White River - Hoppers and more...

We figured we might as well give this "filming" thing a try, so we stole a camera, hijacked some editing advice, scrounged up some SD cards, and went fishing. This is what we came up with. Enjoy!



If anyone would be willing to give The Bum Cajun a tutorial on how to properly use the GoPro suction cup mount, please feel free to do so.

Chuckin' foam, meat, and a bobber or two...

After a long hiatus from fishing, CTD was finally able to put together a couple of trips over to our favorite tailwaters over in Arkansas. These trips were mostly to let the other guys get some time on the sticks and get comfortable rowing before we head up to Montana in August. The other focus was to throw the foam nasty bugs at some trout as hopper season as we know it here in the Ozarks has kicked off with the hot weather. The past few weeks, I had been hearing stories of some good browns being caught on foam so the anticipation was pretty high to get over to the rivers. Anyways, here's the scoop on the past 2 weekends...

Trip #1 - August 7-8

Well, the plan was to drive over to the Taneycomo tailwater on saturday evening and do some night fishing below Taney with the streamer sticks then get up to drive down to the White on sunday. Well thanks to the a-holes like the SWPA and the COE, the predicted generation schedule totally screwed that plan up for us. Instead of low water on Taney, they decided to generate all night and then they decided to not generate at all on the White on Sunday so floating it wasnt an option. Luckily, they were gonna generate on the Norfork tailwater on Sunday which gave us an option on sunday. Soooooo, we jumped in the truck and headed for Cotter, AR in hopes of possibly doing a short night float on the White on saturday night and then going with our plan of floating the Norfork on sunday. We arrived to Bull Shoals Dam for a night float to find heavy fog on the river which makes finding your takeout at night kinda tough. We tried waiting it out but the fog never lifted so we packed it in...

The next day, we pointed the truck for the "Princess of Tailwaters", the Norfork River. The plan was to do a couple of floats on the 'Fork and then head home. The whole point of the trip was to come and throw hoppers to some brown trout faces so we all geared up our 5wts with big nasty foam bugs and pointed the boats downstream. Now the Norfork isn't known for its hopper fishing like the White is so we had the chips stacked against us but we stuck to our guns in hopes of getting some eats. We were obliged with lots of eats and put some fish in the boats...

After a good lunch from the Norfork Cafe in downtown Norfork (sarcasm), we headed back up to the dam to run our afternoon float. By this time, the temps were hovering around 104 degrees and they had bumped the generation a touch on the Norfork. Sadly, the mid-day foam bite was less than stellar for us. We got a few eats and that was really it, pretty typical for a mid-day float in the heat of summer. I was wishing we had more time and coulda done an afternoon float on the White but we were ready to head home...

Trip #2 - Aug 14-15

Once again, we found ourselves on the road headed for Cotter, AR the following friday afternoon. This time we had the whole weekend to fish but once again, the generation schedule threw us a curveball with no generation scheduled for the White on Saturday. Gotta love those guys. I guess, we are in a drought though so maybe I should cut them some slack? Ahh, screw that....those guys are a bunch of douches. Anyways, luckily, they were generating on the White till midnight on friday night which would allow us some floatable water on the lower sections of the White. That worked out good for us as we had been jones'n to float the Rim Shoals-Buffalo City sections for quite some time. After a couple of phone calls to some fishy dudes for the scoop on that section, we had a game plan for the next day...

We got on the river the following morning at Rim Shoals where we were met with dense fog and overcast skies, not exactly primo hopper weather. The river was also falling out as well but we were already committed and also wanted to check out some new water. The weather basically screwed us for the mornings float with cooler temps and scattered thunderstoms in the area. We had a few eats on the foam bug but it just wasnt meant to be. We reluctantly switched to chuckin' a bobber with a dirt snake and a stupid midge as a dropper. It didnt take long and we started to put fish in the boat. Gotta love the bobber grind...

