The video has got a lot of positive feedback and various people have graciously shared it on their Facebook pages, blogs, and websites. We really appreciate all the support and interweb love you have given us. A big shout out to these guys...
Showing posts with label trout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trout. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
The "Other" White River
I finally took the time a while back to sit down with all of our footage from the NFOW over the past few months to create the newest CTD video. Our last couple of videos have been short due to lack of footage available but this wasn't the case with this video. I had tons of footage to work with so the video is considerably longer than our previous videos. We have wild Ozark rainbows, streamer crushing brown trout, low water bridges, turtle ropin', and lots of great shots of our favorite river in Missouri. Please watch in full HD if at all possible...
The video has got a lot of positive feedback and various people have graciously shared it on their Facebook pages, blogs, and websites. We really appreciate all the support and interweb love you have given us. A big shout out to these guys...
The video has got a lot of positive feedback and various people have graciously shared it on their Facebook pages, blogs, and websites. We really appreciate all the support and interweb love you have given us. A big shout out to these guys...
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The F3T Road Trip, Day #3
Day #3
The next morning, we all piled into the trucks for our final day on the water for our little road trip. We jogged south to Norfork, Arkansas to eat breakfast at our 2nd favorite greasy spoon breakfast spot in the Ozarks...the good ol' Norfork Cafe. Make sure and check it out. Its not bad! After we filled our bellies with pancakes, omelets, and biscuits n' gravy (Oh My!), we ran up to Norfork dam to dump the boats in while the COE was pumping out some good water for us. Shuttles were ran, boat spots were picked, and we were off....
To stick with the weekends on-going theme, we kept with the big sticks and chuckin' the big bugs in hopes of finding a unicorn. I don't know what it is about fly fishing and all the variables that go into making a presentation that will entice a fish to eat but on certain days, some guys have what I call the "touch". Doesn't seem to matter what bug they tie on, the fish are just gonna eat it. This day, that guy (or SOB if you're in the boat with him) was DonnyB. The dude was straight up being fishy and was dialed in. He was sticking rainbows and browns off all of the good banks and missed a ton of fish along the way. Cole and I just couldn't hang with him that day. It was pretty stupid, to be honest, but DonnyB is known to have days like this from time to time...
While DonnyB was having a grand ol' time sticking trout faces all morning, the rest of us weren't having the same kinda luck. Sometimes, you just have 1 of those days where nothing can go right on the river. Personally, while I was trying to clear out the line at my feet while fishing, my full sink SA line got hung up on a rock in the middle of the river. Before we could get the boat slowed down and headed back upstream, the rock it was on sliced the line in half. Just freaking great! I was able to retrieve all of my line but it was done. Gotta love it. In the other boat, JoeyC was having a few problems on his own. While tossing a big nasty double deceiver, he finally made contact with a unicorn (BFBT or big freaking brown trout). This wasn't your normal 2 footer either, it was bigger. According to The Professor, he fought the fish as well as anyone could and they chased the fish down with the boat but before they could get it in the net.....the fish just came off? Heartbreak...
We finished out the float and called it a day. We had plans to leave early enough to head back to Fayetteville in time to make a pit stop at McLellans Fly Shop and grab some dinner before heading to the F3T show. After squeezing 2 trucks and 2 drift boats into the cluttered parking lot where the fly shop was, we did some loitering in McLellans and BSed with Brock to kill some time. I picked up another spare spool for my Hatch Monsoon that I had ordered and bought a new SA Streamer Express full sink fly line to replace the broken line, brilliant! After some more loitering and BSin', we decided to go grab some grub and then head to F3T. Corey picked the establishment for which we would dine that afternoon and it was a dandy. It was a chain restaurant that's basically a spin off of Hooters and Twin Peaks, except the local talent wears kilts instead. Well, the food was alright and you could tell we had the Monday afternoon "talent" shift if you catch my drift. Yes, I'm still a prick...
We finally made it to the theater for F3T. The guys were pretty excited as Donny and Corey didn't attend last year and this year's film lineup looked to be pretty freaking awesome. We grabbed our seats and settled in. This year's film tour lineup was geared more to the freshwater crowd with quite a bit of "trout" related films as well as the normal exotic locales and exotic fish that probably 90% of us will never see or fish but they were still good films. Intermission was entertaining as always as the F3T crew do a great job and give away plenty of swag for the audience. Also, CTD as a group has been pretty lucky at these events. Last year, I won a free SA fly line of my choice but we doubled up on the swag this year. The Professor got a fly assortment from Montana Fly Company as well as a few other things and then Joey won a Montana Fly Company F3T Edition Boat Box! It is freaking awesome. We all hate him for it...
