What was hopefully the first of many Ozark Fish-Ins
is now a very fond memory. It was held in Cotter
Arkansas Sep 26-28 at His Place Resort
(www.HisPlaceResort.com) on the banks of the
beautiful world famous White River. Like all other
Fish-Ins, it allowed us to put faces to the names
we see in the chat rooms and on the bulletin boards
almost daily. The weather was ideal, water conditions
perfect, and the fishing was fantastic.
Even though none of the monster browns the river is
famous for were caught, many other fish were. Numerous
browns, rainbows and some Cuttbows fell to a well-placed
fly. There were some fish in the 14-16 inch Range caught,
but the majority was in the 10-14 inch range. One fly
in particular, the Dr Bob, was hot and accounted for
85-90% of the fish caught over the weekend. The Chili
Pepper was a good go to fly that managed to take some
fish also.
Saturday was a day of demonstrations. Skip Shorb started
off the morning building and discussing furled leaders.
Tony Spezio was next with a bamboo rod-building demo.
Since the actual building process takes approximately
40 hours, (plus a 4 hour fishing break) we were walked
through an abbreviated set up.
Some of his finished rods were passed around to look
at and drool over. Absolute masterpieces. After
listening to some of the discussions, it seems there's
going to be some new hobbies started when everyone
returns home.
John Wilson of the USA Flyfishing team finished off
the day with a very informative casting demo and lessons.
Several people got to spend time with him one on one,
but the highlight would have to have been watching
him work with the youth of the group.
Tony Spezio returned Sunday morning with Dennis Conrad
from Conranch Hackles. His product was put on display
and some beautiful necks were sold.
One thing missing from other Fish-Ins was the cookouts.
We spent our evening meals together at local restaurants.
The highlight of the Saturday evening meal was the
result of a football game.
It seems one of the group (Flextime) is from Kansas and
another (Reuel) is from Missouri. The two schools played
each other Saturday in football.
Reuel claims his Missouri gang was gracious and lost
to Kansas. There was some good-natured kidding about
this, to say the least.
After some early morning fishing on Sunday, those
that were left all checked out of the lodge and
headed out for home. Many memories and new friends
were made. Promises to stay in contact led to the
so long's and see you next time.
The Fish-In may have started out slowly in the
planning stages, but judging from the comments,
it'd have to be judged a complete success. Plans
are already underway for a Sow Bug Round-Up get
together and there are some plans in the works
for next year.
Those in attendance: Mike "maddog48" Davis, Dr Bob
"Reuel" and Marilyn Hook, Craig "chub1" and Susan
Thorpe, Buzz "buzp" Parrish, Steve "Flextime" Dick,
John "FlyFishAr" Wilson, Dan "Danoinark" Sears,
Ron "RG/AR" Griffith, Brian "bn" Wise, Gene "Holland"
Holland, Jimmy "JimmyT" Traylor, and Lee "BubbaOrvis"
Johnston and his children Alan "BubbyaOrvis" and
Michelle "TopsyTorvis".
Head start on the next trip! ~ Mike Davis
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