Well TOSFly readers, several weeks ago the TOSFly team had the opportunity to take our annual late fall fishing trip. This year, we went to the White River. It was a great trip complete with time around the fire, great stories of monster fish, and of course a lot fish catching. For evidence of that, just see below:
So, as you can see, there was no problem catching fish. As far as I can remember, we hooked up with brookies, brownies, and rainbows (and that's just what I remember). There may have been more!
We had the opportunity to take an experienced angler along with us: Carter McLeod. Carter is a close friend of the TOSFly team, and it was a great experience to have him along with us. Between Carter and Justin, who you all know from our regular gear reviews, we had our very own Simms catalog right there on the water. Just check out that picture to the right. Those guys had everything Simms has made in the past 2 years: pullovers, waders, hats, boots, gravel guards, gloves, toilet paper ... Well, maybe not that last one, but you get the point.
It was truly a great trip. I'll walk you through the details. We all arrived at different times on Friday evening. Justin, Carter, and I arrived last since we couldn't get away from the office before around 5:00. As soon as we got there, it was time to build a fire and spend some time just kicking it. As you can imagine, this lasted well into the night, but we all finally got to bed.
Day 1 of Fishing
We started our Saturday morning early, very early, which is something you have to do on the White. If we wanted to get into Rim Shoals before the rest of the crowd, we had to act early. It wasn't an easy task navigating that boat in extremely shallow in the pitch black of night, but we finally made our way to the hole and began fishing as the light of the morning crested the horizon.
Immediately after getting out of the boat, it seemed Luke, Chad, and Carter were hooking up after only a couple of casts. They were both throwing streamers and using a quick strip to entice the big boys. The rest of us wandered into the shoals to see if any fish were waiting in the shallows. Sure enough, it wasn't long before we were all hooking up and bringing in fish.
The fog was thick and the fish were hitting hard. After several hours of fishing, we finally decided around 11:30 to head back to the cabin, not because we weren't catching fish, but because we were getting worn out. Not to mention we were having some problems with wader leakage. After a couple of hours fishing, it was obvious that Luke was having some problems staying in the extremely cold water with a huge hole in his waders. In order to warm him up, we attempted to start a creekside fire. This idea did not work as well as we expected. Before long we were in the boat on our way back. A good lunch break would do us all some good.
After arriving at camp, we prepared some dogs and sandwiches and took a little break. After the great morning we had, I think we all deserved it. After a couple of hours, we prepared to head out again. This time, we were going to have to go without Luke. The cold water had gotten to him, and he was coming down with a cold. Because Luke is a worship minister here in Fayetteville, AR, he decided it would be best if he stayed behind and rested. He needed his voice to lead worship the next morning. We didn't blame him, but we sure did miss him. The afternoon was a blast!
Saturday afternoon was also full of fish-catching fun. We took to boat upriver just a little bit, and parked near what looked like a hot spot. There were varying depths around this area making it perfect for both streamer fishing as well as nymphing. We began again. It wasn't long before the team was hooking up with fish again. The fly of the afternoon? A white shad pattern tied by our very own Chad Lee. He stripped this thing in with varying speeds, and the rainbows loved it. Everyone was catching fish out of the same run!
After fishing for several more hours, the water started to rise, and we decided to head back. We got to camp, showered, and planned for the night. Luke and Chad had to head back to lead worship on Sunday morning; Zack and I decided to drive into Mountain Home to watch the Razorbacks battle Mississippi State, while Justin and Carter decided to try their luck at night fishing (and what luck they had).
On the night fishing trip, Carter was stripping in a big ugly black beast when all of the sudden he felt a HIT!!! It was a strong pull that caused his spool to sing! Carter was sure that he had caught a world record trout. He battled this monster for about 15-20 minutes before finally wearing it out. After getting the fish in, Justin turned on his headlamp and saw this monster:
That's right ... he pulled in a big ole hybrid bass! This guy must have gotten pushed through the dam and made a living swallowing up the fingerlings in the area. He fattened himself up, and Carter caught him looking! What a fish!
Day 2 of Fishing
The second day of fishing was left up to Justin, Seth and Zack. Carter left early on Sunday morning to see his wife and kids. Family first. The three of us remained. We decided to head down to rim, and on the way we did a little sight fishing. Zack spotted some lunkers hanging out under a tree, and we decided to park the boat to see if we could hook up. Sure enough, on the first cast I was hooked up with a rainbow who took a san juan worm (Ole' Faithful). At first I thought I had surely hooked up with one of those big boys, but as it turned out it was just a little guy. But hey, any fish is a good fish when you are on the river. The experience is what it is all about. Remember that.
We then made our way down to the shoals, and spent the rest of the morning there. The day was a little slow, but that doesn't mean we didn't catch fish. We pulled in several, and had a blast doing it. Justing even hooked up with a nice brownie about an hour before we decided to head back. Check it out:
Man ... it was an awesome, action-packed trip. I wish I could share all the pictures from the weekend, but I guess you'll just have to enjoy the slideshow below:
