Little Red Winter Trip

Last weekend, as many of you know, the TOSFly crew packed up their gear and took off for the Little Red River outside of Heber Springs, Arkansas. The crew included J-Ferg, Brett Ferguson (AKA B-Ferg), Chud, The Prez, Dean Rose (AKA Deano AKA the Prez's Pops-In-Law), and Deano's friend Bill Ray (AKA Wild Bill). We had an absolute blast fishing and just kicking it at the cabin. We spent hours at night discussing technique and strategy. The TOSFly crew sends out a special thanks to Deano for generously allowing us to crash at his amazing place. Here's a pic of good old Deano for you:

Deano with a nice brown caught at Cow Shoals

For those of you who have not visited the Little Red, you need to put this place on your fly-fishing bucket list. When they are not generating, the river becomes very small and shallow at most wadable fly-fishing shoals. We had to change our nymphing techniques for very shallow, fast-moving runs as well as semi-deep, stagnant water. The name of the game during the winter months on most trout fly fisheries is slow and small. Everything gets smaller in the winter, and this should include your leader, tippet, and flies. Most trout become lethargic during the cold winter months, and their feeding habits change. We caught the tail end of what seemed to be a late season brown trout spawn. Although there were no visible redds, a couple of the browns caught were depositing eggs as we netted them.

We spent most of the weekend nymphing with small (size 18-22) red asses and midges. The key to success for us was not using ANY split shot. The water was shallow and slow enough to forego the use of weight. The absence of split truly helped the fly get a more natural drift into the feeding lanes. We tried pulling streamers in some of the deeper pools, but we only seemed to land small stocker rainbows. Much of our pulling came up empty handed.

The Little Red is an extraordinary fishery. You can truly see the difference in stocked brown trout and naturally reproduced browns. All the fish that we caught over the weekend were full of life and put up a hard fight. If you want to land a trophy brown trout, the Little Red is hands down the place to go! Now, enjoy a little photo foursome for your viewing pleasure:

Until next time,

Cast to The Other Side!