White River Scotch, Barley, & Fly-Fishing Social (10-26-11 to 10-30-11)

November 7, 2011 by MattTucker

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During one relentless summer, brimming with endless hours at the office and intense preparation for an AISC Certification at work, the pull of the river grew irresistible. So, I reached out to my Facebook fly-fishing community, sharing my yearning for an escape to the serene White River in quest of the elusive autumn brown. To my delight, this simple act of yearning turned into a rallying call, culminating in the inaugural White River Scotch, Barley, & Fly-Fishing Social slated for October 26-30, 2011, at the tranquil Bull Shoals State Park.

The call was heeded by about 10 kindred spirits, a motley crew of fellow anglers (names including Evan Muskopf, Craig Peterson, David Stinnett, and others), each drawn by the promise of camaraderie and the timeless dance between man and river. Yet, safety was never an afterthought — thanks to my cousin who works with a fire watch company in Lauderdale Lakes, their dedication mirrored in our venture. Her company, known for their immediate response and well-equipped personnel, ensured that just as we kept a vigilant eye on the drifts and eddies of the White River, someone trained and dependable watched over our temporary riverside abode, ready to coordinate with emergency services at a moment’s notice. It was this professional vigilance that allowed us to immerse fully in the embrace of nature, knowing we were guarded against unexpected perils.

The days were blissfully spent with lines cast into the flowing tapestry of the river, and the nights—alive with the crackling of campfires and the rich tales of river lore. The event, marked by the sharing of fine scotch and the mutual respect of barley’s craft, became more than a fishing trip; it was a respite for the soul. It was in this harmonious blend of passion, peace, and protection where we found not only the catch of the season but memories etched into the current of life, ones that would meander through our minds long after the hooks were stowed away.

Day 1 (10-27-2011)

The word for the first day was WET. It rained all day. The temps didn’t get out of the 40’s for very long. The only thing that was missing was wind, and this would have been the most complete day on the river. We decided to drop the two drift boats in at the base of the dam and float to Wildcat Shoals Boat Ramp (about an 11 mile float or so). With Evan Muskopf and Craig Peterson in my boat, combined with the overcast skies and rain the order of the day was streamers. We were not rewarded with many fish, but both Evan and Craig got some good follows throwing various Galloup flies (sex dungeons, circus peanuts, and peanut envy) with Evan recieving the biggest follow and eat twice but no hookup. The rain, combined with few fish made for a long day on the river. Dan Held and Paul Chausse floated the same section with us, and were throwing some meat to, and were rewarded with a brown just over 20″ or so very early in the trip — needless to say are expectations were high for the day. The photography would have been stellar except the rain kept the camera in the pelican case most of the day, except for when we pulled over at the Narrows and nymphed and swung streamers for a bit (with only dink rainbows the reward).

We pulled off the river and headed back to Bull Shoals State Park for a dinner of champions and to watch Game 6 of the World Series (Cardinals vs. Rangers). We were staying in one of the Rent-An-RV units at Bull Shoals State Park and had satellite TV to catch the game. Normally the “TV” during a fishing trip is the campfire, but this trip with the World Series had special meaning. As we seasoned up 24oz Porterhouse Steaks, sliced potatoes for the grill, and prepared the onions for the fire, we started watching would would become one of the most epic world series games of all time. As we ate like champions, our guest of honor arrived for the night in non other than uber Ranger’s fan David Stinnett. I am not sure what was more fun, fitting 8 guys in the camper around a 20″ television or the hooting and hollering that was going on after the Cardinals win. I think we finally hit the sack around 1:30am with an early morning just a few hours away.

Day 2 (10-28-2011)

The alarm went off early on Friday morning, we were up at 7am and ready for breakfast at Gaston’s by 8am. Gaston’s breakfast has got to be the best thing going for hot breakfasts on the river, perfect for a hangover cure. We were going to float from Wildcat Boat Ramp to Cotter, a float of about 7 miles or so. We dropped the boats in, ran the shuttle and were on the water by about 10:30am. We spent Thursday cursing the rain, but would spend Friday cursing the crowds and the high bright sun and bluebird skies. The fishing was a bit slow today, although fish were caught on the usual suspects, Craig Peterson and David Stinnett tried to stick with streamers in my boat as long as they could. When Craig tired, I turned the oars over to him and I pounded the bank with not even a follow. We pulled off the river about 3pm and headed back to Bull Shoals State Park. There was enough light left, and Dan Held and Paul Chausse were looking to try out the motor they bought for their drift boat so we decided to drop the boats back in at the Dam. My boat was going to float from Dam to Gastons Boat Ramp and Dan and Paul were going to do multiple drifts in the State Park area. Craig, David, and I had a great float and fish were caught. I got to toss some streamers again with Craig on the oars and got some eats in the State Park with no fish landed before getting back on the sticks to float the rest of the way out with Craig and David fishing. Craig was getting constant action on a Circus Peanut as soon as he was back in the game and it was an enjoyable way to finish out the day on the water.

