Timing - The Fly Roadtrip part 2 (Ozarks)

Missed Part 1 read it here:  http://looknfishy.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-fly-roadtrip.html

As I was driving off the Isle, my mind couldn't escape the strong scent of salt in the air.  My eyes focused on the occasional passing of a shrimp boat heading down Bayou Lafourche.  I was feeling refreshed.  The excitement of a new day filled with a new adventure had captured my attention.  I was ready to write a new chapter to this story.  How would it go?

I made a couple phone calls to get caught up on river levels.  I held out hope that the Flint River would be floatable.  In my heart I knew it was out.  The lady that answered the phone, speaking in a deep southern accent, confirmed my suspensions, "we're not putting people on the upper river now."  Shoal bass would have to wait.  I was homeless and lost at sea.  I needed a direction!

I called a buddy to see what his status was leading into the weekend.  I'm up for floating in the Ozarks but not over the weekend.  That's maddening!  Luck was on my side and he could meet me Friday morning for a quick overnighter.  We planned to meet at 8 am.  A late start for me but he's a good friend so I agreed with just a little verbal motivation (trash talking)!

I arrived at the access and unloaded quickly.  So quickly in fact, I left my wading boots in the truck.  It was funny until I had to swim down a flip flop in the first fast run.  I quickly sent a text begging my good friend to bring me some shoes.

The weather was exceptional.  No rain, warm days and cool nights.  As expected the first afternoon was slow.  Around 4 pm my, thoughts slipped to finding a gravel bar to camp.  I didn't want to be late the next day.  The day still held hours of fishing.  I just needed to be more judicious with my stops.

In an instant, the day changed from, a good friend isn't late to a good friend understands your late because the fishing redlined.  Time became measured in the space between eats.  I didn't make it to the planned gravel bar.  I fished up until I couldn't see and made a cot camp in the dark.  Being honest, I regretted that decision when I was gathering drift wood in the dark wearing flip flops.  Snakes have found a fascination with me or my kayak lately.   See below...

Found this water snake in my kayak while unpacking

I was up well before the light of Friday morning.  I greeted it with loaded bags, eagerly awaiting the itinerary of the new morning.  The sleepy fog was slowly lifting from the water as my line landed softly.  Then it went tight and darted to the surface.  A smallmouth bass exploded from the river and began dancing in slow motion.  My itinerary interrupted, no chance I'll be on time.

I saw the half empty kayak sitting at the edge of the river first.  Scanning for the owner to whom I owed an explanation for the delay.  Then he greeted me with a "good morning" and a dysfunctional fly reel.  My good friend came to the party with a new box of fly line in one hand and my new wading shoes in the other.   His excuse, "the dog ate my fly line."  Shenanigans!

A few good laughs followed with more verbal motivation soon ensued.  This little hiccup was only a short delay.  Being a good friend he finished rigging up down river.  It didn't take us long to realize we had timed this trip perfectly.  Rewards...

The irony of a road trip is timing.  On one hand, there are no time constraints.  You're free to take the scenic route.  Stay an extra day or depart early if you like.  Choose your path as you make it.  It's freedom from time!  But, on the other hand, timing can be restrictive.  My trip to Southeast Louisiana was met with high muddy water.  My trip to Georgia was cancelled because of high water.  We timed the Ozark stop perfectly and were rewarded with countless hours of uninterrupted fishing.   When we departed the river on Saturday the area was overflowing with people.  Good timing!

I rolled the dice on the next stop and just went in spite of the weather forecast.  Sometimes you just have to deal with the unknown.  See how it goes in part 3 here:
http://looknfishy.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-flash-fly-roadtrip-part-3.html


Watch the video here:  https://youtu.be/GQzgJh8psGk

Ozark Gold

Life has been crazy but also good.  Last weekend I had 4 days to do whatever I wanted.  At first I choose SELA for reds.  But at the last minute, I decided to stay in the the state and do some kayak camping.  Nothing fancy about it.  Hammock, bedding, food (on one end), water (on the other) and 3 days to find my inner peace.  It'll probably take less time to watch the video than decipher my bad grammar.  This is just the conventional side.  Still have tons of video on the fly.  Life is GOOD!

