Mystery River Report...

Decided to go try out a new place for a couple of days. Since it was a little bit of a drive, I decided to camp out and fish two days. It was a balmy 12? when I woke up... there was a nice layer of frost on the inside of my tent...

As for the fishing...

Day 1 was tough. Started out throwing a PT nymph, but nothing was taking it. There also wasn't any insect activity to speak of. I saw one blue-winged olive all day. I wasn't seeing any fish nymphing either. So I tied on an olive egg-sucking wooly bugger, and got a couple of missed strikes right off the bat. Made it to the next hole, and got nothing casting up stream. I moved to the top of the hole and cast down and across, swinging the bugger through the current and stripping it back up. BAM! First cast that way landed a nice little 12" brown.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3584/...b17c1d17_b.jpg

Made another cast through the hole and on the first swing what looked like a nice 15" brownie came out of the water chasing my fly. No dice. So I swung my fly through there again. He chased it again! But couldn't get it. I made 20 or so swings through there, stripping it fast, stripping it slow, holding it still in the current, swinging it wide, stripping it straight upstream... I saw the fish swipe at it at least a dozen times without getting it. Finally, he got a little too much of it and I missed him, and that was that...

The rest of the day was tough, a couple missed strikes, but that was it. On the way back downstream, I tried that same hole again, this time with a black egg-sucking bugger. First cast got him this time!

Next day started out much better. I switched to a plain bead-headed wooly bugger after netting this little guy, and the bite was on!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3430/...87718fbb_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3540/...9d789bfc_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3394/...663d8f62_b.jpg

In the afternoon, a massive caddis hatch started, and the fish looked up. If anything, it was too big of a hatch, as it's hard for your fly to stand out when there are a dozen real caddis floating through a pool at the same time...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3596/...ee7d73e4_b.jpg
(And I know see at least two caddis that I didn't get circled)

The fish of the day was a nice, fat, 17" rainbow that took probably the best cast I've ever had to make to hook a fish. There's a rock wall that runs along the river's edge at one point, and the last foot or so above the water is undercut and covered in moss and vines. I saw this fish rising to caddis that were falling right against the edge of the rocks. The fish never took a caddis more than 3" off the edge. And because of a tree behind me, I had to make a backhanded cast under the overhang, without hitting the wall (or I'd get caught in the moss/branches), within 3" of the wall. I did. He rose. And it was beautiful. (I'm not saying I could do it again - at least not on a consistent basis, but it was a beautiful thing when it happened).

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3619/...5555491f_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3375/...9e6cc236_b.jpg

And I leave you with this...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3364/...c40c6515_b.jpg

I went last thursday to my secret spot that only me & 2000 or 3000 other folks know about. The fish were semi cooperative & i took & released 7 or 8.

Never saw so many game wardens there. Also a lot of folks fishing. Thought to myself, "Don't these people have jobs?" Guess the econmy is bad in NW AR also. Did get to meet & talk to some good folks.

Nice report. Great photos. You're makin' me antsy.

Excellent photos. Good report.

Nice pictures, and thanks for sharing that adventure on the river

Hey, that fish is trying to eat your reel! You better have stopped it!

Hey Poke 'Em, thanks for taking us along, maybe next time get a pic of your camp site, great fishing pics...:)

Hi Poke 'em -

Interesting couple days - wake up at 12F, have some caddis around later, snag a sculpin, make a once in a lifetime cast ( not really, I hope ) and catch some nice fishies, in a mysterious place that looks like a medium size slightly stained stream in deciduous tree country. Hmmmmmm ..... The brown trout did it in the pantry with a tent stake ???

John

P.S. Nice pics. But about those caddis you missed .... !!

Great report. Sounds like a really good time. The fish you hooked on that best cast will be remembered for a long time. Those are the moments of memory, when all things come together like that. Nice.

- Jeff

Thanks for the great photos and fishing report! Also, thanks for keeping your fish in the water and on wet stream bank for the pictures, that's the way to do it.