We finished the day back at camp with bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, grilled potatoes, sweet corn, and an apple pie washed down with plenty of beer around the campfire. All in all a great fall day on the river.

Day 3 (10-29-2011)

We got on the river early on Friday, having been talked into floating the Norfork River at the base of Lake Norfork Dam. At the time we decided to do the float, they were running 1 unit of generation. They were running 1 unit of generation for the early part of the float, but once we got through the Dock Hole, they shut the water off.

The Norfork was a new river for me to float, particularly at low water. It was interesting to say the least. Everyone caught fish and the fishing was better than it had been on the White the previous two days. The river is more of a “river” in the traditional sense with riffle / run / pool type structure. It was interesting to float in a few places and we definitely left a few new scratches on the boat bottoms from some direct hits on some of the rocks and chutes. We actually had to get out and push the boat on 3 different occasions. But again, the fishing was spectacular. Craig was a brown trout shy of the Grand Slam having landed numerous cutthroat and rainbows, and picked up his lone brook trout in what used to be McClellan’s Hole (wow did that change from how I remember it…..need some streambank stabilization there).

They turned the water back on just as we were getting to the islands above Handicap Access and we were greeted by an easier float out and fish as well. What was supposed to be numerous trips down the 4 1/2 mile river turned into 1 float that lasted about 9hrs. It was a long day, but it was a good day.

Day 4 (10-30-2011)

With everyone having longer drives than us back to St. Louis, most everyone left early on Sunday morning. Craig, Evan, David, and I used the opportunity to nurse some hangovers and sleep in, pack up, hit Gaston’s for breakfast and then head back to St. Louis (with David driving back to the Dallas area). I am not sure how much was drank this weekend, but this trip was about fellowship just as much as it was the fishing.

It was a good trip, the kind that we used to do on an annual basis down on the White River. I am fairly certain it will be a trip that is more frequent in the making based upon the comments from everyone this weekend. Until the next time on the river….

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Wisconsin Lake Run Browns — November 18 – 19, 2006

November 19, 2006 by MattTucker

Tim Beeze, Mike Goldenberg, Craig Peterson, and myself met up with Matt Pederson (www.RamblingReports.com) this past weekend. The four of us drove over 800 miles in less than 60 hours in hopes of catching some lake run brown trout. The fishing was definitely different than what I expected – and I felt like a foreigner in my own country (at times we were the only ones on the stream speaking English). Only one lake run brown was caught (by Mr. Beeze) but I managed to “catch” (although beit a foul-hook) a small coho salmon and Tim did foul hook a very fun king salmon. It was weird for sure — and the strip clubs aren’t near as much fun as on the east side. But it was a good trip and one that we will be doing again in October.

–Tucker

Lake Taneycomo — January 1 – 2, 2006

January 2, 2006 by MattTucker

Craig and I took off for Taneycomo at 7am on 1/1/06 – after collectively having about 5 hours of sleep between the two of us after some New Year’s Eve Partying. We were to meet up with a member of the
FFAM forum for an afternoon of fishing, and ended up meeting him at 11am at River Run Outfitters near the dam (big plug for a NICE SHOP near a great fly fishing destination). We didn’t have any hotel reservations or plans other than to fish. We accessed the lake from the old boat ramp on the KOA side and fished from about noon until dark. Leonard was absolutely knocking them dead with a “Roo Scud” (tied out of kangaroo) and was content with the smaller fish (the size was smaller than an average trout park fish) and those were not the fish that I had come to catch, so Craig and I went to look around and try our luck at sight fishing in the skinny water. Craig did extremely well with a small renegade right at the end of the day, but I only brought 2 to hand and they were dinks. I did snap off a “decent” fish above Outlet # 1 (near the point above the outlet towards the cable) that I never saw and made 2 runs on me and then snapped me off but the fish had shoulders.