As far as the best films go, I would have to say that my favorites were "The Brothers Brown" and "Reel: A Day on the River". Both were geared towards the trout audience and had a really great story to go along with each film. "The Brothers Brown" really hit home with all of us as its about 3 brothers who go to the Lower Au Sable to chase the monster browns that live there with streamers out of drift boats. Sound familiar? It was an amazing film. that I think we all identified with. I will buy it when it hits DVD, no doubt. "Reel: A Day on the River" revolves around a handful of guides and their daily lives up in the NorthEast that fish the Delaware River system which is kinda where modern American fly fishing was basically born. It's a great film as well. The F3T Tour is a great event, if you have a venue close by then you really should go. I think its an essential part of the future of our sport and where its heading. I think it helps to attract a younger generation of fisherman and to push current fisherman to enrich themselves deeper into the sport.
The next morning, we all piled into the trucks for our final day on the water for our little road trip. We jogged south to Norfork, Arkansas to eat breakfast at our 2nd favorite greasy spoon breakfast spot in the Ozarks...the good ol' Norfork Cafe. Make sure and check it out. Its not bad! After we filled our bellies with pancakes, omelets, and biscuits n' gravy (Oh My!), we ran up to Norfork dam to dump the boats in while the COE was pumping out some good water for us. Shuttles were ran, boat spots were picked, and we were off....
To stick with the weekends on-going theme, we kept with the big sticks and chuckin' the big bugs in hopes of finding a unicorn. I don't know what it is about fly fishing and all the variables that go into making a presentation that will entice a fish to eat but on certain days, some guys have what I call the "touch". Doesn't seem to matter what bug they tie on, the fish are just gonna eat it. This day, that guy (or SOB if you're in the boat with him) was DonnyB. The dude was straight up being fishy and was dialed in. He was sticking rainbows and browns off all of the good banks and missed a ton of fish along the way. Cole and I just couldn't hang with him that day. It was pretty stupid, to be honest, but DonnyB is known to have days like this from time to time...
While DonnyB was having a grand ol' time sticking trout faces all morning, the rest of us weren't having the same kinda luck. Sometimes, you just have 1 of those days where nothing can go right on the river. Personally, while I was trying to clear out the line at my feet while fishing, my full sink SA line got hung up on a rock in the middle of the river. Before we could get the boat slowed down and headed back upstream, the rock it was on sliced the line in half. Just freaking great! I was able to retrieve all of my line but it was done. Gotta love it. In the other boat, JoeyC was having a few problems on his own. While tossing a big nasty double deceiver, he finally made contact with a unicorn (BFBT or big freaking brown trout). This wasn't your normal 2 footer either, it was bigger. According to The Professor, he fought the fish as well as anyone could and they chased the fish down with the boat but before they could get it in the net.....the fish just came off? Heartbreak...
We finished out the float and called it a day. We had plans to leave early enough to head back to Fayetteville in time to make a pit stop at McLellans Fly Shop and grab some dinner before heading to the F3T show. After squeezing 2 trucks and 2 drift boats into the cluttered parking lot where the fly shop was, we did some loitering in McLellans and BSed with Brock to kill some time. I picked up another spare spool for my Hatch Monsoon that I had ordered and bought a new SA Streamer Express full sink fly line to replace the broken line, brilliant! After some more loitering and BSin', we decided to go grab some grub and then head to F3T. Corey picked the establishment for which we would dine that afternoon and it was a dandy. It was a chain restaurant that's basically a spin off of Hooters and Twin Peaks, except the local talent wears kilts instead. Well, the food was alright and you could tell we had the Monday afternoon "talent" shift if you catch my drift. Yes, I'm still a prick...
We finally made it to the theater for F3T. The guys were pretty excited as Donny and Corey didn't attend last year and this year's film lineup looked to be pretty freaking awesome. We grabbed our seats and settled in. This year's film tour lineup was geared more to the freshwater crowd with quite a bit of "trout" related films as well as the normal exotic locales and exotic fish that probably 90% of us will never see or fish but they were still good films. Intermission was entertaining as always as the F3T crew do a great job and give away plenty of swag for the audience. Also, CTD as a group has been pretty lucky at these events. Last year, I won a free SA fly line of my choice but we doubled up on the swag this year. The Professor got a fly assortment from Montana Fly Company as well as a few other things and then Joey won a Montana Fly Company F3T Edition Boat Box! It is freaking awesome. We all hate him for it...
As far as the best films go, I would have to say that my favorites were "The Brothers Brown" and "Reel: A Day on the River". Both were geared towards the trout audience and had a really great story to go along with each film. "The Brothers Brown" really hit home with all of us as its about 3 brothers who go to the Lower Au Sable to chase the monster browns that live there with streamers out of drift boats. Sound familiar? It was an amazing film. that I think we all identified with. I will buy it when it hits DVD, no doubt. "Reel: A Day on the River" revolves around a handful of guides and their daily lives up in the NorthEast that fish the Delaware River system which is kinda where modern American fly fishing was basically born. It's a great film as well. The F3T Tour is a great event, if you have a venue close by then you really should go. I think its an essential part of the future of our sport and where its heading. I think it helps to attract a younger generation of fisherman and to push current fisherman to enrich themselves deeper into the sport.
