April 18-22, 2022

[FishnDave]

Traveled to Arkansas to fish with a friend and try for Bowfin on fly. Also hoped for Snakehead, Spotted Gar, Flier, and some other species. The trip had been planned for many months in advance. Then the Spring rains came and pounded the area. Water levels went up 7-9 feet above where we wanted them. Flooded areas and muddy water. Really put a wrench in our plans, but we visited other areas and fished whereever we could, despite high and muddy water. I fished solo local to my hotel and caught most of my fish for the week, in fact all 12 species.
Long story short, I had a few Spotted Gar strikes and hookups, but did not land any. I saw one bowfin, got it to strike my fly, but did not hook it. Enjoyed seeing big snakes, turtles (alive and just shells), wood ducks, American Bittern, Great Blue Herons, Snowy egrets, owls, deer, coyotes, etc.






Green Sunfish:


Creek Chubs:






Black Crappie:


Knobfin Sculpin:

[FishnDave]

Brown Trout:


Rainbow Trout:


Hybrid Sunfish:


Bluegill:


Striped Shiner:


Largemouth Bass:
(didn't take any pics)

Grass Pickerel:

(one pickerel I caught on Wednesday (above), I recaptured on Friday (below)!)


Longear Sunfish:

[BadBug]

Nice variety of fish even if the trip didn't go as planned. Excellent pictures Dave.

Dennis

[iaflyfisher]

Great pics David - And nice fish even though not the ones you were after! SBW saves the day

[FishnDave]

Nice variety of fish even if the trip didn't go as planned. Excellent pictures Dave.

Dennis

Thanks, Dennis!

Great pics David - And nice fish even though not the ones you were after! SBW saves the day

Thanks, Dale! Yes, that's a very fish-catching pattern for me! Pretty much every species can be caught on them....from Grass Carp to Koi to Goldfish to trout to big bass to gar to pickerel, and many many more. Various colors...all work. This feels like as good as any place to reproduce your write-up on it!

The Mity-Mite or Springbrook Wunder Fly

The design for the Springbrook Wunder fly comes from the Mity-Mite fly that was sold by the Wapsi Fly Company from 1940 to 1980s. Tom Schmuecker of Wapsi Fly Inc. believes the original owner of Wapsi Fly, Lacey Gee, originated this fly in the 1930?s. Lacey also created another great fly "The Gimp".
Wapsi sold the fly commercially (tied by local Iowa fly tiers) from the mid 1940's to early 1980's. The originial was tied with white, yellow, black and blue tails.



The original jig hooks (flat sided) have long been out of production so Mr. Keith Wunder, an instructor at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Springbrook Conservation Education Center, updated the fly with modern materials.

The Springbrook Wunder, as it is now called, has been tied by thousands of students at the Ed Center and proven to be an un-paralleled fish catcher. It can be a nymph or minnow and is deadly on crappies and other panfish. Materials - Hook: 1/80th or 1/100th oz #10 lead-head jig hook Thread: Red or orange 6/0 Body: Silver tinsel chenille Tail: Grizzly marabou or other color

This fly can easily be tied with any colored tail or body material. A popular combination for crappie is a red body and charttreuse taill. The originial Mity-Mite used fluorescent orange thread in the tie but we now use red thread to imitate gills of prey.

The legacy of Lacey Gee lives on in the Gimp and the Springbrook Wunder.

The entire thread that includes that is here:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/s...73-Mighty-Mite

[Rick Z]

You might have had too much fun. Great report.
Rick

[jdfog2]

Another great thread Dave.
You have great friends that responded too.
I like that SBW fly.
J