With the water being off on the White, we decided to head over to the Norfork for a late afternoon float before we called it a day. They were bumpin' some water from the dam but we had good temps and partly cloudy skies so we had hopes for a foam bite. Well the foam bite was a strike out once again with just a couple of eats and 1 brown to the boat BUT, the clouds moved in on us and CoreyD decided to throw some meat to see what he could dredge up. After a handful of follows on as many casts, he was hooked up with a decent brown which he followed up shortly after with another brown. Squatch followed in suit, started chuckin' meat, and he was soon hooked up with a good brown. Now after all that silliness from their boat, it didnt take us long to dig out our sinking lines and big streamers so we could take part in the action.

Now this is when things got a little silly for us. We were pounding a good bank with Chris on the sticks while I was in the back and CodyY was in the front of the skiff. I made a cast with my #2 Ass Goblin articulated streamer and began the usual strip-strip-pause retrieve back to the boat when I felt some resistence on the line. I set the hook only to find my 6wt (left the 8wt at home, idiot!) doubled over to the handle and a big nasty brown trout struggling at the end of my line. Again, things got kinda silly....the fish immediately took off downstream and then tried to run around the front of the boat. CodyY still had his line in the water as the fish shot around the bow but somehow we stayed un-tangled. Then we had to let the boat swing around to float backwards downstream so I could fight the fish. Again, the ol' TFO Clouser 6wt was doubled over but I put the pressure on the fish and get his head turned finally. He came to the surface as I started to pull him towards the boat where Chris was waiting with the net. I was staring at the biggest trout I had ever caught in my life at that point. Excited? Totally. I had been hunting for a BIG brown for a long time after catching numerous 18"-21" browns over the past few years, I had finally done. We put the tape on the big male and he measured out at 24" on the nose. We cut him loose after a few pictures and Hog Johnson swam away without an issue. The day was done...





The next day, we decided to hit the White in hopes of finally getting in on a consistent hopper bite. We decided to go with our favorite section, Wildcat Shoals to Cotter, for our float. Sadly, we were once again fighting really low flows which didnt help out our chances of a good hopper bite. We also learned that at half a unit of water on that section is a no-go. We really didnt get into any good water till the last mile or so of the float. Once again, we dug the bobber rigs out and went to work combing the various runs just above the Cotter access. We were able to put some stocker rainbows in the boat to end the day out so all wasnt lost.

All in all, we had another good trip over to our favorite tailwaters in the Ozark region. We covered all the bases  you could say with fish on foam, meat and the bobber bailed us out when times got tough. We will be returning to the White after we get back from Montana to keep chasing that foam bite that we keep hearing about. Maybe we will get some good flows for once and put some foam nasty bugs in a brown trout face or two....

Until next time, keep chasing the dream...

Taney Time!

We talk a lot about our 2 favorite tailwaters in Arkansas, the White River and Norfork River, over here at CTD. Rightfully so, they are both amazing fisheries. All four species of trout can be caught on both rivers, awesome fish per mile numbers, and both qualify as trophy fisheries. There is another tailwater in the Ozarks that kinda takes a backseat to those fisheries, mainly due to one reason. Its located right outside of Branson, MO which attracts tons of tourists every year due to various attractions. To say that it can get "crowded", is an understatement, especially during low water conditions. The amount of total jackasses that patrol the waters any day of the week during the tourist season can almost make a common man commit murder. There is also the "Outlet Elite", these are fisherman who camp out at the hatchery discharge outlets and force feed fish an egg pattern that looks like fish food. Call me high and mighty if you want, but it is pure chaos down there sometimes. Despite all this, it is a pretty bad ass tailwater that is loaded with feisty fat rainbows and some monster brown trout. This other tailwater is Lake Taneycomo, or as most locals/regulars like to call it, "Taney".

We usually will take a few trips a year to Taney to go night fishing in the trophy section below the dam but this year, it just hasnt quite worked out to where we could make a trip over there. CoreyD, on the other hand, lives within 2 hours of Taney though so he loaded up the Hyde and headed for Taney last sunday. So far this year, we have had some great luck on chucking streamers to the trout masses and this continued on sunday for Corey. Despite the hot weather and sunny conditions, The Professor put a bunch of good rainbows in the boat along with a brown or two to boot. Only got a few pics so here's your small daily dose of fish porn...

Meat Eaters...no BS mayfly for these fish...

Like always, keep chasing the dream...

