that we floated it on about 350cfs and its safe to say that's probably as low as you would wanna float it in a drift boat. It was kinda skinny in some spots, making casting pretty difficult and a couple of the "rapids" woulda been too shallow in another few days due to large boulders and bed rock bottom. Anyways, we took our chances and floated the 3.5 miles to the confluence without any major issues. We were prepared though, we packed along a chainsaw and plenty of rope just in case we needed to get creative with the portage.

The float was awesome and we didn't have any issues at all. The fishing was fair, just fair. The fish on this creek were spawning and they didn't have much interest in chasing our streamers. We saw a ton of nice fish on beds, doing their thing. We were able to stick some decent fish though and got to fish the lower section of the river after we dumped in at the confluence. Some really nice water down there too, it should be good in a couple of weeks. It was good and its only going to get better from here...

Yes, smallmouth are bad ass...

Tradition, Rain, Snow, and Trout...in May!

Tradition is found everywhere in today's world. It can take the form of many different things. Be it a sporting event, family trip, deer camp, and, in our case, a fishing trip. For the past 4 years, we have been making the pilgrimage east to the Current River in Missouri to chase the rainbow and brown trout found in the river. With this being the 5th year for the trip, high expectations were made for the trip. Sadly though, over the course of 5 years, the real world had figured out a way to become a major pain in the ass for us. The trip had to be rescheduled a couple of times and we still weren't able to get the whole crew together for the trip. Luckily, 2 of the OGs from the first trip, were able to make it work and go along for the trip.

We had a couple of other factors working against on the trip that we didn't see coming. First off, we had been staying at a place called Eagle's Park Campground for the past 4 years. It was located right across the road from 1 of the major access points on the blue ribbon section of the Current. Well, the owners had decided to close the campground this year which put us in a bind to find a place to camp. The other campground in the area just down the road had also closed down due to the owner having a stroke. It looked like we were gonna have to stay in the state park with the masses which isn't what we wanted to do at all. Luckily, we found another campground a little further down the road but it was close to the other 2 access points on the river for us. The problem was that we couldn't ever reach anyone to find out if they were even open for the season! We decided to just take a chance that they were actually open and then just resort to the state park if they weren't.

The 2nd problem was the weather forecast for the weekend. Rain, snow, and temps in the 30s was what we kept seeing for the area. It was freaking May for goodness sakes! Where's the sunshine and warm temps?? Anyways, we packed some warmer clothes and our cold weather sleeping bags just in case the weather decided to be somewhat silly. We also decided to bring the drift boat just in case the Current River decided to blow out from the rain, we could call an audible and head for another river if we had to. We prepared for the worst....

With the chips stacked slightly against us, Cole, Crik, and I loaded up the truck with camping gear and hooked onto the drift boat on Friday afternoon for our trip east. The temps had begun to drop over the course of the day and the rain had settled in by the time we had left. It never let up the entire 5 hour drive to the river. Thank god for dry bags. We arrived late that night around 11pm to Pinecrest Campground with the rain still coming down HARD. We were not looking forward to setting up camp in the downpour BUT, we had a plan! I had brought my EZ-UP Canopy and several tarps which we were gonna construct some sort of shelter to set up tents and hopefully stay dry. As we pulled through the campground, there wasn't a sign of life anywhere and everything was locked up including the showerhouse. Not a good sign. As we made the circle around the campground, we came upon a huge pavilion that had several picnic tables, a tractor, a chuck wagon, and an old Toyota pickup parked underneath it. We pulled up to it and surveyed the situation. There was plenty of room for us to move the picnic tables and set up camp underneath the pavilion. We weighed our options. This process took about 5 seconds before we said screw it and decided to setup camp under the pavilion where we would be high and dry for the night! We pitched our tents and crawled into our sleeping bags for the night with hopes of better weather in the morning....

We awoke the next morning to the sound of steady rain hitting the roof of the pavilion and the temps in the mid 30s. Motivation to climb out of sleeping bags were very low so we all just laid up for most of the morning till The Professor arrived to camp. He came with stories of white out snow conditions to the west from Carthage to Springfield and it was moving this way. Great. We climbed out of our tents as Cole and I finished unloading gear while Crik got some breakfast and camp coffee going. With our friend Derek Matz (original Current River trip member) absent for the trip, Crik is our backup camp cook and he typically does a fair job. Hot coffee and breakfast burritos really hit the spot as we continued to watch it rain, then turn to sleet, and then it actually snowed for a while. Well crap. What to do, what to do? We decided to pile into the truck, go check out the river levels, and make a pit stop at the local fly shop to kill some time. The plan was to hopefully wait the rain out and then do some fishing for the remainder of the day...

After checking out the river and making a pit stop at the fly shop for a few odds and ends, we made our way back to camp and decided to gear up. I mean, we are here, might as well make the best of it and do some fishing! We decided to check out the Parker access first and scope out some new water that we hadn't fished. It didn't take long after we arrived to notice the river was still rising slowly and was making the wade fishing pretty sketchy to say the least. Crik managed 1 small brown before we left. We bypassed the Baptist access and headed for old faithful, the Tan Vat blue ribbon access. This is probably the heaviest fished section of the whole river minus the state park area but it always produces fish for us, every time! We split up with Crik and the Professor going upstream while Cole and I headed downstream. It was raining on us once again so we decided to stick with the streamer game and began swinging some meat through the 1st few runs below Tan Vat. I must say, the fish were definitely in the mood to chase the big bug and it was a lot of fun. We missed a ton of fish right at our feet or just as we were picking up to recast. We each stuck some fat rainbows, a couple of stocker browns, and each of us moved a "bigger" fish that chased till we had just the tippet and fly in the water. Like I said, it was raining so I didn't bring a camera minus my phone and I wasn't gonna risk soaking it so I apologize for the lack of fishy photos. You can believe us or not, I really don't care....

