Arkansas River, three Firsts on a Fly

Fishing Warm water Forum
1

Headed back to the hole I was in Sunday. I never got a chance to fully ?explore? the hole. Today I did just that, and I?m glad I did.

I found that I had been fishing near the tail end of the hole. The core of the hole was just 100? further upstream. It was also a little deeper, and I can safely wade closer to the rocks, closing the distance to the fish.

I started out throwing a topwater lure, the same Tiny Torpedo that caught a bunch of fish two days ago. Well, this morning was more clear, so the topwater bite died shortly after I got there.

I decided to pull the fly rod out and see if anything would take a Clouser. I tied on one of my bead chain Clousers in chartreuse over white, and started casting it out. There wasn?t much water moving. I could just barely see water moving.

I quickly found that the fish wanted the fly just drifting along the bottom, and usually would take it after it made ?the swing?; turning to face upstream like all the shad in the water was doing.

I caught a few White Bass, then I got a nice Tap, and a strong pull. When it came up, at first, I thought I had a small Catfish, but realized it was my first Sauger on the fly:

Shortly afterwards, I got another distinct Tap, and pulled in my first Catfish on the fly:

It?s just a little one, still got it?s spots. But, I can see why folks target them on the fly, as it pulled pretty darn good.

About 20 minutes later, doing the same thing, but about 20? further downstream, I got a HARD pull. My pole bent over. It?s shallow here, so the fish came up really quick. IT WAS A FREAKING LONGNOSE GAR! And then it popped my tippet, taking my fly with it. I might not have landed it, but I did get a look at it.

I?m definitely going to have to get an 8wt rig with my taxes this year.

2

THAT’S a good multispecies outing, right there! Good job!! :smiley:

3

That’s one of the things I like about fishing in the river with something that looks like a minnow. There’s no telling what you’ll catch.

4

If you were hunting (especially in England) a mixed bag like that would be called “rough shooting”. Sounds like you were rough fishing :razz:. Very cool…

5

My old fishing buddy, Ronny, who is now fishing in Heaven caught this flathead on the Arkansas River. The Arkansas River is like Forrest Gump’s box of of chocolates. You never know what you’ll get.
Steve

6

I’ll bet that pull the kinks out of his line. Old catfish can put up a good argument on the end of a fishing line.

7

Steve, I saw that pic in the original post. I’ve stood in that exact same spot fishing many times. I need to get a bigger setup before I can tangle with the likes of that.

8

Allen,
Ronnie caught that on a 7wt switch rod! If he had been alone he probably wouldn’t have landed it.
Steve