White and Norfork Rivers / HOAC 6/25-6/26/2005

What an incredible weekend, I don't know where to start. HOAC or Hooked On A Cure is a fundraising event for St. Jude's Children hospital. Basically it is a flyfishing event in which people pay to fish with a Guide and Celebrity guest for two days. The event also includes a dinner and auction. All of the proceeds go to St. Jude's Children's hospital. For more info go to Hooked On A Cure My plan was to go down to fish a little and attend the Dinner/Auction for HOAC. I was meeting up with Matt Tucker and Brent Hinds from the Ozark Chronicles board. I also hopped to meet some others from the OC board and Flyfishing Arkansas board. Friday night Matt hooked me up with Rich Brown, who runs Fish'n Fat Man Guide Service, a Wisconsin/Iowa/Illinios guide that had come down for the event as well. Rich had offered Matt a spot in his drift boat, but because of prior engagements Matt had to decline. However he suggested to Rich that I would love to fish out of the drift boat. So after talking to Tucker I called Rich to get the details. We were getting up at 4am to hit the water. Rich was also kind enough to let me crash in his room as I did not have a hotel room untill Saturday night. Rich was an awesome guy and guide. Next Generation of Fly Fisherman! Norfork Tailwater So Saturday we were up at 4am and on the water by 5. We fished the White for a couple hours and picked up a few fish. Later we headed over to the Norfork to hopefully drift fish a little. Unfortuneatly the They never ran enough water to do that float. I ended up catching about ten fish, mostly cuts, a few rainbows and one small brookie. I was one brown away from getting a grand slam, but couldn't get one to cooperate. Rainbow from the White River Saturday night we headed up to the Bel Arco Resort for the HOAC dinner/auction. Matt, Brent and Rich worked the bar all night. I floated around striking up conversations with anyone that would listen. The food was awesome and I'm not just saying that because I was starving, it was really great. I especially enjoyed the short program about St. Jude's by April Conrad. Saint Jude's is a great orgainzation which does some remarkable things. Also at the dinner were all of the Celebrities and Guides, Mel Krieger, Jack Dennis, Cindy Garrison, Jason Borger just to name a few. It was also great to see all of the products that had been donated for the auction. Top of the line fly rods, reels and much more. One of my favorite items was a Carved wooden Rainbow trout replica by Gary Turner, it was simply amazing. Baby Fox on the Way to White River Dam Sunday morning Tucker invited me to meet up with Tom Rogers and fish in the morning in the C&R area of the White River. Well I couldn't turn that down, so it would be another night of little sleep. However the fishing was good and I learned some new techniques that I can't wait to tryout in other areas. Tom is a great guy and I would highly recommend his guide service TnT Fishing. I ended Sunday with 7 Rainbows to hand and a couple of nice 15-16 inchers. Tom and Tucker in the Fog. Rainbow on one of Tom's big flies Tucker on his way home Well the long 7 hour drive was worth it. I was able to participate in a great cause and meet some great people. I'd like to thanks Tucker, Rich, MP, Brent for their hospitality and letting me tag along. Another thanks goes out to Tom Rogers for showing me some incredible flies. Everytime I go to the Arkansas tailwaters I leave wanting to comeback. I have learned something new with each trip as well as met some great poeple. If you've never been to the Arkansas Ozark's, you should check it out.

Taneycomo Night Fishing 6/4 and 6/5/2005

Where: Tanneycomo Taneycomo is a tailwater fishery near the town of Branson, MO. Presently they are doing work in downtown historic Branson. Specifically building a landing in order for Bass Pro to build another store. Anyways because of this the dam has been running very little water to keep from washing away their progress down stream. We are entering the middle of summer so it is getting very hot. Anyways fishing during the day becomes a challenge and not so comfortable. FiveWeight called me early in the week about doing a fishing trip somewhere. I thought it would be a great time to try a night only fishing trip on Taneycomo. We met up in the Table Rock Lake State Park around 10:30pm Friday night and quickly set up a couple of tents. After that we slammed some beers and were off to hit up the river. We fished from 11:30pm Friday night to 9:00am Saturday morning. With in the first couple of casts I had a fish on, not long after FiveWeight had a nice 16 incher that he was calling me over to take a picture of. We continued catching fish every couple of casts for the entire night. Around 5:00am I started getting creative and put a hopper on with some aqua glo so I could see it better. First cast and I had a fish on. A couple more casts and I missed two and landed one more. I then yelled to FiveWeight, who was some distance off that I caught them on hoppers. A bit later he yelled back sneaky pete. He must have thought I said popper instead of hopper. Anyways the fishing was ridiculously easy for about an hour. Then the sun started to rise and the fish became more selective. The next night went about the same as the first. We fished from 9:00pm Saturday to 1:30am Sunday, when bad weather drove us off the stream. We landed about 70 fish between the two of us. It ended up being a great trip and one that will be hard to beat.