Dead Low Water I; A White River Trip Report

2012-10-26pic011(Edit001)(Resized-800px)The predicted generation for Friday (10/26/2012) wasn’t looking good at all, as the White River had ceased generation on Wednesday and now we were looking at dead low water.  No one was in a hurry in the morning, given the low flows, high skies, and high winds, so I decided to get up a bit early and fix everyone breakfast.  Biscuits & Sausage Gravy, Scrambled Eggs, Hash Browns O’Brien, and some homemade coffee cake that Jim Held brought was the order of the morning.  Breakfast was good and we took our time milling around the house trying to figure out what the hell each of us were going to do.

Craig, Dan, and I decided to take our chances on the White River and float from Gaston’s to Wildcat Shoals, which Paul, Dan, and Jim decided to put the kicker motor on their boat and work the pools and shoals near the access at Wildcat Shoals.  If you ahve ever had one of those days where you should have stayed back at the cabin and drank, this was one of those days. The day started with me trying to catch my boat to slow it down as it slid down the trailer and into the water (non-existent low water ramps suck) only to be drug 5ft into the water (luckily I was able to catch myself and keep the top of my waders above water and from filling up…..but my shins and knees are still bruised up a week later).  The day only got worse from there, from a boating standpoint.

Navigating the White River on dead low water is best left to kayaks and pontoons.  The majority of the section was fine, but I had never seen the White River as low as it was and it was a great education……and workout.  Between catching countless dink rainbows, we were in and out of the boat as we pushed and pulled it through skinny water and when it was floating us 3 big guys, we were abusing the hell out of the G4 bottom (that stuff is the real deal…..as we would have left a gel coat trail all the way down the river, this float without it).  From a fish count standpoint, we caught a ton of fish on a variety of flies (eggs, worms, midges, little streamers), but there were none of the bigger fish that we had become accustomed to on our trips to the White River.

We did get a beer break when we bumped into Jeff House (High Plains Fly Fisher Blog) and Ray Reidy (Trout Journeys.com) as they came down for the shindig and were floating from Dam to Wildcat in Ray’s Clacka skiff.  After catching up with them just above White Hole and comparing notes, we were both on our way.  The fishing pretty much remained consistent the rest of the float, but near the end of the float we had to push through alot of water to get back to the house for a little shindig we were throwing for the locals that night.

Prior to the trip, Paul Chausse and I had cooked up a plan to throw a little BBQ shindig at the house we were staying at.  We always like to eat well on trips, but what started as just a good steak dinner for the 6 of us morphed into a good old fashioned fish camp party, complete with pimped out drift boat, lots of beer, fire, and good food.  We had sent out alot of invites to various friends that live down there, and those that could make it included Steve Stinnett (Seasons on the White Outfitters), Larry Babin (Hogs On The Fly), Dominic Zametto (Two Rivers Fly Shop), Bill Thorne (Dally’s Ozark Fly Fisher), Paul Port (AGFC), Corey Dodson (Chasing The Dream Blog), Ray Reidy (Trout Journeys Blog), Jeff House (High Plains Fly Fisher Blog).  Combine those above, plus the six of us staying in the house, and that was the makings for a great evening around the fire.

Dinner included some jalapeno poppers stuffed with 4 different kinds of cheddar cheese and bacon, bacon wrapped asparagus  bacon wrapped 6oz steaks, roasted potatoes, marinated Italian salad, and biscuits.  It was damn good…..I mean ridiculous   The whole house was silent as everyone was eating (the food was just that good).

After dinner, we hung out at the house for awhile and then headed out to check out Paul Chausse and Dan Held’s pimped out Hyde drift boat.  They have rigged their boats with various LED lights and control panels, and pimped out wheels.  It is something to see.  So we headed down to the river to get some photos of it on the water, at night.  Once we were down at the ramp, no one grabbed a pair of waders, so it was interesting watching the boat get loaded and unloaded into the low water without waders on a cold, windy night.