We hiked back upstream to see if The Professor and Crik were having any luck. Crik was pushing a bobber and catching some feesh on a green soft hackle while The Professor was chucking the streamer bug and having some good luck as well. They each stuck some chubby rainbows and then The Professor caught a nice brown just below the Rock Garden on a clouser of all things! That dude is just fishy, we hate him. I missed a nice brown that swiped at my circus peanut right at the end of the swing. I was angry. I said a few choice words. I gave the fish the finger. In response, I put in a nice hog leg (BeechNut chewing tobacco) and proceeded downriver with my cast, mend, swing, and strip routine. Things were good in the world again...

 We decided to pack it in around 5pm as we were all cold, wet, and very hungry. We decided to go ahead to stay the night even though the river was still rising and was closing in on 400cfs. We would get up in the morning, check the flows and river conditions, and then make our decision to stay or go with Plan B. Whatever Plan B is. We each set about our camp duties for the evening. Cole and I went to gather firewood and pick up a few essentials from the store up the road while The Professor got a fire ring setup and Crik went to work on making some grub. The menu for the night was to be venison fajitas, refried beans, and some adult beverages. With full bellies, we settled in around a warm campfire for the evening and some serious BSin' commenced...

The next morning, we filled our bellies with more breakfast burritos and camp coffee before driving down to Tan Vat to check out the river. According to the USGS gauge, it was flowing just a touch under 400cfs, which is big for this river. The river had some color to it but it wasn't too bad. The guys talked about it and asked me what I thought we should do? I told them it was a no-brainer for me, lets pack up and head to the NFOW. We stood there for a few minutes, staring at the river, before someone said "Screw it, lets roll..."

The audible was called. Game on...

We headed back to break camp down and head south for the NFOW. It didn't take us long and we were on the road for Sunburst Ranch. We arrived at Sunburst around 2pm and quickly set up camp under the Pavilion next to the Camp Store, just in case we got some more rain. After camp was set up, we decided to drag the boats down to Patrick Bridge and drop in for a quick evening float on the lower NFOW. Streamer rods only for this float. We chucked the big bug the entire float and stuck some stocker browns along with missing tons of fish and a bonus smallmouth to boot! The browns were very aggressive and would chase all the way to the boat. People talk about dry flies and seeing big fish eat bugs off the surfaces as being the pinnacle of fly fishing. I hate to argue that but seeing a big fish go into predator mode and chase down a big streamer, right at the boat, is totally bad ass. We finished the float out and headed back to camp for some more grub from Crik's Camp Kitchen...

We ate good once again that night. Crik made his almost famous Hash Dinner. What's hash? Well, what do you have? Ours had venison, potatoes, peppers, onions, and whatever else we had left over in the cooler. It was delicious. We made ourselves totally miserable. After dinner, a hot shower, and some time around a campfire, we all found our way to our tents pretty early to get some rest. For tomorrow, we would float the lower NFOW again, twice, while being joined by a local legend in his own right. We would be fishing with....Matt Tucker...

The next morning, we got up early to meet Tucker and sidekick Dan Ritter at Patrick Bridge. The plan was simple. Float the lower section twice that morning, throw streamers for big nasty brown trout, and have a damn good time while we were doing it. After we dumped the boats in the river, we ran a quick rally style shuttle down to the Landing to drop off the rigs and then headed back to get things fired off. Crik jumped in with Tucker and Dan in the cruise ship that Tucker calls his Hyde drift boat. Cole and I jumped into The Professors Hyde LP for the mornings floats. Lets do this!

The browns were on the chase once again for the 1st float as they were pouncing on our streamers in all the right spots. Both boats put some decent fish in the boat along with the normal stockers. A few times during the float, you would hear someone start to yell choice words at the river and you knew what had happened. Missed a big fish. Gotta love it! Man we love this river...

For the 2nd float, the sun had decided to come out on us so a few of us gave in and dug out the bobber rigs and the pats rubber legs to see what we could dredge up from the depths. The browns didn't disappoint us at all. They really dig the rubberlegs on the NFOW. Some days it can be almost too easy even though this river is known for being a tough fishery. A few of the other guys kept with the streamers, caught a few fish, and turned a couple of nice fish. It was a damn good day to say the least. After the 2nd float, we all said our good-byes as Tucker and Ritter headed east while we headed back to Sunburst to break camp and head west.

 

What a weekend! Even with all factors against us with the camping complications, weather, etc...it was epic. It saddens me that we had to ultimately leave the Current River early on the trip. That trip, that 3 of us took 5 years ago, laid the groundwork for what "Chasing the Dream" has become today. That place is where the sport of fly fishing really took hold with the other guys in the group who just started fly fishing in the past few years. We have met a ton of awesome people along the way and picked up a ton of new fishing buddies. We have come a long ways in 5 years I think. Its been an awesome ride. Can't wait to see what the next 5 years brings us...

Until next time, keep chasing the dream...