Road Trip 2015

School is out.  Ball season is over (for my kids).  And my awesome family agreed to keep the girls for 2 weeks while they were at art camp in Little Rock....yes, I know I'm one lucky person.  2515 miles later and I can say, the road trip was out of this world great!  I caught trout in 3 states (IA, MO, AR).  Including an unscripted stop in AR for largemouth and smallmouth bass.  Here's how it went down.

1st stop

 So...what to do and where to do it.  If you've been checking this blog out, then you know I'm going to be fishing.  I keep it pretty flexible...no plan is usually how I plan my trips.  Sunday, I was checking out the weather in SELA, Ozarks (AR/MO), East Tennessee, NM, CO, IA...basically anything with in driving range.  Driving range being 14-16 hours for me (an over night stay and a wake up to fishing).  The weather was how I eventually decided...I needed 4-5 days of good weather and I found it in Iowa.

It was settled, I told my wife how much I loved her (even asked if she wanted to go...got her typical response, "are you fishing"..."no".), packed up the kids and all of our stuff, and started driving to Little Rock.  2.5 hours later, I was getting them settled in at their Nana's.

Most of the time I'm feel welcomed everywhere I go (I think so anyway).  But on Sunday, I got the feeling it would be ok if I departed sooner than later.

This was how I figured it out.  Early conversations, Nana,"where are you going".  Me, "Iowa".  Nana, "Wow that's a long way away.  What time does camp start every morning".  Me, "the driftless is all small stream trout fishing and hopefully I won't see many people".  Nana, "Ok.  Hey, what do they want for lunch".  Me, "I'm planning to fish as many of them as I can in 7 days".  Nana, "That's a long time.  Who has the girls next"?  Me, "Here's a folder with all the paper work for camp.  Do you care if I leave now and start driving"?  Nana, "Nope, check in often, that's a long way away.  I love you and have a good trip"!  My family gets me!!    

First deviation from the schedule, start driving Sunday.  Plan to drive as long as I can keep my eyes open.  Then grab a cheap hotel or nap in the truck.  Wake up early Monday morning and finish the drive.  Fish the rest of the day on Monday.

Brought the yak (planned on a IA SMB float) but never got to use it

The drive went like this...just kidding.  Short story, I was way to excited to stop.  I pushed through MO and made it to IA before 2 am.  Stopped for coffee, red bull, and breakfast.  Only a couple hours until my destination...no chance I'm stopping.

Since I hadn't planned on arriving Monday morning, I didn't have a clue where to start fishing or how to get to where I had planned on staying for 5 nights.  Not an issue, there was plenty of water near the camp.  What I wasn't aware of was the sudden drop in cell phone coverage.  Just as I arrived and started to descend into the valley I lost reception.  Without a map I was driving blind and there were a lot of back roads to get lost on.

Found a small spot with reception and grabbed a screen shot of the area and had a map to the camp and 1st stream.  Game on!

Putting the experience into context.  I have zero experience with small streams.  Only tailwaters in AR.  First challenge...wear waders or not.  Started out with them on, went and took a closer look at the stream and access to the water.  Changed my mind...took them off.  2nd guessed myself again.  Put them back on.  I wasn't sure of the water conditions and access further than I could see...better to have them, and not need them, than not have them, and need them (my thoughts after being awake 24hrs).  It was a mistake (lack of sleep probably had an impact on my judgment).  It was hot, the water was skinny, and...it was really hot (90F).  Only wore them 1 day.  Wet waded every other stream (at times that was a mistake-explained later).

2nd challenge, presentation.  Fish were rising every where.  I got really excited and made my way to the stream anticipating an epic morning.  The bank was lined with brush at least as tall as the average person.  The first few presentations never found the water.  Instead, I had to reacquire my fly from the meadow behind me.  Didn't take long for me to figure out, after 700 miles, if you want to catch a fish, better put the fly in the water.

Made a few adjustments and voila, fly landed in the water.  After about 30 minutes I had my first fish.  Yep, they were indeed in the water.