My Personal Favorite Film from F3T...
I don't really know what else to say about this trip that I haven't expressed in the previous blog posts. I guess all I can say is....it was a really damn good fishing trip!
Until next time, keep chasing the dream...
Monday, March 25, 2013
3 Ozark fly fishing blogs. 1 River. Look out...
Rewind back to the 1st fishing trip of the year. Plans were made to spend 3 days on the White River to chase big brown trout on streamers for the opening day festivities on the Catch and Release area below Bull Shoals Dam. It was meant to be a trip of epic proportions. We had 3 drift boats, 9 accomplished anglers, and a whole lot of big nasty flies to chuck at those White River browns. Well, things just weren't meant to be for me on this fishing trip. On Thursday morning, there was cause for concern that I wouldn't even get to go and would have to send my drift boat with Crik so the guys could fish. Luckily, my wife came through for me and I was able to leave with the boys on Thurs night but there was a strong possibility that I would have to come home on Friday evening. This fear became a reality about 2:30 pm somewhere between White Hole and Wildcat Shoals on the White River. We finished the float (with no fish) and I packed up my gear to head for home. I left my boat and camera gear with the boys in hopes that things would fair better for them.
Now over the course of the next couple of weeks, to say that I wanted to go fishing was a major understatement. I was dying to get back out in the boat and throw big flies in hopes that a tug would result in a big brown. Luckily, I got a weekend scheduled in to do some fishing and started to lay plans out for my return. Well, the rest of the crew wasn't gonna be able to make the trip this time so I had to call an audible. After a few text messages, I had made some plans with streamer geek and fellow Ozark fly fishing blog nerd, Brian Wise of Fly Fishing The Ozarks to do some streamer fishing on the NFOW (North Fork of White River). Bingo! Then, the week of the trip, fellow CTD member Crik sends me a text and says that he's in for some streamer fishing. Brilliant! The same day, we became part of one of the most epic Facebook group messages that the interwebs had ever seen. Matt Tucker of The Ozark Chronicles had gotten wind of this proposed meat chuckin' trip to his favorite river, he wanted in. There we were, 3 of the fishiest Ozark based fly fishing blogs, hashing out plans for fishing (and shenanigans) for the upcoming weekend. Talks of flies, floats, how hot Chris' fiance is, and how much I really hate cats were discussed...
Fast forward to Friday evening, Crik and I were on the road with the truck and drift boat headed east on Hwy 412 for Mountain Home, Arkansas where we would make base camp at the RRI (River Rock Inn). To our surprise, we were met with snow not far outside of Tulsa and drove through it for the entire journey to Mountain Home. The forecast was calling for snow throughout the night and into the next morning...epic streamer conditions? Yes sir!
The next morning, we woke to below freezing temps and light snow still falling from the skies. The normal morning routine of checking flows, weather forecasts, and trying to dispose of the previous nights greasy dinner choice into the hotel throne was executed before we jumped in the truck to head for River of Life Farm just outside of Dora, Missouri on the NFOW. Tucker, being the hard ass he is, got up at like 2:30 in the morning and drove down with Dan Ritter and his dad with his Hyde in tow with the plan to meet us at the NFOW. Well, turns out, Tucker is also an over-achiever and we arrived at ROLF a few minutes early to find them already with boat in the water and rods rigged, ready to fish! So Crik and I hurriedly geared up and dumped the skiff into the river. Now, just a quick update on what our plan was. After dumping the boats in the river, Tucker and I would shuttle our vehicles down to Sunburst Ranch where we would jump in with Wise and drive back to the put in. Well, I'm pretty sure Tucker and I set the land speed record for 2 vehicles w/ drift boat trailers as we took the "back way" out from ROLF to the highway. At some point, the theme from "Speed Racer" began to echo inside my head as we sped down the dirt roads to Sunburst Ranch. I must say, Tucker can hold his own on a back road with trailer attached but I was almost able to run the ol' Shake n' Bake on him a few times. Sorry Tucker...you were out-classed and never had a chance...
Anyways, we made the shuttle, jumped in the Wise's go-kart, and sped back to ROLF to get on the river so we could start chuckin' the chicken at some brown trout faces. Or so we thought. Tucker got on the river first as Crik and I waited on Wise to get geared up and gather up half his car to take with him on the float. Now, Crik and I had planned a surprise for the boys. There had been talks on our epic Facebook group message of someone needing to get a costume or two so we could wear them on the float. Crik was unable to find the particular costumes that were discussed but he was able to walk away with a Jack Sparrow pirate hat (Wise), an Indian head dress (Crik), and a Viking helmet (Me). We decided it was time to break out the party favors on the boys. If you have never seen a Pirate, Indian, and a Viking in a drift boat...you're missing out. It was straight comedy...