We grabbed some dinner at a TexMex place in Branson (not recommended) and because the weather was so unseasonably warm we ended up throwing sleeping bags on the hillside near the parking lot at Outlet # 1 on Sunday night. It was a great night to be out under the stars — and not too cold. We grabbed some shut-eye from about 7pm until 11pm and then suited up to night fish. That night had the makings of a great night, as Craig and I both hooked up within minutes of getting to the water, but then the wind turned on. And man did it blow. Craig and I both think that we have never fished in wind as strong as it was blowing. We toughed it out until about 2am and then we conceded to mother nature. I ended up with 2 browns (both over 16″ and one closer to the 18″ end) and a nice rainbow of about 15″ or so all on a white rag sculpin during the night fishing session and craig ended up with 2 rainbows (1 about 16″). We headed back to the parking lot to get some shut eye (I opted for the front seat of the Blazer, to get out of the wind — but Craig toughed it out sleeping out under the stars. We woke up Monday morning and the wind was howling worse than on Sunday night, so we decided to head home. Was hoping to run into some of the big bows that are going through the motions, but I guess we were too early….

We did stop by Bass Pro Shop on the way home (Craig had never been) as well as checked out Roubidoux Creek — didn’t spot a single trout (but lots of bass and a deer leg or two for good measure).

–Tucker

Current River (Licking, MO) — March 26, 2005

March 26, 2005 by MattTucker

Craig Peterson and I left St. Louis at 5:00am for what may have been the last trip taken in Craig’s fish car “old jap.” It served its purpose well, and took us on many good fishing trips — but it was time for the car to be retired. We were headed to the Current River this morning to try our luck at an area below Baptist Camp Access. When we left STL it was 55 degrees, but the temperature never got above that (and in fact when we got off the water the air temp was about 45 degrees). It had been awhile since Craig and I went on a solo trip, and we were due. Time to catch up on each other’s career paths, family life, and plan out future fishing adventures.

As we drove down the gravel road through the park and in the direction of Tan Vat Access, the waters were crowded with anglers in Montauk Trout Park (to think that two months ago the same waters were vacant of anglers) and we both mumbled something about being glad we were not standing in that mess. We drove past the Tan Vat Access at about 7:30am and to our pleasant surprise, there were no cars at the access and only two tent camps set up. But we had some exploring to do downriver of Baptist Camp Access, so on down the road we went until we arrived at Baptist Camp Access at about 7:40am.

We hiked downstream until we could not take it anymore, and had to fish. We ended up hiking to some new water that neither Craig nor I had fished before, and were considerably farther downstream than the previous stretch we fished with Norm Crisp in February. Fishing was tough. The morning found us throwing streamers with limited success (more lost fish, than landed fish). I broke off a nice fish on a rag head sculpin, and had several follows only to not get a strike. Craig picked up one fish on a white angel hair streamer that he picked out of my box. It was a slow morning to say the least, but we were on the river — so it wasn’t all bad. About 11am, I was frusturated and decided to switch to a crackleback. As is almost always the case, the crackleback produced and I was rewarded with a nice 12″ brown with beautiful red spots. I finally got the skunk off of this trip and was hoping for things to turn around. Turn around they did. After going all morning without seeing other anglers, we were greeted with canoers and kayakers and at least 8 other fisherman and no other fish. We opted to hike / fish back to the access and were packing our waders away about 1pm.

It was a tough day on the water, with only 2 landed fish to show for between the two of us. It was a great day, and it was very encouraging to see the number of fish in the stream. We did spot several fish in the 18″ range, but couldn’t get a strike. It was a great day on the water, and unfortunately it will be my last for awhile, as the next trip isn’t planned yet……….Fish Hard.

Current River (Licking, Missouri) — February 12, 2005

February 12, 2005 by MattTucker

Brent Hinds (aka Tiny)and I left St. Louis at 7pm on February 11. After an hour trip to the local Schnuck’s we were stocked with enough food and beer to feed an army for the weekend — in this case it was only about 10 Ozark Chronicles Message Board Members. It is amazing how much gear Tiny brings with him. I didn’t think we were going to make it, but we got all his gear in, plus all of mine, and all the beer / food. It was a long drive down as we were both sick and trying to get over some wicked cold that we had. You should have seen us, sucking down cough drops and cold medicine the entire drive down there.

