North Fork of the White River featured on Outdoor Channel

Ozark Fly-Fishing Guide Brian Wise is no stranger to the OzarkChronicles.  Brian is a good friend of mine, and a really good fisherman; if the guy would only catch a fish on a turk’s tarantula I might actually think he can walk on water.  So it is with great pleasure (and maybe a hint of jealousy) that I am posting that he is once again a television star.  Earlier this spring, an episode of Outdoor Channel Outfitters was filmed at River of Life Farm on the banks of the North Fork of the White River, and Brian was one of the guides featured in the episode to help with a Project Healing Waters event that was being hosted at ROLF.  After speaking with Brian about the show and the event, I can tell you he had a blast doing it.

The episode also features an Ozark Fly Fishers member, Mike Ott, doing extremely well on the water in Brian’s boat prior to the event.  This is at least the second time that Brian has shown-up on the Outdoor Channel and I seriously think this guy should invest in an acting coach or something (perhaps Mr. Paul Dallas can give him some advice about being on camera).  You can view both shows by CLICKING HERE.

A Short Drift Down the White River

About 3 weeks ago, I had gotten an email from a good friend, and guide, down on the White River (Jimmy “T” Traylor) about how the fishing was starting to pick up and if there was a time to think about heading south, now is the time.

It seemed that while most of my fishing friends were heading up north to chase Steelhead with Indigo Guide Service, a trip which when I hear the stories of 10lb steelies I am sure I will regret missing out on, I was destined to head south with my good friend Craig Peterson the same weekend (4/18).

It had been since November that Craig and I fished together, and we were both looking forward to this trip; even though the National Weather Service was calling for 2″ of rain for the area over the weekend.  The fish were already wet, and we had rain gear and a boat scoop, so we didn’t seem to mind either.  We headed out of St. Louis around 6pm with the coordinates for RiverCliff Cabin on the banks of the White River set in the GPS.  We rolled in around 10pm and had the boat / gear all stowed away and hit the sack about midnight.

We originally were going to fish with Jim Traylor of FlyFishArkansas.com on Saturday, but he had booked a guide trip with some folks from the Heartland Fly Fishers, out of KC, that were down for the weekend; so with Jimmy’s help we were able to get a shuttle (big thanks to Tim “Hot Dawg” Curtis of Hot Dawg Guide Service for running the shuttle fo us) and had planned to float from RiverCliff’s private boat ramp to the Wild Cat Shoals public boat ramp — a float of about 12 river miles.  The shuttle was set so that I was to drop the boat in at RiverCliff and then meet the shuttle at WildCat at 7am for a ride back to RiverCliff.  So it was an earlier than expected morning, considering we were floating.

We launched the boat on 2 units of water, but by the time I had gotten back from the shuttle there was about 5 units running.  It was at that point that I knew we should have floated a longer float, but it was too late.  Que Sera, Sera.  We spent the entire float throwing an 8wt with a 250gr sink tip and various Kelly Galloup flies (including the Butt Monkey, Sex Dungeon, Bottom’s Up, and Zoo Cougar) along with various colors of Super Buggers.

The morning started off promising with Craig getting a follow from a HUGE fish until it saw the boat and us, the fish was very broad, and like that it was gone.  Craig fished hard the rest of the 12 mile float for 3 fish, which is often the case when throwing streamers hard.  He boated an 18″ rainbow trout, 20″ brown trout, and 1 dink rainbow in about 6 hours.  It was a long day, especially when you are on the oars and the guy in the front of the boat is working hard but not catching a dam thing.  I guess we could have thrown indicator rigs on the high water, but the hopes of pig fish got the best of us.  All in all, it was still a good day on the water and we both really needed it.

We drifted in to the Wild Cat boat ramp around 1:30pm, without ever seeing a drop of the 2″ of rain that was originally forecasted.  We loaded the boat back on the trailer and headed back to RiverCliff for a relaxing afternoon filled with watching videos and fishing around RiverCliff.  I need to get set-up with a way to run multiple drifts should this type of trip happen again.  But all was not lost.  We did head over to Gassville to the local mexican restaurant for dinner that evening and spent about an hour hanging out with JimmyT before we all retired for the evening.

Dry Run Creek; Where Memories Are Made.

I am WAY LATE in getting this trip uploaded to the site.  Sorry, just been busy on the work front and what not.

My March 14, 2009 trip to Dry Run Creek had been building for ever, since my youngest has started to show an interest in going fishing with me.  The winter was too cold, and I was determined that she enjoy her second trip to Dry Run Creek as much as she did the first trip, so we waited until the weather was just right this spring / late winter and settled on this weekend, after consulting the weather several times.