It was business as usual after we got on the water. We were armed with 8wts, sinking lines, and BFFs (Big F*cking Flies). We all took our shots at all the sexy banks, ripping streamers back to the boat, and hoping that next tug would be a big nasty brown trout. Well, the fishing just wasn't there for us. We had a few half-hearted tugs and I landed a decent kentucky bass on a big streamer. Weird? In Tuckers boat, their luck was a little better as Tucker's old man stuck some stocker browns and then Dan stuck a nice brown on a black hog snare. I would like to interject at this point that we had fish Tucker's sloppy seconds all morning as they hogged all the virgin water ahead of us. Real dick move Tucker. On the bright side, we had a blast floating and BSin' our way down the river. Some interesting things happened to us, I broke my 8wt about halfway down on the float...total freak deal. Then we had the tree incident. Crik hung his fly in a tree on his back cast. Total head in rectum moment but whatever. We row back up to fetch his fly. I'm still not sure exactly how it all happened but at some point Crik thought it was a good idea to stand up in the rear seat of the boat to get his fly. This resulted in an immediate loss of balance as the seat rotated around on him and he began to fall. In his panic of falling, he grabbed the nearest limb which could of qualified for a freaking tree and brought the whole motherlover down on us in the boat. I'm not sure how someone didn't get major head trauma or at least a rod get broken but we all survived. After clearing the boat of the tree, we were able to retrieve the fly and proceed on down the river where we arrived at Sunburst Ranch where Justin Spencer had a fire going on the shore for us...
Now this is where the real shenanigans went down. You have probably already seen our Harlem Shake video on Facebook and I posted it to the blog just the other day for the interwebs to see. I guess at some point, Justin and Tucker decided the previous week that we needed to film a fly fishing version of this viral YouTube video. Wise's wife and kids showed up with Justin's family...with them came some costumes and the music for the video. Then at some point, Justin went back up to the barn and came back with a freaking rooster. Crik was soon voted to be the roosters handler for the video. Indeed. I'm still in awe that we threw this whole ridiculous thing together and made it look awesome on video. We had chicken costumes, a pickle costume, our pirate became an ass pirate, and one of the boys looked like a psychotic Ronald McDonald. Dan and Tucker's dad didn't know what to think. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It was awesome...
Afterwards, we loaded the boats up and headed downstream to Patrick bridge to dump the boats for our 2nd float of the day. Due to the high flows, we couldn't get under any of the low water bridges on the river so we had to shuttle around them. The plan was to float from Patrick Bridge down to Justin's new riverside property called The Landing. It's a nice short float with some awesome streamer water and tons of brown trout as the MDC (Missouri Dept of Conservation) stocks regularly in the lower sections of the river. The sun had came out so we switched up presentations in hopes of enticing some of the stocker and hold over browns into eating one of our bugs. Once again, Tucker shoved off first and led the way (another dick move BTW) down the river as we banged away at all the sweet banks in the section. Fishing was a little better for us on this section. We picked up a few decent brown trout and missed several fish along the way. There was plenty of good BS flying back and forth between the boats as well which always makes for an interesting float.
Overall, it was a freaking great day on the water with a good crew of guys. Very cool to get 3 major Ozark based fly fishing blog crews together to do a little fishing. Also got to pick Wise's brain about the NFOW and learned a few new things about fishing this river. I must say, I'm quickly starting to prefer this river over our fabled tailwaters in Arkansas. Its such a beautiful river and a unique fishery as far as the Ozarks go. We actually returned to the NFOW a few weeks later and got into some really good streamer fishing but more on that story later.
I did do some filming on this trip but it was only with the GoPro. I had to leave the DSLR at home with the wife since technically it is her camera. So I didn't have very much footage to work with to begin with. Then on top of that, I had the GoPro set up wrong to work with the DIY UV filter that we made for the GoPro so you can see the lens cover in all the footage. I apologize for this but I hate to waste footage so here is a quick smasher of the footage from the day's trip! Enjoy...
Would also like to think Justin and Amy at Sunburst Ranch for the fire, free pizza, and shuttles on Saturday. You guys are awesome!!
Also, thanks from Matt Tucker for some of the photos...totally jacked them from your FB page dude...
Now over the course of the next couple of weeks, to say that I wanted to go fishing was a major understatement. I was dying to get back out in the boat and throw big flies in hopes that a tug would result in a big brown. Luckily, I got a weekend scheduled in to do some fishing and started to lay plans out for my return. Well, the rest of the crew wasn't gonna be able to make the trip this time so I had to call an audible. After a few text messages, I had made some plans with streamer geek and fellow Ozark fly fishing blog nerd, Brian Wise of Fly Fishing The Ozarks to do some streamer fishing on the NFOW (North Fork of White River). Bingo! Then, the week of the trip, fellow CTD member Crik sends me a text and says that he's in for some streamer fishing. Brilliant! The same day, we became part of one of the most epic Facebook group messages that the interwebs had ever seen. Matt Tucker of The Ozark Chronicles had gotten wind of this proposed meat chuckin' trip to his favorite river, he wanted in. There we were, 3 of the fishiest Ozark based fly fishing blogs, hashing out plans for fishing (and shenanigans) for the upcoming weekend. Talks of flies, floats, how hot Chris' fiance is, and how much I really hate cats were discussed...
