Maybe some have you have seen an article in one of last months fly magazines about the little red river in Arkansas. It turns out I'm going to Little Rock for some training for work in a few weeks, just wondering if there is a remote chance any of you guys have been out there?
Maybe both. I have it in my mind that the Little Red one to talk about. I saw an episode of "Fly Fishing the World,with John Barry" where Joe Humphries( written books on night fishing for monster browns, avid nymph fisher and indicator user(hee hee, that starts colorful banter on this site))was trying for a personal best(bold statement). I have it in my mind that it was on the Little Red. Enjoy the trip.
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"There is no place I fit in so well as a stream...Fishing ties me into the world of water and animals it contains, into mystery and something so primitive and valuable inside me."---Seth Norman
If I were you, I'd be googling guides on that river...There's no way I'd go to a stream like that without someone who knows how to not waste the opportunity by my side...even just a half day walk and wade deal would be more than worth it IMHO...have fun regardless!
Trout Unlimited had shows on both rivers in the past couple of weeks. As I remember it, the White River has the world record for brown trout. I believe the Red River is a tributary of the White. Both have large browns.
"There is no place I fit in so well as a stream...Fishing ties me into the world of water and animals it contains, into mystery and something so primitive and valuable inside me."---Seth Norman
Unfortunatley the emphasis on my trip to Arkansas is work training. I won't have even a half day to spend on the river, just a few hours in the late afternoons. I just hope the weather and river conditions are decent. It should be cool just to get in the water in a different state. I'll let everyone know how it turns out. I'll definitely read up on the river as much as I can before I get there.
The world record Brown was caught on the Little Red River (Greer's Ferry Tailwater--a tributary of the White River). The previous record was from the North Fork River (Norfork Tailwater--another tribuary of the White River). There are big fish in all the tailwaters on the White River System (5 tailwaters total). When I lived in the region--April was one of my favorite months. The fist tended to be very grabby coming out of winter, and while dry fly fishing isn't big on the Missouri-Arkansas tailwaters--there can be some good caddis hatches in April-May. Scuds and sowbugs were always the most important flies. The scuds (for me) were better on White and North Fork and sowbugs better on Little Red. The water is currently a little bit into to flood pool (but not much)--which means that right now the water is managed by the corps of engineers for flood control (that may mean either letting it out to keep the level from going up more--or NOT letting it out to protect flooding areas further downriver). When the water level gets back into the "power" pool, it means Southwest Power Administration takes over and runs the generators to meet power demand. I use the following page to see what kind of generation they have been doing (Greer's Ferry link is the one for the Little Red River)... http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/reservoirs-o%20graph.htm You will note when they are generating power (at 100 megawatts), the cfs goes from negligible to 7000 cfs and the river goes up about 10 feet. If you are wading--you want them to be NOT generating, or just generating very little. If you are wading and they are not generating, always keep an eye on the rocks for raising water--and make sure you are on the right side of the river if it starts coming up (it can come up several feet in a matter of minutes--you almost get paranoid watching the rocks). They do blow a horn when they start generating, but you will only hear it if you are a couple miles from the dam (and you usually aren't).
Well, I don't have much of a story to tell. The flows made the river un-wadable with the exception of about 1.5 hrs on Saturday very early a.m. I went to the Little Red Fly Shop right on the banks of the river planning to fish for a few hrs. on Friday afternoon but couldn't because of the flows. So I chatted a bit with the fellows in the shop, they told me the story of the world record brown that was caught there, with a replica of the fish on the wall, along with the actual rod and reel used to catch it. I fished for 1.5 hrs. early Saturday morning partly due to the flows (they came down over night but were due back up by 8 or 9 o'clock) and partly due to the fact that I had to be at the airport later that morning. Caught no fish but there is something to be said for how cool it felt to fish a river that I read about in a magazine halfway across the U.S. I was taking in the different sights of a new river and sounds of the different wildlife and surroundings.
Well they also had the jig type lure he used up on the wall. They said it took him less than 5 minutes to land it on 4 lb. test. The guys also mentioned that there have been sightings near the dam of a brown believed to be in the 50-lb. range.
