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....

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...

On the rise...

At the end of last week, we had a pretty impressive storm move through and dump a considerable amount of rain on the area. Within 24 hours, most of our rivers and streams were on the rise, some big enough that it warranted flash flood warnings and watches. We were really needing a serious flush of most of our river systems so this rain was welcomed with open arms. This event will probably salvage our smallie season for the summer, maybe we will actually be able to float this summer...

Here are a few pictures that JoeyC took of some of the major access points on Elk River. Quite impressive...

Its smallie time...our favorite time of the year!

Its no secret here at CTD that we are big fans of the Smallmouth Bass. They are a bad ass, pure and simple, when it comes to Ozark river bred gamefish! We love them! Honestly, the past few years, trout have just been a "filler" till smallie season kicks off! Once its here, we put away the 5wts, the tiny flies, and thingamobbers in exchange for 6wts and 7wts, big streamers, and topwater bugs. Waders are put away for the season. Its either sandals while we are wet wading or barefoot in the drift boats in the late spring and summer sun with our big palm leaf hats to keep us from getting too burnt!

Well, I think its safe to say that smallie season is here. The spawn has been delayed with these recent random cold fronts and rain events that we keep getting but thats OK because the rain has caused all of our major smallie streams to get a nice rise in flows, totally rejuvenating the fishery for the upcoming summer. JoeyC and The Professor have been out a few times already this spring to one of our local favorite smallie streams (that will be left un-named) and was able to stir up a few really nice fish. I can't wait to get the boat on the water and get after them! Its been a long winter and spring but warmer weather and longer days are finally here. It won't be long and we will be throwing poppers to these brutes full time...then it will really be GAME ON! I'm so over 5X tippet and copper johns...give me some Maxima 15lb and a deer hair popper!

Yup, to hell with trout...let's go bass fishing....

Until next time, keep chasing the dream...