Fast forward to Friday evening, Crik and I were on the road with the truck and drift boat headed east on Hwy 412 for Mountain Home, Arkansas where we would make base camp at the RRI (River Rock Inn). To our surprise, we were met with snow not far outside of Tulsa and drove through it for the entire journey to Mountain Home. The forecast was calling for snow throughout the night and into the next morning...epic streamer conditions? Yes sir!
The next morning, we woke to below freezing temps and light snow still falling from the skies. The normal morning routine of checking flows, weather forecasts, and trying to dispose of the previous nights greasy dinner choice into the hotel throne was executed before we jumped in the truck to head for River of Life Farm just outside of Dora, Missouri on the NFOW. Tucker, being the hard ass he is, got up at like 2:30 in the morning and drove down with Dan Ritter and his dad with his Hyde in tow with the plan to meet us at the NFOW. Well, turns out, Tucker is also an over-achiever and we arrived at ROLF a few minutes early to find them already with boat in the water and rods rigged, ready to fish! So Crik and I hurriedly geared up and dumped the skiff into the river. Now, just a quick update on what our plan was. After dumping the boats in the river, Tucker and I would shuttle our vehicles down to Sunburst Ranch where we would jump in with Wise and drive back to the put in. Well, I'm pretty sure Tucker and I set the land speed record for 2 vehicles w/ drift boat trailers as we took the "back way" out from ROLF to the highway. At some point, the theme from "Speed Racer" began to echo inside my head as we sped down the dirt roads to Sunburst Ranch. I must say, Tucker can hold his own on a back road with trailer attached but I was almost able to run the ol' Shake n' Bake on him a few times. Sorry Tucker...you were out-classed and never had a chance...
Anyways, we made the shuttle, jumped in the Wise's go-kart, and sped back to ROLF to get on the river so we could start chuckin' the chicken at some brown trout faces. Or so we thought. Tucker got on the river first as Crik and I waited on Wise to get geared up and gather up half his car to take with him on the float. Now, Crik and I had planned a surprise for the boys. There had been talks on our epic Facebook group message of someone needing to get a costume or two so we could wear them on the float. Crik was unable to find the particular costumes that were discussed but he was able to walk away with a Jack Sparrow pirate hat (Wise), an Indian head dress (Crik), and a Viking helmet (Me). We decided it was time to break out the party favors on the boys. If you have never seen a Pirate, Indian, and a Viking in a drift boat...you're missing out. It was straight comedy...
It was business as usual after we got on the water. We were armed with 8wts, sinking lines, and BFFs (Big F*cking Flies). We all took our shots at all the sexy banks, ripping streamers back to the boat, and hoping that next tug would be a big nasty brown trout. Well, the fishing just wasn't there for us. We had a few half-hearted tugs and I landed a decent kentucky bass on a big streamer. Weird? In Tuckers boat, their luck was a little better as Tucker's old man stuck some stocker browns and then Dan stuck a nice brown on a black hog snare. I would like to interject at this point that we had fish Tucker's sloppy seconds all morning as they hogged all the virgin water ahead of us. Real dick move Tucker. On the bright side, we had a blast floating and BSin' our way down the river. Some interesting things happened to us, I broke my 8wt about halfway down on the float...total freak deal. Then we had the tree incident. Crik hung his fly in a tree on his back cast. Total head in rectum moment but whatever. We row back up to fetch his fly. I'm still not sure exactly how it all happened but at some point Crik thought it was a good idea to stand up in the rear seat of the boat to get his fly. This resulted in an immediate loss of balance as the seat rotated around on him and he began to fall. In his panic of falling, he grabbed the nearest limb which could of qualified for a freaking tree and brought the whole motherlover down on us in the boat. I'm not sure how someone didn't get major head trauma or at least a rod get broken but we all survived. After clearing the boat of the tree, we were able to retrieve the fly and proceed on down the river where we arrived at Sunburst Ranch where Justin Spencer had a fire going on the shore for us...
Now this is where the real shenanigans went down. You have probably already seen our Harlem Shake video on Facebook and I posted it to the blog just the other day for the interwebs to see. I guess at some point, Justin and Tucker decided the previous week that we needed to film a fly fishing version of this viral YouTube video. Wise's wife and kids showed up with Justin's family...with them came some costumes and the music for the video. Then at some point, Justin went back up to the barn and came back with a freaking rooster. Crik was soon voted to be the roosters handler for the video. Indeed. I'm still in awe that we threw this whole ridiculous thing together and made it look awesome on video. We had chicken costumes, a pickle costume, our pirate became an ass pirate, and one of the boys looked like a psychotic Ronald McDonald. Dan and Tucker's dad didn't know what to think. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It was awesome...
