I
met Dennis Schule and his wife, Mary, a few years ago when my wife, Lori and I
were both guiding for Blue Ribbon Fly Shop in Mountain Home as was he. He is a
retired police detective and she was a court reporter from Minnesota. When the
shop closed, we started a new business, Blue Ribbon Guides so that we could
maintain contact with our old customers. Lori, Dennis and I would guide and
Mary would be the web master for our new website, http://www.blueribbonguides.com. We all hit it off from
the beginning and have become close friends. Dennis and Mary have an active
outdoor lifestyle like Lori and I and we often hike, fish or kayak together.
We
had been planning to kayak the Norfork River but the conditions were not
optimal. We went out to lunch instead. While we were there we came up with the
plan to meet the next day and float the White River in our Jon boats. Dennis
and I had both guided on the White recently and knew that it was fishing
particularly well. The day would be even more enjoyable with the opportunity to
fish with friends. Of course, I always enjoy fishing with Lori.
We
arrived at the ramp at Rim Shoals about 9:00AM and we took a few
minutes to get the boat ready and string up a couple of fly rods. It was warm
and sunny. The weather forecast was for much warmer temperatures in the
afternoon with high humidity. The river level was about 3,000 cubic feet per
second or a little less than one full generator. The wind was from the east at
five to ten miles per hour.
We
began fishing and we had almost immediate success. The hot flies were beadhead
flashback pheasant tail nymphs with a ruby midge dropper. We were fishing them
below a strike indicator with a BB split shot. Most of the trout were taken on
the ruby midge, which has been a hot fly for the last couple of months. We had
the depth (the distance from the strike indicator to the bottom fly) set at
about six feet.
We
were all doing well but Dennis and Mary wanted to fish another section of
water. They headed downstream and Lori and I continued fishing the section we
were in to great success. About noon, I was getting pretty hungry and we
headed back to the ramp. We set up our lunch in the shade of a large tree near
the river. The shade was welcome, as the temperature was climbing. A few
minutes later Dennis and Mary joined us. They had done well downstream and had
landed a decent brown and lost a good rainbow. Luckily Mary had brought a
container of brownies. She is also an accomplished baker and I am always on the
prowl for her baked goods.
After
lunch, we returned to the water. Despite some early success the bite was
beginning to slow. I thought that it was time for a fly change. I had read on
one of the fly fishing forums that a local guide had been doing well fishing a
black fan tail midge. I looked through my fly box looking for that fly. I was
disappointed to not find one. I did find some red ones. Remembering that, when
matching flies, you compare size, shape and color I decided that the red might
work. On the first drift, we hooked a nice rainbow, on the red fan tail midge.
It caught trout after trout for the remainder of the day. What puzzles me is
how the fish turned off on the ruby midge and began taking the fan tail midge?
What natural phenomenon had occurred to trigger this change?
About 2:00
PM Dennis and Mary were overcome by the heat and decided to head for home.
Lori and I were raised in the south and we were more accustomed to the heat and
stayed longer. It had been a great day on the river and it was nice to get
together and fish. It was the perfect activity on a guide’s day off.
John
Berry is a fly fishing guide in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local
streams for over thirty years.
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