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

That's right. It's time. Time to put away those thingamabobbers, the split shot, and the size 20 bullshit mayfly or midge junk we have been throwing for the trout lately.

It's summer. It's hot. There r big bugs jumping around in the yard as well as your local river bank. From time to time, they do fall in the river and become fish food. Because of this little natural incident, we get to chuck big nasty foam bugs to trout faces from now till September...or maybe even October if we r lucky.

I love it. It's not lights out all the time by any means but when it's good...there is nothing better. To see a big ugly brown trout mug come up and inhale a foam bug is absolutely epic.

We were on the Norfork River last weekend and we will hopefully be on the White River this weekend if flows will allow it.

Reports, pics, and maybe some video coming soon...

Son of a mother lover, I love hopper season...

Finally adrift again...

With a half-ass drought starting to take hold of the Ozarks over the past month or so, float trips have been non-existent. All of our smallie creeks are so low that even floating with a canoe or kayak is questionable. Our tailwaters have reduced generation to a minimum, releasing just enough to keep water temps somewhat in check. With no rain in the extended forecast, getting the skiff out on the water and getting some time on the sticks was looking pretty bleak...

After a couple of weeks of doing the M-F daily grind of being a responsible adult, I'd had enough and needed to go put some hooks in a few fishy faces. On friday afternoon, I pulled up the website of those who I'd like to kick in the face to check the weekend generation schedule for our local tailwater, the Lower Illinois River. The schedule wasnt exactly ideal (typical) but on sunday afternoon we had a window of water that would allow us to float.

On sunday morning, I made the normal round of phone calls to the crew to get a day trip set up. Luckily, DonnyB was on-board for an afternoon float to chase some trout and stripers. With the thermo reading a nice 102, I hooked up the Clacka and pointed the truck for Gore, Oklahoma where I would meet DonnyB. We made the necessary shuttle drop off at the take out and then headed for Tenkiller Dam to launch the boat. As expected, the looks we got in the parking lot at the dam was pure comedy as you dont see too many drift boats around Oklahoma. I got on the sticks first and pointed the boat downstream for our 6-mile float.

This was the 1st time we had floated the LIR and I must say, it was pretty sweet. At 1800-2000 cfs, it really transforms into an awesome tailwater as far as how the river is laid out. Reminded me of the Norfork tailwater in Arkanasas as far as its size and character. Lots of good water to fish from the boat as well as a few islands and nice shoals to get out and wade fish if you like. It was sweet to see such a cool river to float that is so close to home. Sadly, as far as the fishing goes, it was very.....so so? We didnt expect the fishing to be lights out by any means so we were happy with what we got. We put a handful of rainbows in the boat in the upper section while sticking a baby striper and a small largemouth on the streamer stick in the lower section. Nothing to exciting but enough to make the float worthwhile...

Until next time, keep chasing the dream...

Mr. Wise does it again. Our local fly fishing superstar...

Brian Wise has been throwing down some sweet fishing vids from over on the North Fork of the White River for a while now. He just recently dropped his Spring 2012 video on us and, once again, he brought us some sweet footage along with some cool tunes to go along with it. If you wanna see what the Ozark fly fishing lifestyle is all about, check out his other vids on YouTube after you check out his latest work...

Bass boat? What bass boat?

From my previous post, you can figure out that the Oklahoma side of CTD has been sucking the hind tit as far as getting on the water and putting some hooks in in fishy faces. We all have our reasons and they all suck in their own way but thats life and we have to deal with it. Well, just across the state line in Missouri and Arkansas, our other CTD fish geeks Corey and Joey have been doing some serious bass fishing. I'm not talking about a big fancy bass boat and a flippin' stick....they have been chuckin' big nasty bass bugs with fly rods and kickin' bass! Sorry for the stupid catch phrase, I couldn't help myself...



So our Eastern brethern have been putting us to shame on our local smallie streams with tons of good fish with most of them coming on topwater bugs! Fly fisherman talk about all the awesome "takes" we experience while fishing for various species but not much is better than seeing a big wild Ozark river bass crash a topwater bug. I'm excited to see what the rest of the summer brings us...

Until next time, keep chasing the dream...