I knew from our first trip down there, that the stream is more effectively fished if the kids wear waders.  It isn’t so much that they wade much, but in a few places it makes it easier for them to get closer to the fish.  Besides, as a kid growing up my dad always made sure I had all the hunting / fishing gear I needed…..and that was part of getting to go hunting / fishing with dad.  So with that I ordered her a pair of youth breathable waders from Cabelas for $70 and she was now outfitted with her own fly rod (a TFO 7′ – 6″ 5wt Professional Series) and Teton Tioga reel outfitted with Sharkskin (because that is what I had).  Besides, if I ever need a short 5wt rod for a trip to the smokies…I now have one to borrow.  Everything arrived in time and the waders fit her perfectly.  She was ready to go fishing.

Friday afternoon arrived, and Hannah and I left the office a little early (she needs to experience the full fishing trip, complete with sneaking out early) and headed home to load up and pick up my dad, who decided to make the trip with us.  The trip down was fairly uneventful as trips go, but realize that a 4.5hr trip to go fly fishing for a day is a little more than I think most 7 year olds can handle on a daily basis.  Luckily she slept most of the way down, once it was dark.  We rolled in to our hotel in Mountain Home around 10pm and hit the sack.

We were up early the next morning in an attempt to be the first ones on the stream, and as we expected we were.  Hannah and I suited up in our waders while my dad readied the video camera and other neccessities until we were all ready, and we were off down the concrete sidewalk along the hatchery headed toward Dry Run Creek.

The first section of the stream we fished (near the second stair case) was just full of fish and it wasn’t long before Hannah was rollcasting by herself and hooking fish (mostly by herself).  One of the first fish she picked up was a nice 18″ brown trout that came out of the water a couple of times while I went to get the net.  That was the only brown trout she landed on this trip, but she did manage to land several rainbows and even get hooked up with some pig fish.

As with most days on Dry Run Creek, the fly of the day was an egg pattern (a micro orange egg) under a yarn indicator with one small lead shot.  The fish were on it, just plain and simple.  We fished 4x tippit the entire day, and the fish did not seem to mind.  As fishing goes, it was a good day.  She was getting tired around 12pm, so we decided to break for lunch just as it started to rain.  We were going to drive back on Saturday afternoon anyway, so the rain simply made us shorten our stay on the stream (note to self, need to buy her a breathable rain coat before our next trip…), and with that we were in the car and on the way back.  In total, she landed about 30 fish in 4 hours or so, the biggest being an 18″ brown, so it was definitely a good day.

I could write all day about our trip, but my words aren’t near as exciting or meaningful as to hear Hannah tell people about her trip down there or the fact that I got to experience this with my Dad.  We managed to shoot about 3 hours of video while down there, and not near enough photos, that are below.  But again, it is was one of those trips that I hope every fly fisherman gets to experience.  If you take nothing at all from fly fishing, take the memories…..

Happy Easter

I know that I have been lacking in blog updates lately, I will get on that after the Easter holiday.  I have a couple of trips I need to get up, including some video of my youngest and I on Dry Run Creek a couple of weeks ago.

I am headed down to the White this weekend, so will most likely get everything updated after that.  Happy Easter to everyone, and I hope you are out fishing more than I have been lately.

–Matt Tucker

A GREAT fly shop……in downtown St. Louis……

Living in St. Louis, Missouri we are accustomed to the finer things in life.  Great beer (Schafly Brewing Co.), great basebal (St. Louis Cardinals), great strip clubs (thank you Metro East area), but one thing that often gets overlooked is the great fly shop that sits near down town St. Louis (a mere 100 miles from the nearest trout stream).

Feather-Craft Fly Fishing is located on Manchester Road, in the municipality of Brentwood, Missouri.  It is a fairly easy to get to shop (assuming you know your way around St. Louis…..which isn’t that hard) filled with good people.  From Ted in the front of the shop manning the retail side to Evan, John, and Bob in the back making sure the catalog orders and web site orders get filled, to all the support staff.  What people don’t realize is that if it is fly-fishing related, and feather-craft doesn’t have it in stock, they can get it easily.  I always seem to walk in looking for something off the wall (tiny black thingamabobbers) and have found they always seem to have what I am looking for and if it isn’t out on the racks, they will get it from the back.

I bought my first fly rod there about 8 years ago from Joel and Ted, one day when i was skipping out of graduate school classes.  Ever since, I have had the pleasure of hanging out with a ton of the peoople that have worked there over the years.  Hella good fisherman, some of them are, and those that aren’t are just damn cool to hang out with anyway.  What you may not know is they have won the prestigeous Fly Fishing Retailers Fly Shop of the Year award in the past and are certain to win it again in the future.  We are spoiled in Missouri to be home to a fly shop of this caliber.  The place is just full of fun people, and tradition.  A guy can walk-in, bull shit with Ted up front and go sit down at the back table and tye up some flies while talking to the other employees or guys that are in there hanging out and shopping.

I try to avoid the blatant commercials for products and what not, but we often take the time in life to bitch about things when something is F’d up and hardly ever seem to take the time to say “job well done.” So I figured it was time to tell the guys at Feather-Craft thank you for a job well done. 

Matt Tucker, Ted Lammert, Steve Hemkens, Brent McClane before the 2004 Fly Rod & Reel Trout Bum Tournament inside Feather-Craft's shop in St. Louis, Missouri.