D&H: White River, Arkansas

Monday, April 18, 2016

White River, Arkansas

The White was fresh on my mind for an early spring trip after see a picture of a 37" (yes 37 inches) brown pulled out earlier this year on a double deceiver. On short notice, I called up Dally Ozark Fly fishers and they were able to hook me up; my Dad and I headed down for a 4 day trip. We fished 2 days with Steve Dally and a day out of the Stealth Craft. Ripping flies that are bigger than average Brookville browns is right up my alley. We broke out the 8 & 9 wts and 250-350 grain sinking lines and tossed 7-9 inch flies around for a few days.

Although I didn't catch a 37" brown, I nailed some good fish and learned a lot from a seasoned guide who lives and breaths fishing with huge streamers.

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This fish was the first good one of the trip, after catching a bunch of rainbows that were the same size as my flies, I started stripping harder and harder. The rule of thumb was if your catching a shit ton of rainbows, strip harder. Browns want to chase their prey and need something that pisses them off so bad that they cant stand it and have no other option than attacking the fly hard.

The saying we learned to hate after a few days was "no one comes if you knock on the front gate... You gotta knock on the door to get a response". This was true... All of the fish were right on the bank sitting on the ledges created by the different dam regulated levels.

Sun was a killer the last 2 days of the trip, and clouds/rain would have been nice. We worked hard, stripped hard and fished from sun up till after sun down. Getting back to the cabin around 9 gave us just enough time to drink a few beers, grill out and rest up for the next day.

Below are some fly examples as well as a few extra pics from the trip. Let me know if there is interest in running trips down to the area. Enjoy...