It wasn't a smooth transition from tailwater fishing to small stream fishing.  I had to down size my indicator many times before I could bring fish to hand regularly.  When not nymphing soft hackles were very effective and I switched back in forth depending on the water depth.  

Eventually, the excitement of watching trout rise all day got to me and I decided to fish drys.  It's not something I do very often...I could count on 1 hand, how many times I've done it.  I was lacking in the selection department, if they wouldn't eat EHC, Adams, or BWO's, I wasn't going to be fishing drys long.  Fortunately, the area was ripe with insect activity.  The fish might have responded better to a local favorite...but I was happy catching the 30-40 fish each day on what I had in my box.  I did make a stop at the local general store to fill the ever growing empty spots in my box and picked up some local flies also.

I caught so many fish it was silly.  Big brookies, wild browns, and rainbows all came to hand over the next 2.5 days as I explored 5 different streams (at lunch I would move to a new creek).  Each with it's own personality and challenge.  The area was like the Disney World of fly fishing...you want fast shallow runs, visit X stream.  Want long deep pools where you can sight fish big wild browns, visit Y stream.  Want wild browns, wild bows, grab a map b/c it's all there and accessible.  Truly, it's an area for every one.

A 2 week road trip needs to be broken up into a few posts so I'm gonna end here and pick it back up later.

To be continued....

RT 2015 - Truly wild (part 2):
Truly wild (part 2)

RT 2015 - AR Ozarks SMB (part 3):
SMB float 

RT 2015 - AR tailwaters (part 4):
AR tailwaters (part 4)

3 day Ozark float - SMB on the fly

Wow!  That's about the best way to describe the past weekend.  Me and a buddy were fortunate enough to talk our wives and family into covering all our grown up responsibilities while we cut ties with the real world.

We packed up Thursday night, dropped the kids off at school Friday morning, and made the 4.5 hr drive north into the Ozarks for some canoe camping and smallmouth bass catching.  Around 2 pm on Friday we were waist deep and the catching started shortly after.

We packed light...sleeping, eating and fishing required gear only.  This trip was all about the fishing, so we brought as many SMB patterns as we could carry and just enough food for calories.

We wanted to fish from first light until last light.  So setting up/breaking down elaborate camp's and cooking gourmet meals was abandoned for MRE's and a cot beside a camp fire.  It got a little chilly 45-50f each night but nothing to complain about.

Each morning we would pack our gear in about 10 mins and be wading in ~60f water with a mouth full of breakfast bars.  The water was much warmer than the air temperature at 6am, and that took a little "1, 2, 3...go team" encouragement.

Neither of us wanted to be wet wading that early but you didn't want to be "that" guy standing on the bank while your buddy was toughing it out.  So we'd both inch out slowly making sure to not throw down a man challenge.  Every guy know's where the line is when you're wading in cold water...neither of us were going to cross, "the line".  We went just far enough to avoid suffering any brain freeze.

If a nice fish hadn't been caught in the first few minutes on Saturday morning I'm not sure we'd have repeated the process.  But, a nice fish was caught...so it was a race on Sunday.  No need for any motivational speech's...last man in get's to take his buddies picture holding a nice smallie.

I had barely blinked, when I noticed my buddy had packed his gear and set out 2 breakfast bars on the canoe seats.  Game on!

We paddled down to the nearest shoal and before I could get out of the canoe, he was in the middle of his deep breathing exercises, slinging and stripping.  Wait up bro....

So I did what you do when you're the last man out of the canoe...I walked down and did the wade of shame.  The river was loaded with fish so it wasn't that big a deal.  But I could hear him laughing as he watched me seek out new real estate.

He was even gracious enough to capture it on camera.  And wouldn't you know it...it's a cool pic too!

A conversation we had during our time on the water was about those few special trips that are so great, you're always trying to repeat them, but seldom do.  The kind of trips that motivate you to wet wade w/o hesitation, on mornings when the air temp is ~50 degrees and the water isn't much warmer.  We called it, "trip chasing".  This was one of those trips.

The photos tell the story better than I can.  Enjoy...

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