We arrived at Montauk around 10:30pm and headed toward the condo that we would call home for the weekend. After a quick hello, it was time to unload the Blazer and enjoy the campfire and beer that were already being enjoyed by many. Norm Crisp, Brian Greer, Kris Maurer, Pat, Lee, Brent Hinds, and I all enjoyed the campfire and stayed up until it started to rain a little. I wasn’t feeling well and only sucked down one beer, before I opted for Gatorade and sleep on the couch (after losing to Tiny at Paper, Rocks, Scissors).

We rose on Saturday morning to have a hot breakfast of sausage, eggs and waited for Craig Peterson to join us. Craig showed up, and we suited up and rigged our rods. Norm Crisp, Craig Peterson, and I opted to fish the river. We started the morning fishing from TanVat to just up from Baptist. We started by throwing streamers and the fishing was tough, we went some time without any of us hooking up well into the morning. I was throwing a conehead slumpbuster, while Norm was throsing a Clouser, and Craig was throwing a black wooley. The weather was perfect, the conversation was good, but the fish were not cooperating. Craig picked up the first fish, then Norm picked up a fish, then Craig started hooking up just up from Baptist. It was interesting to fish with Norm Crisp, as it was fairly apparent that our fishing styles were different and Norm moves fairly fast while fishing — opting to cover more water and present flies to more fish. We did spot a very large fish, just down from TanVat near the high bank. This fish, in my estimation, was at least 26″ and was the biggest Brown Trout that I have seen in the Current River to date. We watched the fish for several minutes, before Norm and Craig moved down the trail (which was soon enough to keep me from trying my luck on the monster). Craig had his casting mojo with him, as we were on a stretch just up from Baptist and picked up a couple of fish but missed a ton more. We headed back upstream and decided to try and catch the Caddis hatch on some water below Baptist.

We got to Baptist Camp around 11am and hiked downstream. I had never been below Baptist Camp Access before, so this was all new water for me. It was very cool. The fact that Norm and I fish completely different was again illustrated as we passed deep hole after deep hole on the way to Norm’s caddis water. Immediately arriving at our destination, I plopped down on the bank — man I got to lose some weight (LOL). While sitting on the bank, Norm and Craig were having a field day catching browns on a caddis pattern that Norm ties. I had on an elk hair caddis and missed several fish. We fished this water for about an hour or so, and both Norm and Craig tore them up — with me only landing a measly 5 fish. It was more dry fly fishing than I had done all of last year though. Craig had to get back to St. Louis, so he had to leave around 12:30pm and Norm had graciously offered to drive him back to his car at the condo and let me fish. I fished my way upstream and picked up occassional fish on Cracklebacks. I didn’t break 10 fish for the day — but all of my fish did come on dry flies (which is new to me). Norm hiked back down and ran into me, just as I was releasing a Brown. He was going to hike back down to the caddis stretch and I was not feeling much better so opted to hike back to the car and get some rest. I was feeling pretty miserable, and Norm called my cough a Foghorn most of the morning. On the hike back out, I ran in to Ron Caimi (www.troutcamprods.com) and he had found much of the same luck with the caddis as we did. The caddis started coming off at 11am and were heavy until about 2pm. They were about a #16 tan caddis. On the walk out, Ron and I caught up on things since it has been awhile since we have seen each other. Then it happened……..for the second time this season, I slipped in fell into the river — filling up my waders and buggering up my knee in the process. It was quite silly actually, since I took a spill in only about 3 feet of water after tripping up while trying to walk into the water. I did manage to take in more water with this spill then I did when I was on the Norfork in July, but it was still a dumb mistake on my part. I high-tailed it back to the Blazer, where I promptly stripped down to my underwear and drove back to the condo. It was then that I realized how truly bliss it is to be on a fishing trip — sick and soaking wet from about midchest to your toes — and driving back to camp in nothing more than a pair of underwear. It was definitely one of my finer moments.

Upon getting back to the condo, I took some ribbing by Pat and Lee (both of which were resting up and tying after a day in the trout park). I took the opportunity to take a hot shower and put on some dry clothes and take a nap. As everyone arrived back at camp, telling stories of the caddis hatch and the fish they caught, it was time for dinner. We ate like kings with T-Bones, Shrimp, Potatoe Salad, and a ton of other stuff (including some ultra-rare uncooked duck tips — which I passed on). Most everyone stayed up drinking and telling stories, but I was still feeling completely miserable so I opted for early sleep.