Afterwards, we loaded the boats up and headed downstream to Patrick bridge to dump the boats for our 2nd float of the day. Due to the high flows, we couldn't get under any of the low water bridges on the river so we had to shuttle around them. The plan was to float from Patrick Bridge down to Justin's new riverside property called The Landing. It's a nice short float with some awesome streamer water and tons of brown trout as the MDC (Missouri Dept of Conservation) stocks regularly in the lower sections of the river. The sun had came out so we switched up presentations in hopes of enticing some of the stocker and hold over browns into eating one of our bugs. Once again, Tucker shoved off first and led the way (another dick move BTW) down the river as we banged away at all the sweet banks in the section. Fishing was a little better for us on this section. We picked up a few decent brown trout and missed several fish along the way. There was plenty of good BS flying back and forth between the boats as well which always makes for an interesting float.
Overall, it was a freaking great day on the water with a good crew of guys. Very cool to get 3 major Ozark based fly fishing blog crews together to do a little fishing. Also got to pick Wise's brain about the NFOW and learned a few new things about fishing this river. I must say, I'm quickly starting to prefer this river over our fabled tailwaters in Arkansas. Its such a beautiful river and a unique fishery as far as the Ozarks go. We actually returned to the NFOW a few weeks later and got into some really good streamer fishing but more on that story later.
I did do some filming on this trip but it was only with the GoPro. I had to leave the DSLR at home with the wife since technically it is her camera. So I didn't have very much footage to work with to begin with. Then on top of that, I had the GoPro set up wrong to work with the DIY UV filter that we made for the GoPro so you can see the lens cover in all the footage. I apologize for this but I hate to waste footage so here is a quick smasher of the footage from the day's trip! Enjoy...
Would also like to think Justin and Amy at Sunburst Ranch for the fire, free pizza, and shuttles on Saturday. You guys are awesome!!
Also, thanks from Matt Tucker for some of the photos...totally jacked them from your FB page dude...
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Flying Solo...
Now most of us here at CTD live a fairly normal life. We have real 9-5ish jobs, families, and all those other ridiculous adult responsibilities that comes with being a contributing member of today's society. Its safe to say that none of us are true "fish bums" in the sense but we like to think we get out on a fairly normal basis and catch a few fish. Then you have the member of CTD that we like to call "The Professor" due to his un-canny ability to catch fish and being a student of the sport, you could say. His name is Corey Dodson and fish tremble at the mention of his name. He's the closest thing we have in the crew to being a "fish bum", as the cliché goes. He has a normal job.....and he fishes. If he could figure out a way to not work and fish all the time, he most certainly would. The dude is always going somewhere fishy once 5:00 arrives on Friday afternoon. We envy him....and hate him.
This brings me to the most recent trip that The Professor went on a few weeks ago. In typical fashion, the dude was flying solo in the ol' 'Yota, headed south for our beloved tailwaters in Arkansas with drift boat in tow. The plan was simple, as it always is, fish from dawn to dusk to catch as many fish as humanly possible. Corey spent a day on the Norfork and a day on the White, floating from spot to spot to wade fish the good runs. The fish cooperated and he put some nice Ozark 'bows and browns into the net. There's not much of a story to tell with Corey's solo trips, the dude just catches fish. I will let the photos do most of the talking...
This brings me to the most recent trip that The Professor went on a few weeks ago. In typical fashion, the dude was flying solo in the ol' 'Yota, headed south for our beloved tailwaters in Arkansas with drift boat in tow. The plan was simple, as it always is, fish from dawn to dusk to catch as many fish as humanly possible. Corey spent a day on the Norfork and a day on the White, floating from spot to spot to wade fish the good runs. The fish cooperated and he put some nice Ozark 'bows and browns into the net. There's not much of a story to tell with Corey's solo trips, the dude just catches fish. I will let the photos do most of the talking...
Until next time, keep chasing the dream...
Thursday, July 26, 2012
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 giveThe Bum Cajun a tutorial on how to properly use the GoPro suction cup mount, please feel free to do so.
If anyone would be willing to give
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Roll that beautiful bean footage...
It's mid-April, so that means its time to head back to the Current. Our group is missing a few people, only six of us headed to Montauk this weekend. But we faithful few, the die hards if you will, will keep the tradition alive. This is year 4 for the old timers that started it, so we should have all of the kinks worked out of the trip. Three lucky sobs will head up Thursday after work to ensure that the universe stays balanced and we get our usual campsite. I just hope that somebody pops a top Thursday in route, since the true winos won't be able to get on the road til Fridaaaayyyy. I hope it rains on you. Dicks.
This pic is for Wild Bill
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Fly Fishing 201, Crane frustration, stinkbait, and Missouri pyromaniacs…
You can probably call me the “ultimate” newb in the group. Chance seems to have been born with a fly rod in his hand. Cole gave an account of his history with the passion last week. Donny bought his first fly outfit a little under a year ago. I, on the other hand, have just only recently dove head-first into the great obsession that is fly fishing. In the last three months I have evolved from talking about wanting to get a rod and give it a try - to owning a full set-up of gear, having fly fishing catalogs from Cabela’s, Orvis, and L.L. Bean scattered across my apartment, and collecting scrap pieces of tippet between my toes as I walk barefoot across my living room. As I type this there are three internet windows minimized up on my computer that contain information on gear reviews, fishing tactics, and water generation schedules. Yeah, I’ve got it bad.