The night was filled with plenty of laughs and stories and was a hella good time, and the reason we look forward to this first fall trip every year.  The night wore on, and people came and went at will.  I think we finally shut the lights out around 1am or so, dead tired from a long……good day.

–Matt Tucker

Making New Friends And Influencing People; A White River Trip Report

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After a long day and an even longer night at The Arena bar in Mountain Home the night before, the 6am wake-up call could have come later in the morning but there was breakfast to be had and fish to be caught. Up and packed away, we stowed away gear out of my Jeep into Chance Maxville’s rig from the float the day before as he and Corey Dodson were going to float in his skiff while I was going to fish out of Dominic’s boat. After a few minutes, plans were had and we took off for Cotter, Arkansas and the White Sands Restaurant (an institution for traveling fly fisherman….and a really good breakfast); after all I had time to kill while waiting for Dominic Zametto to drop his boat in and for us to run shuttle.

Today was a few months in the making, as I finally got to spend some time on the water with Larry Babin (Hogs On The Fly) and Dominic Zametto (Two Rivers Fly Shop) in Dominic’s Boulder Boat Works drifter.  Chance Maxville and Corey Dodson from the Chasin’ The Dream Blog floated the same stretch, in Chance’s skiff.  Words can’t even describe the stories told in the boat with Larry Babin (Hogs On The Fly) and Dominic Zametto (Two Rivers Fly Shop).  This weekend was my first time hanging with both these guys; and if first impressions mean a shit, it was the first of many good times.  Larry has been guiding on the White River for about 5 or 6 years now (maybe more) and is one of the few full-time drift boat guides on the river (guiding out of an Adipose Skiff); his knowledge of the river showed through a few times throughout the day as he would slip in and out of guide mode.  Over the years, Larry has gotten alot of “guilt by association” wrap in my opinion, but the guy has always been an uber friendly guy when i would run into him on the ramp and would go out of his way to say hello or to pass a friendly tip or two and after trading messages back and forth on the book of face, a plan was hatched to meet up and fish a bit.  Larry is a joker and a blast to fish with.  Ask him about the whizinator…..holy shit it is a great application of a wiffle ball bat (that is all i can say).

The other guy in the boat, was Dominic…..eventually that is all his name will be in Mountain Home.  Dominic, man what to say.  If I could figure out a way to tell my stripper stories with his Mississippi drawl…..holy shit.  There is a certain mystique about a 35yo guy that moves to a small Arkansas town and buys a fly shop, and wears a beard well.  Well, after spending a day on the water with him, I can tell this wasn’t just a hopped up plan or mommy’s money.  The guy sounds like he is going to pull his heart and soul into Two Rivers Fly Shop on the Norfork and make it what it should be.  He was a blast to spend a day in the boat with, and the bastard even caught the biggest brown (a nice 18″ brown on a streamer) and hopped on the oars right after.

Even though it was weak generation again, we opted for a different float and fished Wildcat Shoals to Cotter.  Fish were picked up with some regularity on streamers in the morning, but the water levels were not as conducive to it, so Larry switched out to some small dry flies and stockers were caught at will.  We each took turns rowing (although….I wasn’t on the sticks that long, apparently my rowing lacks something to be desired…even though I avoided the 360’s), but I spent most of the time throwing streamers in the bow and when i wasn’t it was good just to kick back and enjoy the float.

It is tough to find a bad day on the river, and today was one of those days…that didn’t suck.  The sun was shining, the Champagne of Beers were on board, and fish were caught, god only knows what other boats were thinking as they overhead our conversations as we floated down river.  We pulled off the river around 4pm and headed back up to Wildcat Shoals to finish our shuttle, where we ran into Bill Thorne and his wife from Dally’s Ozark Fly Fisher, Corey Dodson (Chasin’ The Dream), we ended up bullshittin’ at the access until about 4:30pm or so but I had to jet and drive back to St. Louis.  I didn’t end up getting back home until about 10pm on Sunday night.  Yeah it was a long weekend, but damn I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Looking forward to hanging with these guys again in the not so distant future.

–Matt Tucker