Post by golferjeff on Apr 5, 2018 15:32:16 GMT -6
We were looking for something other than LMF during the holiday weekend. I met up with Todd13 and traveled to Salem, Missouri to meet up with Dain and his father Craig. Our intentions were to fish the Current River below Montauk Springs and head to northern Arkansas for a day or two. Silly me for planning.......
The days leading up to the trip were pretty eventful. Heavy rains saturated the Ozark region on Tuesday. The flow jumped from 83CFS to over 1600 CFS. Uh oh. Thankfully, the river lowers and clears pretty quickly. Then another round of rain hit on Thursday and had us thinking about a Colorado or OKlahoma trip. We decided to stick it out and head to Missouri on Thursday evening and hope for the best. The 8 hour drive was pretty uneventful. Todd kept me awake and I learned he had listened to every podcast ever uploaded. We arrived in Montauk SP a little after midnight, and after dodging whitetail deer, raccoons, possums, and other nocturnal critters, we unloaded at a cabin right on the Current River. We chatted for a bit with Dain and Craig and hit the bunks for some sleep before the fishing got started.
Friday we had beautiful weather. Too bad we had coffee colored water that was about 4x normal flow. The spots we wanted to hit on the river were blown and nearly unfishable. We decided to catch some fish in the park. They stock it daily, so we figured if we couldn't fish cool places, at least we could catch some dirty rainbows. That part of the plan worked. All four of us spread out along the river just above Montauk Spring. We didn't know it at the time, but we were actually in another creek altogether. We did catch a few fish, and some of them weren't recent stockers. Todd entertained us all by throwing a Skagit head on a 9' 5wt on the 20 foot wide river. Gotta admit though, he did catch a few. We broke for lunch back at the cabin and contemplated our next move. This time we decided to actually hit the trout park and smash some pellet eaters. We all lined up in a nice roadside run and began catching fish. I caught a real nice tree a few times, but when I managed to miss it, I caught some nice rainbows. One little area produced 4 or 5 nice fish that were stronger than most others. A few of them tried to wrap around Craig, who was just downstream from me. I think we all caught a few from that run in about 3-4 hours of fishing. The fly that did it for me was a small size 16-18 soft hackle off the back of a prince. The water did lower and clear throughout the day, so we were hopeful for Saturday. We all had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Licking, MO and I managed to make $10 grand just sitting there (Sold my Dallas Cowboys seat licenses). A good evening with good peeps.
Saturday dawned cooler and cloudy with some rain showers. The river was back up a bit, especially downstream, so we headed back to the park. I wasn't thrilled with this turn of events, but it did promise more catching. we hit the same run from the previous evening with similar results. Todd caught a creamsicle colored rainbow, I caught a few 15" fish, dain mopped up on the mop fly, and Craig worked on his knot tying skillz. We broke for lunch after a nice rainshower got us a bit wet. Dain made the executive decision to try a new area of the park since the water was still murky and high. Dain and I hit a little spring near the hatchery and picked up a few fish with some spectators watching us. I stayed there and tossed dry flies for awhile since there was a hatch and rising fish everywhere. There were a few lunker rainbows in this effluent stretch. I did pick up a nice, fat brown on a striped ape stimmy. This little area reminded us a lot of Lost Creek in its heyday. Fish were easy to spot, not always easy to catch. After tiring of this action, we all headed to the main stream to fish for some holdover rainbows. The last little area we all worked provided some good action. A lot of these fish had full white tipped fins and nice teeth. They actually fought like real fish instead of hatchery stock. I caught a couple on a dry dropper rig and a few more on BWO emerger types. I think Todd and Dain did well too. We called it a night when the horn blew and headed back to the cabin for some Charcoal grilled hot dogs and burgers. Props to Pop Wise for getting the fire going! Lots of stories, beers, and meat later we called it a night just as the rain and cold moved in.
Sunday was a travel day for Craig and Dain. With flows back up, ice on the waders, and hot breakfast waiting, they called it a trip and decided to head back to OKC. Todd and I set out for Northern Arkansas to see what we could do. I decided to try the Norfork below the dam. They were calling for no generation and low flows so wading was a good option. I got to fish for about a half hour before the horn blew and water started rising. In their infinite wisdom the COE decided to turn the faucets on. No more fishing for me. So we went on a sightseeing tour of MOuntain Home, Cotter, Flippin, and Bull Shoals. Fun. We stayed at the Cotter Trout Lodge (Actually a pretty decent place) and got ready to fish the White River on Monday.
ON Monday we had Nathaneal Ferguson as our guide/boat operator. We met at 7am sharp and headed to White Hole. After putting the boat in and giving todd a quick casting tutorial, we got to the fishing. I was in search of Brown Trout. I honestly didn't care if I caught a rainbow. Nathaneal rigged me up accordingly. Todd immediately caught a few rainbows and lost a few more. We took an 8 mile boat ride up to the dam to try our luck there. It was cool and dreary, but no rain or wind. Todd got a few more and soon had a six to nothing lead on me fish-wise. It was Monday, so I was back in accountant mode...haha. We drifted over some flooded weed beds and I got what I was looking for. A nice 16" very dark brown and yellow Brown Trout came to net. I love Brown Trout. Soon I picked up another one, an inch or two bigger and much lighter colored than the first. Just before lunch I landed a third nice Brown that went about 19" and had some great colors and a nice kype jaw. It was kinda funny, every time I got tangled up or broke off, Todd caught a fish. every time Todd got tangled, I caught a fish. Right about lunchtime, the powers that be started messing with the generators again. The water went down, then back up. Fishing after lunch was mediocre at best. TOdd got a few more rainbows but couldn't get the Browns to bite. I think I caught two after lunch and LDR'd a few more when I saw silver and pink. Nasty rainbows..... We had to get back on the road towards DFW, so we called it a day at 2:45PM. 21 fish to the boat total. The Ozark countryside flew by and the highway miles piled up over the next 7 hours. Todd did great again keeping me awake with Guadalupe Bass stories and destination ideas for the next trips.
All in all a pretty good trip. Loved hanging with Todd, Craig, and Dain. 4 different personalities but we meshed pretty well. I got my few Browns and we all caught a crapload of stockers. Good food, good people, decent fishing, and a new destination checked off the list. We may try again when we can predict the flows a little better. I will have some pics later. Now on to the next trip... but mine is a golf trip. Dain and Todd are planning a Guad Bass trip I think.