Prior to this weekend I had only been fly fishing for trout twice on the Lower Illinois, which is a great place for a beginner to learn. But with a weekend trip to the Current River rapidly approaching, The Bum decided it was time to put us on some more technical water. So Chance, Cole, Donny, and I left Broken Arrow around 6 a.m. on Sunday morning loaded down with about three gallons of coffee, some EXCELLENT chocolate chip muffins courtesy of Chance’s wonderful wife (I hope she reads this so we can have some for the next trip), and bellies full of my more questionable homemade breakfast burritos. Our destination was Roaring River, with the lesson plan covering the skills of mending, proper weight usage, and fishing elbow-to-elbow with the rest of the crowd.
We headed down to the no wading area of zone two and spread out along the bank. This place was definitely a popular spot and had plenty of people moving around trying to find the fish. I got lucky and staked out a nice area where the water stepped down and the fish were feeding. I hooked a couple on eggs before I noticed the fish were feeding off the top of the water, so I tied on a blue winged olive and set my sights on the fish that seemed to be feeding the most. My heart would rise and fall as I would watch fish after fish come toward my fly… only to eat the bug next to it or shy away at the last moment. Finally, after this happened ten or thirty times, one took the BWO and I landed my first catch with a dry fly!
The rest of the guys had all moved up to where the trout had stacked up in a big pool next to a dock for the handicapped, and there were some real pigs in there. You could watch as a couple of 20+” monsters worked their way around the pool, and Chance got one to hook up and fight for a bit before it shook him off. Other than that not many fish were biting here, and space on the dock began to get scarce so we pointed the truck toward Crane.
Prior to this weekend I had only been fly fishing for trout twice on the Lower Illinois, which is a great place for a beginner to learn. But with a weekend trip to the Current River rapidly approaching, The Bum decided it was time to put us on some more technical water. So Chance, Cole, Donny, and I left Broken Arrow around 6 a.m. on Sunday morning loaded down with about three gallons of coffee, some EXCELLENT chocolate chip muffins courtesy of Chance’s wonderful wife (I hope she reads this so we can have some for the next trip), and bellies full of my more questionable homemade breakfast burritos. Our destination was Roaring River, with the lesson plan covering the skills of mending, proper weight usage, and fishing elbow-to-elbow with the rest of the crowd.
About two and a half hours later we pulled up to the park store to get our fishing licenses and trout stamps, along with a few last minute flies, then we geared up and headed down to a stretch of the catch and release area. There were a few cars in the parking lot, so we were pleased to see only one other fisherman in view. This water was like looking through glass compared to the Lower Illinois and definitely had more flow than we were used to, at least for me and The Don. Chance and Cole waded straight in and put lines on the water, while Donny and I worked our way up stream a ways. Within a couple hundred yards we found a couple pools with about a dozen fish stacked up like dominoes and we set to it.
We threw everything but our hats at them and couldn’t get ONE bite. We were trying everything. Mending, changing presentation, changing flies… it didn’t matter, nothing worked. The fish wouldn’t even move, not one look. I could hear Donny laugh in frustration as fish jumped five feet away, and I watched as a fish almost ran between my feet. Cole was still fishing around the same stretch he had started on, while Chance had moved around the bend and out of sight. Finally I heard Donny set the hook. ‘Ata boys were being proclaimed and hopes were rising while he landed the fish… a perch. Hmm… Well a fish landed is a fish landed in my book, and something was biting so I got back to fishing. I tied on an orange beadhead wooly bugger and got a couple of good fish to follow it, but they still weren’t biting. It was starting to warm up, and after another half hour had passed Chance walked back up to where we were. We decided to head to the truck and shed a layer.
After refueling ourselves on coffee and muffins we headed downstream. Chance said they had been biting around the bend, and had caught some ridiculous number of fish (like seventeen) on some magical little fly he had tied and only had a couple on him. So we tied on whatever we could find that looked similar and waded in. This is where mending school really began and within a couple of casts Chance had me on the fish. I caught one right off on a beadhead BWO emerger, but after a bit switched to eggs and they really started biting. These fish were good and fat, and seemed content on eating whatever color egg I threw at them. I must have been on the prime spot because Donny and Cole weren’t having much luck. After a while the fish quit biting and it had become a little crowded in our area, so we decided to pack it in and move down river a bit.
We headed down to the no wading area of zone two and spread out along the bank. This place was definitely a popular spot and had plenty of people moving around trying to find the fish. I got lucky and staked out a nice area where the water stepped down and the fish were feeding. I hooked a couple on eggs before I noticed the fish were feeding off the top of the water, so I tied on a blue winged olive and set my sights on the fish that seemed to be feeding the most. My heart would rise and fall as I would watch fish after fish come toward my fly… only to eat the bug next to it or shy away at the last moment. Finally, after this happened ten or thirty times, one took the BWO and I landed my first catch with a dry fly!
The rest of the guys had all moved up to where the trout had stacked up in a big pool next to a dock for the handicapped, and there were some real pigs in there. You could watch as a couple of 20+” monsters worked their way around the pool, and Chance got one to hook up and fight for a bit before it shook him off. Other than that not many fish were biting here, and space on the dock began to get scarce so we pointed the truck toward Crane.
Now we had all heard and read about Chance’s adventures on Crane Creek in the past and the challenges it presented, but none of us had ever been there. Just listening to a description of the place and the methods required to be successful were enough to plant the seeds of doubt in my mind… but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to give it a try. Our 9’ 5 wt. rods weren’t going to be much use here so we rigged up a couple of Chance’s short rods and tramped down to the water. Fully intending to play guide for a while, Chance didn’t carry a rod, and was tossing last minute tips and strategies over his shoulder as we made our way downstream. The plan was to take turns fishing our way back toward the bridge, and I was “volunteered” as first at bat. Well, I spent my time at the first hole learning how to cast a 6’ 3 wt. from my knees. No luck. We started working our way upstream, leap-frogging from bend to bend. Donny’s 9’ rod put him at a severe disadvantage here, but he did find some neat fossils on the riverbank before finding a deep pool that he could jig his fly through. I skipped up stream a ways and found a long, straight stretch of the creek that I could cast down the middle. Or so I thought, as I quickly found myself a tree-fish that kept half of the leader as a trophy. I decided I better give Chance his rod back before I broke it. Cole was finding tree-fish too, so we fired our guide and told him to go fishing. After all, we wanted to see a McCloud first-hand and daylight was rapidly fading. Not one to let his buddies down, Chance hooked up on his second cast!
And again not ten minutes later!
By this time I was content just watching and learning, but Cole on the other hand had declared a vengeance against Crane Creek and its McCloud rainbows. As daylight slipped away and we found ourselves walking back to the truck, Cole was still fishing his way upstream. It wasn’t until we had all of our gear packed away that he came walking out of the woods, vowing to come back and conquer the Crane on another day.
Often when you’re traveling you get to experience new things, sights and smells that you don’t encounter everyday in your neck of the woods… like the sun rising over a snow capped mountain top, or the smell of a turkey farm alongside the road. We weren’t ten minutes on the road to home when a smell overcame the truck that sent us all to gagging and the windows down. We couldn’t get away from it! It smelled as if some gremlin had lined the a/c vents with Danny King’s stinkbait. I’m telling you this smell was vile, and we could not find where it was coming from! When the light-headedness finally passed another smell greeted us… smoke. I was starting to wonder if the eye watering-lung burning-stomach turning-gag a maggot-stinkbait odor had fried my sense of smell when Donny spotted a burning brush pile. And another, and not a mile down the road another! The more we got to thinking about it we realized we had seen something burning nearly everywhere we went in Missouri that day. By the time we crossed back into Oklahoma, we had counted over a dozen burn piles. After we got home I looked around on the internet to see if Sunday had been Missouri’s “burn stuff in your yard” day or if we had unknowingly run over Bigfoot and carried his stench home with us- but couldn’t find a thing. I guess we’ll have to do some investigating on our next trip into The Show Me State…
Crik
And again not ten minutes later!
By this time I was content just watching and learning, but Cole on the other hand had declared a vengeance against Crane Creek and its McCloud rainbows. As daylight slipped away and we found ourselves walking back to the truck, Cole was still fishing his way upstream. It wasn’t until we had all of our gear packed away that he came walking out of the woods, vowing to come back and conquer the Crane on another day.
Often when you’re traveling you get to experience new things, sights and smells that you don’t encounter everyday in your neck of the woods… like the sun rising over a snow capped mountain top, or the smell of a turkey farm alongside the road. We weren’t ten minutes on the road to home when a smell overcame the truck that sent us all to gagging and the windows down. We couldn’t get away from it! It smelled as if some gremlin had lined the a/c vents with Danny King’s stinkbait. I’m telling you this smell was vile, and we could not find where it was coming from! When the light-headedness finally passed another smell greeted us… smoke. I was starting to wonder if the eye watering-lung burning-stomach turning-gag a maggot-stinkbait odor had fried my sense of smell when Donny spotted a burning brush pile. And another, and not a mile down the road another! The more we got to thinking about it we realized we had seen something burning nearly everywhere we went in Missouri that day. By the time we crossed back into Oklahoma, we had counted over a dozen burn piles. After we got home I looked around on the internet to see if Sunday had been Missouri’s “burn stuff in your yard” day or if we had unknowingly run over Bigfoot and carried his stench home with us- but couldn’t find a thing. I guess we’ll have to do some investigating on our next trip into The Show Me State…
Crik
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